The traffic in and out of the back gate at the mill site has slowed down over the winter. Snow removal kept Paul pretty busy, especially this year with the onset of snow in early November! Keeping essential pathways open isn’t the only thing keeping us busy at the mill site.

Just before Christmas, Our Katahdin was awarded $259,446 from the Maine Rural Development Authority through their Rural Manufacturing and Industrial Site Redevelopment Grant Program. The bulk of this money will be used to locate a transformer, a critical piece of electrical infrastructure, on the site. The transformer we’ll use to transform electrical voltage from a sub-transmission level to a voltage level that we can then distribute throughout the Fiber Park. This is a very crucial development to allow us to distribute power throughout the Brownfield parcel, as well as the new Greenfield parcel (Shack Hill). We view this as the first step in kicking off our critical infrastructure restoration are excited to get going following our IRS lien resolution.

We continue to pursue a resolution with the IRS regarding the lien on the property. The process is slow going, but we are going in the right direction. In December of last year, our Offer in Compromise was officially rejected by the IRS. Despite the initial setback, this official rejection allowed us to appeal the decision. We now have an appeals officer assigned to our case, and she is reviewing it diligently. To help clarify our assets and liabilities, we have consigned an appraisal of the mill site property - including the buildings and the forested land - with Prentiss and Carlisle. We expect to deliver the appraisal to the IRS shortly. Along with support from the Governor, our Congressional Delegation and the Tax Payer Advocate, we are requesting an appeals hearing to be scheduled as quickly as possible to move forward with a settlement resolution. Resolution of the IRS lien will give us a free and clear title, and we can move forward with the engineering and construction of essential infrastructure on the Greenfield.