Concern continues to mount over the future of Berlin's largest employer. Coos County commissioners have frozen spending in light of Pulp And Paper Of America's failure to pay millions of dollars it owes in taxes. The mill's parent company has closed its plant in Winchester due to pollution problems.
Meanwhile, company officials remain silent. NHPR's Doug MacPherson reports.
Like all county governments, Coos County relies on payments from cities and towns for its operating budget. They, in turn, rely on taxpayers. But the largest taxpayer in both Berlin and Gorham is Pulp and Paper of America, better known locally as "The Mill." And The Mill owes almost half a million dollars to Gorham, and three million dollars to Berlin. Coos County commissioners have decided to freeze the county budget until the mill makes arrangements to pay up. Commissioner Bing Judd says no one in Coos County, including the mill's employees, have any idea when that might be.
"I don't think they tell 'em too much. And uh, they're just hoping that their paycheck keeps coming, and the mill keeps going. Cause I don't know what's gonna happen if it doesn't. I don't think anybody else does. Because you're talking 8 or 9-hundred people. You know, what are they going to do if the doors close."
The mill's parent company is American Tissue Corporation, headquartered in Hauppauge, New York. It owns another paper mill in Winchester, New Hampshire. That mill, which employs 60 people, has had to halt operations because toxic waste water from the mill is overflowing the lagoons designed to contain it, and dumping directly into the Ashuelot River. New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Michael Walls says fines against the company have yet to be determined.
"So far we've been meeting with the company and working with them to get the problem solved. That is, have them spend whatever assets they have on fixing the lagoons. And at some point in the future we expect and the company expects to discuss the amount of a civil penalty."
Some analysts speculate that the problem with American Tissue is that it's structured wrong. All its operations are set up as independent companies. So companies that need to make capital improvements can only borrow against their own assets; they can't get help from American Tissue's successful operations. The company is reportedly in the midst of restructuring.
The Berlin plant, which makes tissue, doesn't face any pollution fines. But Jason Stock, head of the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association, or TOA, says competition in the tissue market is fierce.
"This is speculation on my part, but from what I understand, some of the challenges they have are old equipment. It's less efficient and not as fast and not as large as some of the new equipment that's being used in the industry."
Stock can only speculate, because management of Pulp and Paper of America - which is a member of TOA - refers his calls to the parent company in New York. And American Tissue won't return his phone calls.
"Our organization not only has Pulp and Paper of America as members, but we also have many of the suppliers- primarily the loggers and truckers, who will call me looking for answers and seeking information. And when I don't have that, that puts me in somewhat of an awkward position because they're asking me, 'What's going on? Why is my check late?' Or, 'What's happening here?' And I don't have anything to report back."
Stock is worried. Paper production accounts for 60 percent of New Hampshire's timber industry. And the Berlin mill currently purchases half the wood produced for paper production.
"If this mill goes down, or ceases to operate, there's approximately one million tons of pulp wood - and, and, it's not only the wood -- it's the loggers and the truckers that cut that wood - that will not have a home. And that's, that's a real concern."
Asked to comment for this report, the manager of the mill in Berlin, James Wagner, said he was not allowed to speak for the company, and referred the call to officials at American Tissue in New York. American Tissue officials did not return repeated phone calls.
For NHPR News, I'm Doug Macpherson.
