Oct. 3, 2014: A federal judge orders the bankruptcy case of Great Northern Paper Co. transferred from Delaware to Maine. A lawyer for the towns of Millinocket and East Millinocket, where GNP operated two mills, says at the hearing that the company owes the towns more than $3 million in back taxes.
GNP filed for bankruptcy Sept. 22, foreshadowing the end of papermaking in the Millinocket area and casting a pall over the community’s economic future.
The company, managed by New Hampshire-based private-equity firm Cate Street Capital, closed its East Millinocket mill in January and laid off 200 workers a few weeks later.
The federal judge’s ruling moves the case from a jurisdiction where GNP’s parent company is located to a state where its major creditors are. When the company filed for bankruptcy, it listed more than $50 million in liabilities and almost 1,000 creditors.
The company’s Millinocket mill closed in 2008.
Maine’s papermaking industry suffered another blow just two days before the federal judge’s GNP ruling. Verso Paper announced that it was closing its paper mill in Bucksport and that its 580 employees there all would be laid off.
The decision was expected to devastate the town of about 5,000 people. Town officials said the company paid more than $4 million in property taxes each year, and losing that would force the town to cut back municipal services severely.
The Great Northern Paper plant in East Millinocket operating at a greatly diminished capacity in 2014. Carl D. Walsh/The Washington Post
Verso’s Bucskport mill is demolished soon after its closure. A demolition crew brings down its smokestack on Oct. 29, 2019.
A salmon farm is expected to be built on the site. The owner, Whole Oceans, wanted to begin construction in April 2020, but it says in July the coronavirus has forced a delay in the project.
Joseph Owen is an author, retired newspaper editor and board member of the Kennebec Historical Society. Owen’s book, “This Day in Maine,” can be ordered at islandportpress.com. To get a signed copy use promo code signedbyjoe at checkout. Joe can be contacted at: jowen@mainetoday.com.
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