This is a chance to reverse some tragedies
To the editor:
A letter in Friday’s paper
said the Laidlaw transactions
was a tragedy and here
is my opinion on the subject.
I have been a resident of
Berlin Gorham area for 37
years. What brought me here
was the beauty of the area
and the fantastic hard working
people who live here. I
have been through a few economic
down turns and here
is my view on how this area
handled them.
The recession of 1974/1975
had little effect on the area.
We had a diversifi ed pulp and
paper mill with an Absorbent
Products Division. We also
had a vibrant shoe making
plant and even tough we
where in a recession, both
places had an increase in
hiring. Many people who
work at the Gorham plant
today have seniority which
starts in this period of time.
The recession of 1981/1982
was more severe to the area.
James River, who owned the
mills, had some temporary
layoffs with little negative
effect. It was fashionable for
corporation to increase profits,
take the shoe making
operations overseas. Granite
State, the shoe company,
was hurting. The government
at the time said it was
okay to take jobs like shoe
making overseas, they will
be replaced by high tech jobs
which never happened. This
is the start of the tragedies
for the Berlin/Gorham area.
The absorbent products kept
the mills in fair shape.
The recession of 1990/1992
was bad but again the diversifi
ed pulp, paper and absorbent
products kept over a
thousand people working
good paying jobs, which kept
the area’s economy from falling
into a real bad mess.
The real tragedy began in
1995, James River spun off the
Berlin Gorham operation with 600
million dollars of debt into a separate
company called Crown Vantage. In
the process, they shut down and eliminated
the absorbent product division
in Gorham resulting in the loss of 150
jobs and the cushion which mitigated
the effects of recessions Crown Vantage
could not make it in good times
and quickly folded when economic
conditions changed.
Pulp and Paper of America took over
the mills but folded during the recession
of 2001/2002. Mostly because
they did not have the diversifi cation
Brown and James River had.
Fraser Papers bought the bankrupt
mills with the promise they would not
break the complex up. The fi rst thing
Fraser did was to start selling assets
of value like the landfi ll and power
plants. Allowing this to happen was
also a tragedy but it kept the jobs in
the area,
In 2006 Fraser pulled off the big
one. Because of economic conditions
they had to shut down one of the three
pulp mills they owned, They selected
the Berlin mill because the Canadian
government would not let them shut
down the Canadian plants. Fraser
made no effort to sell the mill to
another company to run. They wanted
the pulp mill which was their best
running pulp mill to stop production
and be torn down, so there would be
no competition.
This was the worst tragedy to ever
hit the Berlin/Gorham area. Now,
in 2009, there is chance to reverse
some of these tragedies and a Power
plant supplying some badly needed
good paying jobs with other economic
stimulus can do it. There is a vocal
minority opposition against the plant
becoming a reality and this is a real
tragedy.
In my opinion large diversifi ed
companies give the the foundation
for smaller business to feed on and
thrive. Not all areas of this country
are hurting as bad as we are. The
big difference they have large strong
diversifi ed companies supporting the
economy. Like building a home, you
need a strong foundation to start.
Frank Borowski
Gorham
