Business owner eyes Katahdin mills
Local businessman Galen Hale is vying to be the next owner of the shuttered Katahdin Paper Co. mills in Millinocket and East Millinocket.
Hale owns East Mill Metal and Salvage LLC in East Millinocket, a scrap metal recovery operation, and retail store Nicatou Stoves, which sells stoves and alternative fuels, according to the Bangor Daily News. He told the paper he has reached out to the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development to express interest in buying the two mills from Brookfield Asset Management, but Adrienne Bennett, Gov. Paul LePage's spokeswoman, declined to comment on efforts to sell the mills. Hale previously worked as a papermaker at both mills, and said, if he did buy the mills, he would begin by restarting papermaking in East Millinocket and steam facilities in Millinocket. He said he is working to secure startup capital, but did not say from where, according to the paper.
Hong Kong-based International Grand Investors Corp., which recently bought the former Domtar mill in Baileyville, is in talks to buy the mills for $1, though local leaders say negotiations have hit complications. If no buyer is found before July 31, Brookfield plans to begin disassembling the mills' equipment.
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