BANGOR, Maine — The way to weather the economic storm created by the upcoming closure of the Verso paper mill in Bucksport and the troubles of other mills in the region is to work together to find new sources of employment, business and community leaders said Friday.
“There’s probably no silver bullet,” said Michael Aube, president of Eastern Maine Development Corp., an organization that works to connect communities, business leaders, state and federal officials in order to boost economic development.
Aube spoke at an event Friday morning at Hollywood Casino in Bangor to highlight EMDC’s plans for addressing the sudden, dramatic rise in layoffs in the region. No one group, community or business can reverse the loss of jobs on its own, Aube said to the audience of more than 100.
Verso’s Oct. 1 announcement that it will close the Bucksport mill by year’s end, eliminating 570 jobs, came in the midst of EMDC planning on how to handle job losses at other mills in the region. Mills in Old Town and East Millinocket shut down earlier this year, and a mill in Lincoln laid off half its workforce.
EMDC says an estimated 1,500 laid-off millworkers in the Penobscot River Valley region require some form of support, job training or new opportunities, and quickly. Of those 1,500 workers, just 15 percent attained a degree after high school. Of those 1,500, just 10 percent are already attending some form of job retraining program and another 10 percent are re-employed.
Early this summer, EMDC was awarded a $187,000 Economic Development Administration grant to support the creation of a strategic plan to assess the economic impact of the loss of major rail services and paper production businesses. As part of that process, EMDC expects to hire outside consultants to create an inventory of the region’s assets and help craft a strategic plan to attract industries and businesses that might help the region fill the gaps left by the faltering paper industry. That plan is expected to be released next summer, according to EMDC.
The communities affected by these layoffs stretch far beyond the mill towns. EMDC estimates more than 130 towns and cities in a 60-mile radius around Bangor will see the effects — from former workers struggling to keep their homes to retail stores seeing a dip in holiday sales.
EMDC has created a webpage to provide updates on the latest developments in the efforts to find solutions for the region, www.emdc.org/regionaleffort.
Andy Hamilton, board chairman of the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce, pointed out the solution to improve the situation of each of these mill communities will be varied, just as each of the communities is varied.
“Each of these communities is unique and is going to find its own solutions,” Hamilton said.
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