Scott Gonya needs to leave the Millinocket Town Council now along with Jimmy Busque, not wait until November. These two anti-economic developers have been a chain on our community.Gonya has stated twice eminent domain to further his socialist form of government. He has single handedly ruin Millinocket. These owners have every right to do what they want. Scott Gonya and Jimmy Busque need to remove themselves from this situation because they are biased. They are looking out for their own jobs and nothing more. It is also time for Gene Conologue to "dusta out of town" he has done nothing but spend our surplus budget on million dollar plus pool, outbidding private investors on the Newberry's building just so they could possible put contaminated dirt on Penobscot Avenue in the hole that he and Scott Gonya created with another "eminent domain" theory and we have David Cyr's fight to wrestle the Historical Society away from private investor's only to have the Town(Gene) spend 90,000 plus dollars on a builing they cannot renovate until the Town(Gene) get's the money paid back.

See what happens Maine....This is what happens when you elect Unionsucking Liberal Democrats to run the State and our Towns.

NO to Barack "Hussien" Obama

sure tick them off....then maybe they won't bother paying their taxes for a couple years! Where would you be then?

I hope that the Millinocket people stay on this track and fight back. The townspeople have suffered greatly over the years as they have had to watch their mill shut down and then sold from one "caring" company to another. So many promises have been made to these folks, only to be broken in what is a relatively short period of time and, here we go again.

I am from Millinocket and my father and brothers worked for many years at the GNP Co; they worked hard and had pride in the paper that they made and shipped all over the world.

Good luck Millinocket.

The word of the day boys and girls is "Buffoons"...BA-FOONS....Let us use this in a sentence The town councilors are complete and utter BUFOONS!! Thanks for the chuckle boys

Our esteemed councilors need to go back to school and bone up on BUS 101. This is a private industry that doesn't need the town's or it's employees approval to do what is obviously in the best interest of the shareholders and the corporation at large. Me thinks that the councilors EGO's are a tad bit over-inflated and that they are over-reaching with their authority. These boys need to stick to tearing down buildings on main street, building $1.5mm pools during a decreasing population period, and otherwise focus on being the un-educated buffons that they have presented themselves to be. It is terrible that the Mill will need to shut down for this time period. I feel tremendously for those that will lose their jobs. I too have been in that predicament once or twice. It's not fun especially when you have a family to support. But, nonetheless it doesn't give one the right to persue the ricdiculous actions that the Three Amigo's are considering. if anything this latest chapter in Millinocket struggle for survival should tell the people something...WE need to diversify and reach otu to industries that are much more stable. We need to put our money where our concerns are and that is into economic development. We cannot continue to depend upon the Mill for our town survival and we cannot depend upon the present town council and town manager to lead us to where we need to be. We need to give them all the BOOT!

RE Scott Gonya's suggestion to have the govenment seize the Millinocket Mill by eminent domain. We ,the people, are the government...are you proposing the people (taxpayers) in this State run and financially support the mill? Or does the Town of Milinocket have the means to run and financially support the Mill? In both cases, I think not.

Goyna's plan..."Sieze the mill" Step 1.) Come up with $200 plus million dollars to pay "due monetary compensation" to Brookfield for the Mill. Once that is easily completed in time for the Stearns football season inniate Step 2.) Install a biomass boiler to cheaply generate electrcity and provide steam to the Mill for production. Step 3.) Ask Brookfield, owner of the East Millinocket Mill to grind some pulp for us so that we can make paper and compete against them Step 4.) Go to store and buy milk and bread for wife "Honey stop writing on my master plan for world domination!!!!!!

Unfortunately naive and shortsighted.

"No.11" was the machines original designation when it was built by Great Northern Paper. Shortly after the Brookfield purchase, all of the GNP machines were renamed within the Fraser Papers management systems. No.11 became No.21.

In the Katahdin region however, the machine will forever be affectionately known as "Number 11".

Councilor Scott Gonya that is a crazy ideal !! You don't just take something because someone wants to close thier own company down. That would be like hey Councilor Scott Gonya we don't like the color of your house so lets just use eminent domain and take it away. If Millinocket does actually try to use eminent domain to take the mill I hope that the company not only wins but then sues the holy mess out of Millinocket and wins. I would love to be on that jury.

