Business

A Poland Spring representative said he will push his company to build a $50 million bottling plant in the Lincoln area — a crucial but far from final step in the company’s expansion planning.

Recent well tests showed that the Lincoln Water District can easily anchor a bottling plant, Senior Natural Resource Manager Thomas Brennan said during a district board meeting on Tuesday. Poland Spring has been testing wells and scouting plant locations in the Lincoln area since March.

Source: Maine Public

Judge John Woodcock Jr. plans telephone conferences with Portland Pipe Line Corp. and city lawyers to clarify the court’s jurisdiction in the 2-year-old case.

Source: Portland Press Herald

“Company spokesman Dan Cashman last week said that a boiler leak and wood supply problems during the muddy late spring led the company to close the wood-to-energy plant and analyze their operations.”

Source: BDN Maine

The owner of the shuttered Great Northern Paper mill in East Millinocket claims a lawsuit from one prospective buyer has prevented it from considering others willing to pay millions.

The companies signed a letter of intent in June 2016 to put the deal in motion, but negotiations stalled and EMEP sued in January to try and force the $1.75 million sale.

Source: BDN Maine

But industry experts also see opportunity in that 3.8 million ton drop in annual wood demand.“We’ve had a rough couple of years in the industry,” said Eric Kingsley, a consultant with Innovative Natural Resource Solutions in Portland. “We’ve lost mills, we’ve lost jobs. There will be more losses coming. But I am, long term, optimistic.”As traditional paper businesses are shifting to growing markets in food packaging and tissue — and as the pellet industry tries to grow its share of the U.S. heating market — others are eyeing new industries to breathe life into the economic engine in Maine’s woods.

Source:  BDN Maine

Imagine opening a restaurant in a far-flung location, but being forbidden to tell anyone it’s there.That’s what has happened in the midcoast town of Southport, where selectmen have placed restrictions on a waterfront eatery opened by developer Paul Coulombe.

Source: Maine Public