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July 01. 2012 9:28PM
Gorham seeing a future with jobs
GORHAM — With a new tissue machine expected to come online near the end of September, the Gorham Paper and Tissue. LLC, a Lynn Tilton company, is hiring.
The company recently put out a call for new employees, working with the Berlin office of Employment Security, and received 325 applications.
Willis Blevins, the mill's general manager, said that they expect to hire 12 to 16 new workers, who would then be trained before the massive, new machinery starts up. Employment today stands at 213, with two fine paper machines and one towel machine running. The company has gone through the call-back list of those who had been laid off under the previous owners.
“We went back and got them all,” Blevins said. With this new hiring, and with most of the present workforce at the mill nearing retirement age, Blevins said that there will be employment opportunities for young people in the area.
The mill was closed by Fraser Papers in October 2010, which then sold the mill to Counsel R.B. Capital as part of its bankruptcy reorganization. The mill complex was then bought by Patriarch Partners. It reopened in spring 2011.
The new machine project is budgeted at $35 million, and will increase the mill's capacity another 100,000 tons a year, to 226,000 tons a year.
The date for the start-up had been earlier in September, but there was a delay with some of the containers coming from France, which has set the $35 million project back a couple of weeks. Blevins said they are receiving new machinery parts and systems every day, and will not close in the new building completely until the last piece of equipment is in place. Most of the equipment is large and bulky, and is being hoisted in place by a crane on site.
Blevins said that the pipeline down from the Androscoggin Valley Regional Refuse Disposal District's Mount Carberry Landfill should also be ready by the end of September. The landfill gas will be mixed with the natural gas from the line the company put in, and connected to the Portland Natural Gas pipeline.
The gas is the primary energy source for the steam generation used in the paper process, replacing fuel oil and cutting costs.
In announcing the sale in May 2011, Lynn Tilton, founder and CEO of Patriarch, said, “This acquisition presents an opportunity to achieve both goals as we rehire the mill's workforce and make the necessary investments and operational changes to return the company to long-term profitability.”
syoungknox@newstote.com
The company recently put out a call for new employees, working with the Berlin office of Employment Security, and received 325 applications.
Willis Blevins, the mill's general manager, said that they expect to hire 12 to 16 new workers, who would then be trained before the massive, new machinery starts up. Employment today stands at 213, with two fine paper machines and one towel machine running. The company has gone through the call-back list of those who had been laid off under the previous owners.
“We went back and got them all,” Blevins said. With this new hiring, and with most of the present workforce at the mill nearing retirement age, Blevins said that there will be employment opportunities for young people in the area.
The mill was closed by Fraser Papers in October 2010, which then sold the mill to Counsel R.B. Capital as part of its bankruptcy reorganization. The mill complex was then bought by Patriarch Partners. It reopened in spring 2011.
The new machine project is budgeted at $35 million, and will increase the mill's capacity another 100,000 tons a year, to 226,000 tons a year.
The date for the start-up had been earlier in September, but there was a delay with some of the containers coming from France, which has set the $35 million project back a couple of weeks. Blevins said they are receiving new machinery parts and systems every day, and will not close in the new building completely until the last piece of equipment is in place. Most of the equipment is large and bulky, and is being hoisted in place by a crane on site.
Blevins said that the pipeline down from the Androscoggin Valley Regional Refuse Disposal District's Mount Carberry Landfill should also be ready by the end of September. The landfill gas will be mixed with the natural gas from the line the company put in, and connected to the Portland Natural Gas pipeline.
The gas is the primary energy source for the steam generation used in the paper process, replacing fuel oil and cutting costs.
In announcing the sale in May 2011, Lynn Tilton, founder and CEO of Patriarch, said, “This acquisition presents an opportunity to achieve both goals as we rehire the mill's workforce and make the necessary investments and operational changes to return the company to long-term profitability.”
syoungknox@newstote.com
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