Chance of Saving Bucksport Now "Little to None"

 

Reports this past week by the Sun Journal, Franklin, Me., USA, and the Bangor Daily News, Bangor, Me., will cement for many what will be remembered as a final and bitter chapter in a nearly three-month long drama that has put the Bucksport, Me., paper mill’s fate in unforeseen hands. Maine Gov. Paul LePage (photo) has now said any chance of the shuttered Bucksport paper mill reopening are "little to none." 

 

Gov. LePage made his remarks this past Wednesday at a Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce meeting in nearby Augusta. His statements came one day after a federal judge denied a union's request to block Verso Paper Corp.’s, Memphis, Tenn., planned sale of the mill to Canadian metal recycler AIM Development, which will now go forward barring any unforeseen circumstances.

 

Verso closed the mill in December, saying it was no longer profitable, but the company continues to operate a mill in Jay, Me., that employs 850 workers.

 

Gov. LePage has been making an effort since the announcement of the closing to find a new buyer for the mill. So in what seemed like a dramatic and unexpected turn of events after the announcement of the mill’s closure in late 2014, there were reportedly three potential buyers interested as of the final week the mill’s pending sale was held up in court—an international firm, and two domestic firms. Both arrived on the scene starting about two weeks ago, mid-way through this month, although the fate of Bucksport has been known for quite some time.

 

Now that a state judge has ruled there was no wrongdoing by Verso on claims of an antitrust violation by union leaders who wanted to save mill and labor operations at Bucksport, the Bangor Daily News reports the sale could go through before the end of the month, possibly by today or on Friday.