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The announced closure of Jay’s paper mill sometime in early 2023 comes as a blow to local officials and tax rolls in the Franklin County town.

The Androscoggin Mill contributes $1.8 million in tax revenue, representing 22% of the town’s tax base, Jay Town Manager Shiloh LaFreniere said.

LaFreniere noted that the closure won’t occur until at least Jan. 1, 2023, giving employees time to take advantage of local job openings.

LaFreniere said she will apply for subsidies under Maine’s Sudden and Severe Disruption of Valuation Program.

LaFreniere is also encouraging older residents to access a tax rate stabilization program for seniors. The program, she said, will prevent any tax hike due to the mill’s closure from hurting qualified seniors.

“We’ve been trying to get the word out about that, and now we’ll try even more so,” she said. 

LaFreniere said the town will work with the mill’s owner, Pixelle Specialty Solutions, in the coming months to determine the best use for the property once the mill closes.

Meanwhile, Gov. Janet Mills announced she was ordering Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman to send a Rapid Response team to the mill to assist the workers. 

LaFreniere said state officials offered similar assistance when the mill downsized previously. She said the local chamber of commerce has also hosted job fairs in response to previous waves of layoffs, and she anticipates similar events in response to the closure announcement. 

The announcement Tuesday was not unexpected, according to one member of Jay’s Select Board.

“To some of us, it seemed inevitable that it was going to be going, and it appears it was sooner rather than later,” Select Board member Gary McGrane said.

In a statement, the company cited “significant business and financial challenges” leading up to the closure, including an explosion in April 2020 that destroyed two digester machines on the mill’s property. 

No one was hurt, but the company did not rebuild the machines, and a series of layoffs followed. McGrane said he and other local officials took that as a sign that the mill might close, though no one knew when.

“We were concerned a couple of years ago when the digester blew up and they weren’t going to replace that, so I think people understood that it wasn’t going to be the heartbeat of the economy,” McGrane said.

The International Paper Co. built the original mill in 1965, and McGrane remembered the mill’s height of operations in 1987 when it employed 1,200 people.  The mill, McGrane said, has been downsizing ever since. 

Today, he said, the mill remains Jay’s largest single employer, but now only has a workforce of 231 people, and not all of them live in a single community. 

“I think the economic impact is going to be less severe than if we lost 1,200 people, as opposed to 231,” McGrane said.

McGrane noted that Pixelle indicated it is offering jobs at other mills out of state to some employees.