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Public hearing on Forster Mill is Tuesday night

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The Forster Manufacturing Co. mill in 1961. (Photo provided by Spencer Thompson)
The Forster Manufacturing Co. mill in 1961. (Photo provided by Spencer Thompson)

WILTON – Having possession of the Forster Manufacturing Co. property on Depot Street and a Phase II environmental study in hand, the town hopes to apply for Environmental Protection Agency grants in December to bring the building down.

A public hearing to discuss all of this has been scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 1, at 7 p.m. at the town office. Town officials seek to update residents on the Phase II study conducted by TRC, including the environmental firm’s recommendations for the clean-up.

The mill was the original home to the Wilton Woolen Company which, as local historian Paul H. Mills notes in his 2014 article on the “zombie” real estate phenomenon, was in its heyday the primary supplier of fabric for General Motors. Forster Manufacturing would purchase the building in the 1960s.

Spencer Thompson of New Sharon worked on Forster’s fourth floor beginning in 1971. He noted that the Wilton mill was one of six plants operated by the company, with others located in East Wilton, Strong, Stratton and Mattawamkeag. Forster plants produced toothpicks, clothespins, croquet sets, other wood products and packaged plastic cutlery. The Wilton facility, Thompson noted, housed the Forster corporate offices, a machine shop, a printing press for packaged product boxes and other support facilities, in addition to the factory floor itself. A rail line ran directly to the mill’s shipping doors.

Forster would eventually be bought out by another company and move west. Plastic cutlery-producing Jarden’s would slide into place for a few years before vacating the aging building for new facilities in Wilton.

Through the company Wilton Recycling LLC, Adam Mack would buy the mill in 2005. In 2010, a zoning ordinance change opened up more development opportunities for the property, with Mack suggesting that a demolition could be funded via salvage in the building. Mack’s demolition was undertaken by Downeast Construction Co., who got approximately 3 months into the project, bringing down the south-facing wall, before Occupational Safety and Health Administration test results revealed unhealthy levels of airborne asbestos. While much of the asbestos was abated by September 2012, Mack’s funding had run dry and demolition would not resume.

Forster's building entrance, prior to the start of demolition in 2011.
Forster’s building entrance, prior to the start of demolition in 2011.

Wilton foreclosed on the Forster Mill in April, as the building’s stalled demolition entered its fourth year amid Mack filing for personal bankruptcy and pleading guilty to federal charges relating to visa fraud.

The town is following the same model it used to successfully rehabilitate the tannery property on Routes 2 & 4. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s Brownfields program is utilized to assess potential contamination and recommend a plan of action. The town then intends to seek EPA grants to help fund the clean-up.

At the Nov. 17 meeting, Town Manager Rhonda Irish said that TRC, an environmental firm out of Augusta that was awarded the state-funded Phase II Brownfields assessment, had completed their field work and much of their testing. The Phase II will quantify what hazardous material remains on the site, such as asbestos, and will make recommendations relating to the clean-up. This assists the town in laying the groundwork for federal EPA grants, which can pay some of the cost for the demolition.

Irish previously said that she intends to divide the site into parcels, allowing the town to apply for three or four EPA grants. On Nov. 17, she said that she hoped to apply for $600,000 in grant funding. The deadline to apply for EPA grants is Dec. 18.

While all residents and interested parties are welcome to Tuesday’s public hearing, Irish said she particularly wanted to hear from Dryden-area residents, due to their proximity to the site.

“They’re going to be affected by any clean up going on there,” Irish said. The site also abuts a popular route for children walking to school, she noted.

The site is currently secured via a chain link fence, which the town has augmented by securing some lower level entrances and windows at the advice of its insurance provider.

The former Forster Manufacturing Building, as seen in 2012.
The former Forster Manufacturing Building, as seen in 2012.
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11 Comments

  1. Thanks to Spencer Thompson for the further background.

    Even before Forster’s acquired this particular facility in 1960 the
    building had been a fountainhead of the county’s industrial
    base, it having been a site of the Wilton Woolen Company.
    As such it was one of the largest manufacturers of fabrics
    for upholstery for American automobiles, the plant operating
    24-hours a day with a payroll that competed with if not
    at times surpassing IP. Its demise as a woolen company
    was occasioned by the shift by Detroit from wool to plastics
    or other synthetic products for its passenger seats.

    The woolen company’s last owner was Bernard Goldfine, who
    besides also owning mills in Winthrop and elsewhere in
    New England was a notorious benefactor of Eisenhower’s White
    House assistant Sherman Adams.

  2. Nice write up Paul. The mill does have quite a history behind it. I myself worked in the mill when it was Forster’s for 25 years. I have many photos of the mill, some going back to 1903, and some from the flood of 1953 and the flood of 1987. It’s a sign of the times.

  3. Things do change, don’t they?

    Back when the site was a woolen mill, many of the farms in the area had substantial flocks of sheep. Especially so in the higher, rockier, steeper parts of the valley, like Temple where the practice of raising sheep dated to the early 1800s.

    A marvel, how things change.

  4. So many factories, canning, shoe shops, tanning, woodworking, paper companies, job losses, downsizing of town populations and services, stores, schools, and the businesses those jobs supported. So sad, victims of globalization, beginning back in the 80s. Entrepreneurs and inventors sorely needed for products and businesses that can work in Maine and not be squeezed out by foreign competition. Don’t forget the past, but seize the present and future and make the most of them! Best wishes to all the Forster alumni everywhere, there are still a lot of us, and lots of good memories that we share!

  5. Globalization: Started when the first trade routes were established, WAY BEFORE the 1980’s. All colonies were established for securing raw materials and moving the home countries wealth higher for those that could afford investing in the colonies.

    As in past centuries, good ideas and efforts bring jobs until someone else can do your product for a lower price. We need to keep the good ideas coming and educate our communities to be able to work in an ever changing economy.

  6. Hello Evan & Arnold…. Forster Alumni 1970 -1995. Nice to hear that you fellows are still around.
    God Bless you both.

  7. Exciting to read about ReVision Energy’s success in Maine and New Hampshire in DownEast Magazine! Who suspected solar power could be such a boon to the economy and “ordinary” people in the area! Hope that will spread throughout the country! A while before that I read about the Farmington-connected company that was making higher-efficiency wood-burning (heating?) systems for businesses, colleges, etc. Hope there’ll be hundreds more business entrepreneurs making much-needed jobs in the area, love to see the economy rebound!

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