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Mike Michaud is either the driving force behind revitalizing East Millinocket’s former mill site or misusing millions of dollars meant to bring it back to life, depending on whom you ask.
Since winning a seat on the East Millinocket Select Board eight years ago, Michaud has poured much of his time into rehabilitating the site once home to the Great Northern Paper Co. mill. Michaud himself worked at the mill — just as his father and grandfather had — as a manager on overnight shifts for 29 years. The town bought the property in 2020, and Michaud has attracted millions in federal grants that have been used to renovate it and house new companies.
“When I was in D.C., the mill was struggling. I figured, well, instead of staying in D.C. being a consultant, I figured I could do more if I wanted to help the area by just coming back and running for Select Board,” the former congressman told the Bangor Daily News.
Not everyone in town agrees that Michaud has made improvements.
Disagreements came to a head earlier this year when East Millinocket’s former Select Board Chair Clint Linscott abruptly quit and blamed Michaud for pushing him — and a dozen other town employees — out of their roles. Linscott, who has been a staple on the board for the past 30 years, accused Michaud of misappropriating millions of dollars meant to revitalize the site and of harassing town employees.
Linscott didn’t bring forward any specific wrongdoings against Michaud, but said Michaud wasn’t acting in the best interest of East Millinocket.
“This is like Washington. This is so corrupt. And Mike is from Washington,” Linscott said of the money meant to be spent on cleaning up the mill site.
In a state where towns are largely led by local, non-expert volunteers, it’s not uncommon for elected officials to get into bitter public feuds. What is surprising is for one of those feuds to include Michaud, who is likely one of the most overqualified local officials in the country with a political career that spans nearly five decades. During that time, he built a reputation as being professional, congenial and, frankly, sort of boring.
So how did he wind up in the center of a political scandal in a small northern Maine town after avoiding them for nearly half a century in state and federal politics?
Rebuilding the town’s identity
East Millinocket, like many Maine towns, has struggled to build its identity and, more importantly, tax base after the local mill closed. Before it shut down in 2014, the mill employed 256 workers and accounted for approximately 80% of the town’s taxable property.
Local officials have since tried to balance affordable budgets and attract new businesses to ease the tax burden on residents. The town of 1,500 people has the highest tax rate in the state at $31.50 per $1,000 of taxable property.
The closure also upended the town’s political makeup. East Millinocket was a reliably Democratic union town. It’s since shifted Republican, with Donald Trump winning the town 557-343 over Kamala Harris in the last presidential election.
But fixing a toxic site has been difficult.
Critics of the revitalization plan laid out by the Select Board and the East Millinocket Industrial Board, which oversees the mill site and of which Michaud is also a member, have said that the massive funding being poured into the mill is yielding few results. Taxes are still high, chunks of the mill site are unusable and businesses haven’t shown interest in leasing the available spaces.
“What’s got done?” Linscott asked, adding that the mill site “looks like a warzone.”
Rubble was scattered around partially-demolished buildings when the BDN visited the site with Michaud in April. But businesses have moved into renovated portions.
The town has received more than $22 million in federal grants, mostly from the Environmental Protection Agency, Housing and Urban Development and the Northern Border Regional Commission, which was created by legislation Michaud helped include in the 2008 Farm Bill.
A recent town audit of the mill’s funding, completed after Linscott quit, shows that the money is being used appropriately.
Much of it, about $14 million, has been used to redevelop buildings into commercial spaces for lease or to remove rubble and toxins in the land.
“I know people want to see stuff done immediately, but you can’t get tenants on the mill site until you get the building fixed up,” Michaud said.
Three businesses — Convalt Energy, Convalt Power Gen and Home Grown Fuels — are leasing spaces in the mill site. Convalt Energy and Convalt Power Gen are renewable energy companies that build solar panels. Home Grown Fuels creates sustainable fuel from wood chips.
Another company, Great Northern Solar, is reviewing a contract to start a lease, Michaud said. The company wants to partner with an India-based solar company to build panels at the site, but uncertainty surrounding federal trade policy has slowed the process, Michaud said.
Michaud declined to name the Indian company because of a nondisclosure agreement, but said it was one of the top solar panel manufacturers in that country.
Lynch Logisitics, a trucking company, was a previous tenant but moved out earlier this year due to effects tariffs on Canadian goods had on the business, Michaud said.
