CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – The last surviving paper mill in New Hampshire’s North Country will closed Wednesday, the mill’s manager said.
“We’re shutting the machines down in the morning,” Willis Blevins, manager of the Gorham mill, said Tuesday. “As each runs out of its orders, it will go down.”
Most of the 240 workers were gone by midnight. Blevins said 26 would remain to handle personnel and maintenance duties.
“We knew this day was coming,” he said of the workers.
“They knew the 13th was the date.” Employee meetings were scheduled for today with New Hampshire Works Rapid Reponse, a state effort to assist workers and their families experiencing a layoff.
The development comes after Fraser Papers, the company running the mill, ended an agreement last month to sell the business. It said the mill would close indefinitely on or about Oct. 13 if a buyer isn’t found.
Blevins said he has been in contact with state officials every day to hear word on prospective buyers. He confirmed there are interested parties. Gov. John Lynch and Economic Development Commissioner George Bald had said talks were going on with groups that had shown interest in the mill.
Blevins said a new date set by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court – Oct. 21 – has been scheduled for prospective buyers to make a bid for the business. A court-apppointed monitor would need to approve a bid.
Fraser filed for bankruptcy protection last year in Canada and in the United States.
In May, a Manchester-based investment firm called MerchantBanc announced it was planning to buy the mill.
President Jeffrey Pollock said the agreement was contingent on getting a co-investor, and that had been achieved.
However, plans fell apart at the end of August, when Fraser was facing a court deadline.
The company was given a one-month extension, until Sept. 30, to have a plan in place. Then Fraser ended the agreement.