Baldacci: Seizing Katahdin mill not yet an option
9/1/08 | 7 comments

Baldacci: Seizing Katahdin mill not yet an option


Governor hopeful that Brookfield will honor pledge to reopen facility
By Nick Sambides Jr.
    BDN Staff

MILLINOCKET, Maine — Gov. John Baldacci will hold a multibillion-dollar Toronto-based conglomerate to its promise to reopen the Katahdin Avenue mill before he acts on other options, he said Saturday.

Baldacci was responding to millworker and town Councilor Scott Gonya’s proposal Thursday that the town should seriously consider using eminent domain to seize the mill. The Katahdin Paper Co. LLC mill is due to shut down indefinitely because of the high cost of oil. That announcement came Aug. 25.

Workers say they will finish producing orders this week and begin mothballing the mill for a reopening. Baldacci said Brookfield promised a reopening next year, but parent company Brookfield Asset Management has not confirmed this.

“There’s a great amount of frustration about the way this situation has been handled by the company,” Baldacci said in a statement released Saturday. “I can understand the desire to take immediate action.

“At this point, I think we need to continue to work toward a successful reopening of the mill with the company,” he added. “Senior officials at the mill and its parent company have assured me that they intend to reopen the mill, and I will hold them to that commitment.”

Through Brookfield — which has $95 billion in assets and netted $110 million in the last fiscal quarter — Katahdin officials announced May 29 that the mill would close in 60 days because of a lack of profitability, cutting 208 workers and affecting the Katahdin region economy.

They have extended the deadline repeatedly after Baldacci’s intervention, improved sales, found energy savings and negotiated with energy providers to install a biomass boiler in the mill to replace oil burners that heat the mill and provide steam needed for paper-making.

Eminent domain is defined as a government’s inherent power to seize private property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner’s consent, for civic use or economic development.

The governor’s spokesman said state officials are unsure of the practicability of Gonya’s idea, and so is Gonya.

Gonya, however, who admitted his idea was coercive, has said his research thus far includes talks with attorneys from Maine Municipal Association, the state Public Utilities Commission officials and workers at Bangor Hydro-Electric Co.

Gonya’s tentative plan is to use eminent domain to seize the mill and its generators, which make about 37 megawatts of electricity, and turn the generators into a public utility.

This would greatly lower town utility rates while perhaps generating as much as $14 million in electricity sales on the New England power grid and making Millinocket a magnet for other industries, he said.

Councilors Jimmy Busque and David Cyr endorsed the idea. Town Council Chairman Wallace Paul and other councilors agreed to meet with company officials, unions and state officials to discuss eminent domain, continuing mill operations and other options for the mill’s future. No date has been set.

Baldacci spokesman David W. Farmer said in an e-mail that while it might be possible, eminent domain is “a very controversial tool for government. It should be used only when absolutely necessary and under specific circumstances.

“The governor believes that the best approach to get the mill reopened is to work cooperatively with the company. Any other means shouldn’t be considered until those efforts have run their full course,” he added.

Meanwhile, the towns of Medway and Millinocket, state government, Maine’s congressional delegation and the Penobscot County Transition Team — a collection of social service agencies, government departments, churches and civic groups — pledge to do all they can to help laid-off workers cope with unemployment or find jobs before and when lay-offs occur.

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Comments
7 comments on this item
On 9/1/08 at 9:08 AM, David889327 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Let's try seizing it and see what happens. Could be interesting!

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On 9/1/08 at 10:47 AM, pcme2000 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Baldacci we should not even try to take over the company! What is that going to show other companies that are thinking of opening a buns in this state.

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On 9/1/08 at 12:41 PM, HotTubHerbie wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Let's seize all of the Wal Marts, paper milts and A T & T too! This is high level union thinikng at it's finest. The Lord has bequesthed his finest fools unto us.

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On 9/2/08 at 8:55 AM, Mark44 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Taking Back the Dam Is Very Much an Option as no one believes Brookfield’s Bio-BS…

My first comments still stand, I applaud Scott Gonya, Jimmy Busque, and David Cyr, and those “that have a backbone” to take back that which was hoodwinked from us in closed door negotiations.

Those that bartered away our resources did so without the original power to do so. The Millinocket town councilors push to take back the Millinocket dam that was given to “The People of Maine” by Governor Baxter is more of a reality than the Baldacci would like to be, kind of leaves you asking WHY.

