JAY – At Monday’s evening, officials with Polycor, Inc. gave the Selectboard an update on their ongoing efforts to redevelop the North Jay quarry.
Before their presentation, Selectboard Chair Justin Merrill acknowledged the announcement by the Verso Corporation on Thursday that it is laying off 300 workers at the Androscoggin Mill.
The 40 percent reduction in the mill’s workforce will come when the company shuts down the No. 1 pump dryer and the No. 2 paper machine sometime in the fourth quarter of this year.
The mill’s announcement, “has put the community on high alert,” Merrill said. He noted town officials have been in contact with the state’s Rapid Response, a Department of Labor program that advises workers facing job loss due to downsizing or closures on their rights and resources available.
“The town will do what it can to help,” Merrill said, “we’ll do all we can do to help.”
Operations manager Kevin Jack of Polycor New England, Inc. gave an update on the $4 million North Jay White Project development off the Old Jay Hill Road. He said plans for reactivation of the quarry and new curbing plant are on track to become fully operational by February 2016.
Jack said over the last few months the plant has been producing granite blocks while a new pre-fabricated building is expected to arrive next month.
The 150-foot by 65-foot building for the curbing plant and an office space, 25 feet by 45 feet, is expected to be installed in October and ready to be fully operational by early next year.
The company is using portable generators until a permanent electrical service can be installed. As part of the plans, a new road at the plant was put on hold for a year or two from now, Jack said.
One of two full-time quarry operator positions sought has been filled. According to the ad, “operators are responsible for the extraction of large blocks of stone from an open pit quarry using industrial saws and drills.” (The full ad can be seen here.) In response to a question by Selectmen Stephen McCourt, the position’s pay ranges from $13.74 to $15.24 per hour.
Jack noted there have been concerns expressed by residents over the blasting sessions earlier this year. Three since January have taken place and another is scheduled in the next couple of weeks, he said. The blasting sessions, necessary for the development of the quarry, Jack said earlier, occur between 8 a.m. and noon and will be announced by local media.
“We blast as little as we can,” Jack said and added that the blasts will be smaller at this phase of the quarry’s development.
According to Polycor’s website, it owns more than 25 quarries and five fabrication plants in the U.S. and Canada, and employs over 350 workers.
In other news, the selectboard will be appointing a school board representative at their meeting on Sept. 14 to replace Director Tamara Hoke, who has resigned.
Interested residents are encouraged to leave their name and contact information with the town office for consideration for the appointment, which will run until the next annual town meeting’s election. Whoever is elected is to serve one year remaining of Hoke’s term.
The deadline for those interested in submitting their names is Sept. 10.
