LePage: GNP needs financial partner to restart mill
Gov. Paul LePage said the state is helping Great Northern Paper Co. find a financial partner that it will need to restart its East Millinocket mill, but his “patience is running thin” with its inability to repay creditors and overdue property taxes.
The Bangor Daily News reported that LePage on Thursday spoke to mill workers in East Millinocket, where GNP’s mill halted operations and laid off 212 workers earlier this year.
The governor said New Hampshire-based investment firm Cate Street Capital “took over something that was a lot bigger than they thought it was” when it formed GNP to purchase the mills in East Millinocket and Millinocket for $1 in October 2011.
LePage said he doubted the East Millinocket mill would reopen before Election Day in November, in part because investors would like to know who will preside as Maine’s governor before moving forward. He said the state will make a wide search for an investing partner.
GNP has previously said it planned to restart the mill by this fall.
Alexandra Ritchie, the company’s spokeswoman, didn’t dispute LePage’s timeline statement in an interview with the BDN, saying that “the timing of a potential restart depends fully on when the necessary due diligence can be appropriately completed by potential investors.”
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