PROSPECT, Maine - The developer of a proposed wood chip factory in Prospect, near Bucksport, is pitching the project as a badly needed source of employment in a region hit hard by the closure of the Verso paper mill.
The proposed facility would abut a nearby salt marsh managed by the state, and that has raised concern among locals. so has the way the project came to light.
A member of Prospect's select board says residents only learned about it after the developer posted a note on a bulletin board in a local corner store.
The note, dated Dec. 11, is written by Arthur House, president of Maine Woods Biomass Exports. In it, House asks for permission to leave some business cards at the store, Maddie's Place, so anyone who's interested can contact him about potential jobs that may be coming to the Prospect and Searsport areas.
"As we have discussed," House writes, "we will be establishing a wood processing facility in Prospect in 2015..."
"Never heard of the man," - or the project he has in mind, says Prospect Selectman Bill Sneed. The select board, he says, first learned about the letter, and the proposed project, at it's Dec. 16 meeting.
"We called Mr. House at home on the evening of the 16th and invited him to come to a special town meeting and talk to us, let us know what he's planned."
The proposed factory would make biomass out of logs, shipped to Prospect via rail from as far away as Millinocket, Jackman, Greenville, Brownville and Herman. Wood chips would then be shipped, by rail and truck, to Mack Point in Searsport for export to European buyers.
Arthur House declined to be interviewed for this story, saying he preferred to share project details directly with Prospect residents at an informational meeting tonight. But a more formal letter from House to Prospect officials, released this afternoon and provided to MPBN, fills in some of the blanks.
Phase 1 of the project involves ongoing improvements to the Central Maine and Quebec Railway, and sets a deadline of March 1 for launching the design, zoning and permitting processes. Phase 2, the building phase, would last six to 10 months, according to House, and cost $18 million.
"We're quite concerned about the scale of the operation and it's effect on both neighbors, but also those in the surrounding area," says Steve Miller, who heads the Isleboro Islands Trust. The proposed 73-acre factory site, he notes, borders the Howard Mendall Wildlife Management Area, a salt marsh.
"It's a great boat launching place," Miller says. "It's a kayaking area. It's a bird-watching area. It's tidal. The influence of the bay does move all the way up into this portion of the river."
Besides any potential impact on the salt marsh, Miller says his group wants to know how much additional traffic the facility would create on the roads, rails and waterways, in and out of the region.
In his letter to Prospect selectmen, Arthur House says the project could end up employing as many as 150 full-time workers. Bill Sneed says after Verso's closing Prospect needs more jobs. He expects a large turnout at tonight's meeting.
"In Prospect alone, we've got at least 24 families that are directly impacted by that closing," Sneed says. "People are interested."
Meantime, the company has asked its primary European clients to fly to Maine for a meeting next week in Searsport with loggers, rail and shipping agents, port authorities and others. House says he wants to secure early orders from clients - aimed at fast-tracking the project and putting people to work quickly.
That will be easier said than done, though. Many zoning and permitting hurdles lie ahead, and many questions about the project will need to be answered.