Maine news, sports, weather | Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine

LOST TAX REVENUE FOR TOWN

Bingham mill may go to Siberia

Facility closed in 2006

By Erin Rhoda erhoda@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

BINGHAM -- A Russian company is in town, looking to buy a closed lumber mill and haul it away to Siberia.

If they make an offer, and it's accepted, they'd probably ship the entire mill, piece by piece, overseas. It's the third time in a year-and-a-half that the businessmen have traveled to the town.

The mill, the former Morgan Lumber Co., closed May 10, 2006, with the fall of the housing market, owner Tom Morgan said. At the time, it employed about 75 people and produced framing lumber for construction projects.

Now the 28,000-square-foot building, and the machinery inside it, remains quiet. While the mill has been on the market for four years, and other people have expressed interest in it, there have been no offers, Morgan said.

"It's been real hard to sell it because nobody in the domestic market is expanding their business. The housing market is so slow," he said.

Morgan would like to sell the mill to a business based in Maine or elsewhere in the United States, he said, but he can't afford to be choosy. "I don't like businesses being sold overseas myself, but that's where the market is," he said. "It would be a big headache gone."

When asked if the mill might ever re-open, he said, "I'd like to run it, but it's not going to happen."

Morgan said he does not know the name of the company because its representatives have not yet made an offer and do not speak English. He has been working with a translator and broker out of Pennsylvania who was not scheduled to arrive in Bingham until today.

The three Russian men currently in town would like to sell lumber that is 8 to 20 feet, Morgan said. The equipment is set up for 8 to 16 feet, but it can be adjusted.

If they purchase the mill, he said, they would disassemble "everything from the cement up," ship the parts overseas, and reassemble them in Siberia because "it's where the forest is."

The sale, in addition to eliminating future mill jobs, would also hurt the town's tax base, Bingham resident Wesley Baker said.

"That's the end of it ... It's going to be another blow to the town, and we certainly don't need any more," he said.

Rosaire Pelletier is senior forest products advisor for the governor. He said he is concerned about the possibility of the mill leaving the country -- along with the possibility of jobs.

However, Maine fares better, he said, than other states and Canadian provinces in regards to mills being sold overseas.

First Selectman Steven Steward said he was unable to comment on the matter because selectmen have not been informed of any business proposal.

Erin Rhoda -- 474-9534

erhoda@centralmaine.com