Last week, the employees and residents of Bucksport and the lower Penobscot Valley were dealt a tremendous blow. The Verso Paper mill will be permanently shut down.
“Permanently” is a powerful word.
Bucksport has been a leader in papermaking for over 80 years. Eighty years of well paying jobs, 80 years of world-class paper, and 80 years of a strong economic base for our region and Maine.
We are faced with a decision. Do we look at this as a doomsday event or an opportunity to become the next leader in the next generation of the next product or service?
The streets of Bucksport have been teeming with reporters and television cameras since Verso made the closure announcement last week. Politicians have been playing the blame game. Employees have been, rightfully, very concerned about their future.
State and federal government departments are already providing the employees and their families the assistance to ease the pain and help them recover as quickly as possible.
In the last 50 years, Maine has gone from a leader in papermaking to scrambling to save the few remaining jobs left. It’s time for a reality check.
The single most influential element in this debate is public policy. Unbalanced policies for the last 50 years have devastated an industry where once we led because of our outstanding wood fiber, Yankee ingenuity and work ethic.
Public policy swings like a pendulum. I remember an environment so polluted that you could almost walk across the Penobscot River. I remember the smell from the mills would burn the inside of your nose when driving through mill towns. Maine people were dedicated to changing that, and we have.
But the public policy pendulum has swung so far that it is time to mitigate the negatives of over-regulation.
Lawmakers over-regulated the woodlands operations to a point that paper companies had to sell their forests to specialized companies to manage them. Paper companies lost control, and that increased the cost of their raw materials.
Lawmakers over-regulated the production side of papermaking so the industry spent more time and money to satisfy regulation that it wasn’t feasible to invest in upgrading technology for competitive and cost-effective production.
Then there is the business environment. Maine’s energy costs are among the highest in the nation. Taxes paid in Maine are among the highest. The cost to do business also is one of the highest. Incentives for businesses to stay in Maine and invest to create more jobs are under the constant threat of elimination.
Why would anyone invest in Maine with that kind of public policy environment? We need to change the policy and build on our assets.
I have always maintained Bucksport and Orrington are blessed with good local leadership and great economic assets. Our location in the center of Maine, on the Penobscot River, at the intersection of the east/west and north/south highways, with major rail service, the latest upgraded power line grid in the northeast, two power generators, and accessible industrial sites is ripe for becoming the driving force for Maine’s economic recovery.
We have another asset — the Verso mill property. While it is devastating that this part of our history is ending and jobs are lost, residents and lawmakers have to work together to create a prosperous, though different, future.
The site has great potential. It has a major natural gas line and a deep-water dock. Bucksport’s waterfront is world class.
It is time to think outside the box. It is time to seize the opportunities and capitalize on the assets right here in Bucksport.
Suggestions range from searching for buyers who can produce paper more cost effectively and investors to upgrade and operate more profitably. Those are obvious but haven’t been that successful in other locations.
Some suggestions are as whimsical as the world’s largest indoor year-round water park the size of Disney’s Blizzard Beach beside a casino to the most innovative wellness retirement village. Or we can look up the river 15 miles to the accomplishments of the Cianbro Corporation, which has transformed a former paper mill site into a world-class industrial facility. Together, we can do this.
The employees of Verso and the residents of Bucksport and the Penobscot Valley are counting on leaders who will work together with them on innovative solutions.
I pledge to set aside politics as usual, remain open-minded, continue the search for viable economic business models and support public policy that creates a strong job market and vibrant economy. Maine people deserve a prosperous future.
Rep. Richard Campbell, R-Orrington, represents Bucksport and Orrington in the Maine House.