A recent state economic report confirms that Coos County faces tough times over the next few years.
The job loss when the Wausau paper plant closes at the end of the month is expected to be larger than just those 300 employees being laid off.
And the report says the new federal prison in Berlin isn't going to be enough to turn things around.
But local officials aren't ready to surrender.
NHPR correspondent Chris Jensen has the story.
A new state report says a federal prison in Berlin and a biomass energy plant in Groveton aren’t going to offset the recent loss of paper manufacturing jobs.
And, the report says, the county faces serious economic challenges.
The federal prison is expected to create about 325 jobs when it opens in 2010.
But so far the county has lost more than twice that many with the closing of the Berlin pulp mill and two paper mills in Groveton.
And according to the New Hampshire Employment Security’s Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau, many of those prison jobs will also go to federal employees transferred to Berlin,
Nevertheless, the prison is good news for Coos County, said Peter Bartlett, the economist who directed the study.
“The federal prison will help the county economy in the long run. It appears that initially a portion of the labor force is going to come from transfers from other workers within the federal prison system because they want to start up
with experienced staff, but even if you introduce these new people into the economy they are still going to be spending their wages.”
If the proposed biomass energy plant is built near Groveton it would provide 150 to 250 jobs, the report said.
But that proposal is a long way from becoming a reality.
The plan faces challenges ranging from regulatory approval to the inability of the existing power grid to handle the extra electricity.
Bartlett said that tourism is a possibility, but it too faces challenges,
“It is an area of great natural beauty but also is remote and it is going to be a challenge to encourage tourists to go that much further away from the metropolitan centers for their recreation.”
Peter Riviere is the executive director of the Coos Economic Development Corporation.
He doesn’t minimize the challenges facing the county.
“Things are tough. We are losing jobs. We are losing tax base. There is a whole litany of things.”
But Riviere sees a new level of energy and cooperation between local, state and federal officials to turn things around.
Riviere insists there is reason for hope.
“There are businesses that are very seriously looking at this area. I hung up today with somebody looking for a pretty good size plot of land and a potential 300 jobs. It is easy to get stuck in the woe is me, but there is a lot of wow stuck going on.”
In the meantime, the Wausau paper mill in Groveton shuts its doors for good in less than two weeks.
For NHPR News this is Chris Jensen