The other $8 million is slated for further improvements to the land around the buildings, including $4 million to tear down a water tank.
While $22 million may sound like a lot of money, it’s not an outlier with what other companies and communities have spent to improve shuttered mill sites.
The owner of the former Bucksport mill in 2018 paid $4.45 million to demolish old structures, and Lincoln has secured more than $20 million in funding, from many of the same government agencies as East Millinocket has, to remediate and redevelop its own mill site.
Lincoln began its revitalization efforts in 2019 and officials have spent years applying for grants and upgrading the site, Ruth Birtz, Lincoln’s economic development administrator, said.
Applying for grants can take months, and the work they fund can take years, she said. That means residents “get the distinct impression that not much is going on” because they don’t see the quick results often visible in residential or commercial construction, Birtz said.
Demolishing buildings and announcing new businesses have helped residents better track Lincoln’s efforts, Birtz said. Transparency and a supportive council have also helped people understand what’s going on, she said.
‘Doesn’t sound like Mike’
Linscott’s other claim — that Michaud is responsible for driving a dozen town employees out over the past seven years — is difficult to verify.
Linscott would not share the names of those former employees with the BDN, saying that no one is willing to talk about their experiences because they’re “scared” of Michaud.
While multiple town employees confirm that 12 people have quit, there is no evidence outside Linscott’s own resignation letter that Michaud prompted any town staff to leave. Exit interviews were not routinely conducted, and those that did occur were not recorded, according to former Town Administrator Denise Gibbs. The staffers who left cited various reasons when telling Gibbs they were leaving, but no records were kept, she said.
Gibbs, who quit on Jan. 30, cited “a sustained pattern of governance interference, micromanagement, and inappropriate involvement by members of the Select Board in day-to-day administration” in her resignation letter.
Gibbs did not want to talk about Michaud when contacted by the BDN and referred to her resignation letter. Gibbs is now the town manager in Winterport.
The other members of the East Millinocket Select Board — chair Greg Hale, Charles Theriault and Dan Byron, who is also the chief financial officer of the East Millinocket Industrial Board — did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Marie Hernandez, chief operating officer of the East Millinocket Industrial Board, also did not respond to requests for comment.
Michaud believes his drive to hold people accountable likely pushed some former town employees away.
“We have a responsibility to do our work, and unfortunately, some people think us doing our work is harassment versus us questioning things,” Michaud said.
At no point in his career has Michaud, who was first elected to the East Millinocket Select Board in 2018, faced allegations like these. While in Congress, Michaud received pushback for voting first against and then in support of the American Care Act, and for not being a whistleblower for veterans being denied care at Veterans Affairs’ medical centers, both of which happened in 2014.
More often, critics said Michaud didn’t achieve much during his 12 years in Congress because many of his bills weren’t turned into law. (Michaud generally got legislation passed as a part of larger bills or budget articles.)
“Doesn’t sound like Mike,” Charles Pray, a former Maine representative and Democrat who lives in Millinocket and has worked with Michaud, said when he first heard about the accusations.
Rick Bennett, a then-Republican senator who succeeded Michaud as Maine Senate president, said Michaud is a “public-service oriented person” who wants to make positive changes for the people he represents.
“How many former members of Congress, or candidates for governor, would go, ‘You know what? I’m going home to East Millinocket to run for Select Board and fix the mill redevelopment issues there,’” said Bennett, who is running as an independent in Maine’s gubernatorial race this year.
Michaud chalked up the accusations and turmoil to clashing local personalities. He expected the mill renovation process to be lengthy, but knows it is moving forward, he said.
“There’s ups and downs, and unfortunately, politics and individual personalities get involved, but I’m happy because East Millinocket is a great, terrific community,” Michaud said.
The town has also not used any taxpayer money in the project, a point Michaud takes pride in because it was promised when the town purchased the land in 2020, he said.
People in both Millinocket and East Millinocket are frustrated with the slow progress at the former mill site, Pray said. But that’s because they’re passionate about bringing jobs back to the town.
Residents will be able to see more changes this year, Michaud said, with the water tank near East Millinocket’s main drag being demolished. A website that tracks progress, mailers about the ongoing work and tours of the property are all in the works, he said.
“It’s working out the way it should work out. We’re not always going to agree, but the fact that things are moving in the right direction is good,” Michaud said.