I can understand his frustration but this Hugo Chavez type tactic would backfire. What business in its right mind would want to move to a place where property theft is a common political practice.

For almost a decade I have sadly watched the councilors in Millinocket slowly devolve from respected and concerned citizens to paranoid conspiracy theorists. These men, coupled with a "bully pulpit" pounding local radio station owner and a slightly degenerate "newspaper" website, have successfully crafted a distorted vision of our area and its people that appears closer to Homer Simpsons Springfield than the common-sense townspeople I know and respect. This latest suggestion is final confirmation that these individuals have lost all perspective and do not (and have not for some time) represent the ideals or best interests of the local municipalities, the residents of the area or themselves.

Apparently Mr. Gonya is a card holding member of the communist party. Nice way to become a laughing stock nation wide! Mr. Gonyas handelers should get lawyers on retainer quickly to minimize the dammage he's about to cause the community as a whole.

As a former union worker in a paper mill in Maine (DOMTAR) All I can say to a State run by Liberal Democrats Thanks. It is time for a change in Maine we need to start at the highest level in Maine. We as Mainers have long been on our own forget the Federal Goverment they don't care about Maine we need to go to Augusta to clean house.

I see the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and that the Govenor has only helped himself and his friends the truth hurts and now it is hurting the people of Maine.

I'm a bit confused. Does 'economic development' mean the same as 'taxpayer-funded economic bailout'?

Jeez..I wonder what Scott and Jimmy's next employee reviews are going to look like at Brookfield?

I don't think that they mastered the Team Player concept yet nor do I think that they will rate very high on Problem Solving Skill set. For that matter as I pause to reflect upon their respective appitudes as Millinocket town councilors I find myself gravitating to an image of Otis and Barney on Mayberry RFD.

You people need to get a grip! The mill has been taking your tax money for years now, and will continue to do so until 2020 and beyond. How long will the people of Millinocket continue to be raped and do nothing about it??

Dr. Evil and Mini Me would be proud of these clowns. Next we're going to use our gigantic "LASER" to force Irving to turn their business over to the collective.

Take over the mill? What makes you any different than Yugo Chavez? What an idiot!

Councilor Gonya's comments about eminent domain are reactionary and ill-conceived. The obvious fact is that Millinocket and the paper industry in general have been in a steady decline for twenty years. The eventual complete closing of the mill has been a foregone conclusion since the first layoffs began in the mid 80's yet Gonya, Busque, and Cyr appear to have been blindsided by Brascan's decision to close. Brascan owes Millinocket nothing. They're in the business of providing products with the least amount of expense in order to maximize profits. The high price of oil was an expedient and timely excuse for them to close but they had always planned on closing it as soon as they assessed and realized the value of the real prize which is producing electricity. Electricity is a low cost solution to their bottome line (minimal employees, minimal maintenance issues, minimal cost to operate).

These three councilors are deluding themselves to think that Katahdin Paper is going to be the least bit intimidated by their uninformed rantings about eminent domain.

The fact is that Millinocket has had the past twenty years to come up with an alternative to reliance on a manufacturing based economy. Millinocket's location and potential for development are really quite unequaled given it's proximity to Maine's most beautiful wilderness. While infighting and petty differences have divided the diehards who wax nostalgically for a return to the fifties, sixties, and seventies when paper flourished as did the town, some from other areas are quietly making inroads to take advantage of the natural beauty of the area and are privately developing businesses that will provide jobs and bring in to local businesses much needed capital. Matt Polstein's Eco-Resort is a perfect example of someone who sees the area's potential and has worked hard both personally and within town government to change the paradigm that is so lodged in a dwindling majority of those that grew up and live in Millinocket.

Hopefully the people that are making the most noise about the unfairness of the mill closing without offering any type of realistic solution will move to Jay or Rumford, or maybe Minnesota or Mississippi where there are still paper mills operating since apparently the mill is the be-all and end-all of their existence and leave economic development and the managing of town affairs to people that will stop whining about how unfair things are and start coming up with a plan to use this situation to Millinocket's advantage and once and for all, get past having the mill as their reason to exist. Get over it, move on, and start building a better community, or leave.

JJ16oz - Well Said

Go Dad!!!!!