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Group Gets $5.3 Million For Infrastructure Upgrades At Former Millinocket Paper Mill Site

Nonprofit community development organization Our Katahdin has been awarded $5.3 million from the federal government to make infrastructure improvements at the site of the former Great Northern Paper Mill in Millinocket.

The money will be used to establish an industrial park to support wood-product manufacturing and high-tech data processing businesses.

The mill ceased operations in 2008. Our Katahdin bought the former mill site for $1 in Jan. 2017. The investment money from the Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration is to fund construction of water, sewer, roadway and electrical infrastructure for the industrial park to support economic recovery in the region.

Our Katahdin estimates the project will create 115 jobs and spur $205 million in private investment.

In a press release from Republican U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin of Maine’s 2nd District, Our Katahdin President Sean DeWitt says that the organization is working hard to resolve a $1.4 million inherited lien on the site that will allow the grant funds to flow.

Ed is a Maine native who spent his early childhood in Livermore Falls before moving to Farmington. He graduated from Mount Blue High School in 1970 before going to the University of Maine at Orono where he received his BA in speech in 1974 with a broadcast concentration. It was during that time that he first became involved with public broadcasting. He served as an intern for what was then called MPBN TV and also did volunteer work for MPBN Radio.