March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

East Millinocket seeks rail project grant

EAST MILLINOCKET — People in East Millinocket, like the residents of many small, one-industry towns across the state, want job opportunities so their grown kids aren’t forced to leave the area to find work.

The town is asking the state for a $105,000 economic development infrastructure grant to help the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad expand into the intermodal truck-to-rail market by locating a new loading facility here. An intermodal facility is an area where truck trailers are loaded on and off flatbed railroad cars for shipment.

The railroad’s first intermodal facility is in Bangor. It will begin operations as soon as negotiations are complete with connecting carriers, according to rail officials. Logistics Management Systems, a subsidiary of the B&A based in Hermon, has expressed an interest in operating an intermodal facility planned by the city of Presque Isle, slated to be constructed and operational by the fall of 1998.

A new facility for East Millinocket could mean three new jobs and a lower-cost transportation option for businesses in northern Maine and Canada.

In their efforts to diversify the economy, local officials say there is a need to develop transportation options to help new and existing business cut the time and distance of getting their products to metropolitan markets.

“The new transportation option could allow businesses to grow and reach new markets,” said administrative assistant Peggy Daigle. “Improving the transportation infrastructure is crucial to the area’s long-term efforts to create business and employment opportunities,” she said.

Ben Coes, B&A’s intermodal project manager, says the truck-to-rail facility would offer companies in the region, like Great Northern, James River Corp., Lincoln Pulp & Paper and any other companies another transportation option.

The proposed intermodal truck-to-rail loading facility would be constructed by the town and leased to the B&A railroad. The facility would be located near the railroad’s existing tracks on Great Northern Paper Co. land in East Millinocket. The project would cost $150,000, with $105,000 coming from the grant and $45,000 from the railroad.

During a public hearing this week, local residents and Michael P. Harman, president of the Katahdin Area Chamber of Commerce, which represents East Millinocket, Millinocket and Medway, voiced support for the proposed project.

Coes, who outlined details about the project, said the B&A would start small and let the facility grow with market demands.

Initially, the town planned to seek a $280,000 EDI grant and the railroad planned to match it by placing a $500,000 piece of equipment called a reach stacker at the new East Millinocket facility, which would employ at least eight people. However, Coes recommended the town seek a smaller grant.

“We are essentially cutting the project in half,” Coes told the small group of residents. He said the railroad wanted more flexibility in the type of equipment it would use at the new East Millinocket facility. The company did not want the $500,000 reach stacker to be included as part of the town’s grant application. The revised project would employ three people.

John Rouleau, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, asked Coes whether the railroad was backing away from the project.

“We are committed to this project and doing it here,” Coes said. “It was an internal decision which had to do with being prudent,” the railroad official said.


Have feedback? Want to know more? Send us ideas for follow-up stories.

comments for this post are closed

You may also like