Those that spearheaded a fifty percent TIFF even if they close the mill need to be exposed as criminals, and be held accountable.

There is quite a lot of documented back story on this, and Scotts drive to take back the dam was a direct result of a recent threat by Brookfield to close East Millinocket if we even so much as complained. Too many people seem to be commenting on limited information, but what they don’t understand is that Brookfield is a lot dirtier than most realize.

As far as our town manager, Gene is the most qualified and underpaid asset of this town, and I defy anyone to find better, even for more money. As to what would we do with this “very plausible & achievable goal of eminent domain”

It needs to be understood that Scott’s suggestion was to seize the dam, run the hydro and offer Millinocket reasonable power rates. The Brookfield Plan did not include anything so noble or generous, in fact a top level Brookfield VIP was noted to say “because we can” when questioned on their rates.

SO, to those blindly devoted company types that seem to have a certain body part in the wrong place; this move could “legally” provide Millinocket with buckets of taxable revenue, an annual economic development fund and allow us to stop sucking on the Arab pipeline and heat our homes affordably with electric.

Brookfield Power made it very clear to Millinocket by threatening to shut down East Millinocket if they made waves.

Why would Millinocket care about East Millinocket, they hate each other!

Why after being lied to by Brookfield Power year after year, would anyone trust them now?

What’s worse than lying to “The People” the beating your going to get when a bunch of out of work Union guys suddenly realize that they have been made a fool of!

And what Millinocket Town Councilor was so criminally inept to give a bunch of hockey rink rejects a TIFF that continues, even after they close their doors?

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On 9/2/08 at 11:41 PM, wspahn wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I fail to see how the situation can possibly be improved by setting things up so that the town, rather than Brookfield, can be the one to lose money hand over fist operating the mill.

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On 9/5/08 at 2:34 PM, Mark44 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Would Eminent Domain Bankrupt Millinocket?

Good Question, or Not, It is worth answering!

Legal fees for such a case can be addressed through a contingent basis, term revenue percentage, or a number of other options, and there are even a few good attorneys that would peruse this just for the press coverage.

As to eminent domain; US courts have displaced entire neighborhoods to put up shopping malls~ this would be the first feel good eminent domain action in US history!

As to the liquidity of the situation, we are talking about the dam, and not the mill, there brings with it the ability to many things, including but not limited to; increased school budgets, better equipped police & fire departments, economic development funs, real options (tangible rescue funds) for the 208 unemployed mill workers, and an ability to keep Millinocket’s taxes from skyrocketing.

Its not the mill that the town is going after, it’s the dam, and those Canadian crooks can keep the mill!

The dam was wrongly given-up and only Baldacci thinks otherwise!

The brain surgeon town councilor that gave the hockey rink rejects a TIFF that continues even after closing should be publicly flogged.

If Brookfield is allowed to get away with this, Millinocket becomes a ghost town!

Seizing the dam is the only economic stopgap measure Brookfield has left us…

So Boohoo to BILLION DOLLAR Brookfield……

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On 9/5/08 at 3:32 PM, Mark44 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Would Eminent Domain Bankrupt Millinocket?

Good Question, or Not, Its well worth answering!

Legal fees for such a case can be addressed through a contingent basis, term revenue percentage, or a number of other options, and there are even a few good attorneys that would peruse this just for the press coverage.

As to eminent domain; US courts have displaced entire neighborhoods to put up shopping malls~ this would be the first feel good eminent domain action in US history!

As to the liquidity of the situation, we are talking about the dam, and not the mill, there brings with it the ability to many things, including but not limited to; increased school budgets, better equipped police & fire departments, economic development funs, real options (tangible rescue funds) for the 208 unemployed mill workers, and an ability to keep Millinocket’s taxes from skyrocketing.

Its not the mill that the town is going after, it’s the dam, and those Canadian crooks can keep the mill!

The dam was wrongly given-up and only Baldacci thinks otherwise!

The brain surgeon town councilor that gave the hockey rink rejects a TIFF that continues even after closing should be publicly flogged.

If Brookfield is allowed to get away with this, Millinocket becomes a ghost town!

Seizing the dam is the only economic stopgap measure Brookfield has left us…

So Boohoo to BILLION DOLLAR Brookfield……

Report abuse
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