Representatives of Enhanced Community Development were pleased to attend the recent grand opening of the St. Croix Tissue mill in Baileyville, Maine, which, thanks in part to financing Enhanced provided through the Maine New Markets Capital Investment Program, has created 80 new jobs at a manufacturing facility and is helping preserve more than 300 jobs at the Woodland Pulp mill. The opening of the tissue manufacturing facility comes at a critical time. In the last several years, Maine has seen a number of significant closures in the paper industry.

The opening of St. Croix Tissue on August 31 was hailed as “a breath of fresh air in Washington County, long one of the more economically challenged areas of Maine, and in the state’s troubled pulp and paper industry, which has seen the closure of several mills in the past few years,” according to the Bangor Daily News.

“The pulp and paper industry doesn’t get many opportunities like this,” said Marco L’Italien, vice president of mill owner International Grand Investment Corp., according to the newspaper.

Mainebiz reported that local and state officials joined industry leaders in celebrating the results of this $120 million investment.

According to Mainebiz, U.S. Senator Angus King called the investment project “a manifestation of what we can do when we work in partnership, when we have passion, when we stay the course and have perseverance, and when we have a visionary plan for how to pull it all together.”

Maine’s senior U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, who also attended the grand opening event, remarked on the mill, according to Mainebiz: “St. Croix Tissue’s investments demonstrate its commitment to the residents of Washington County by creating jobs and helping to spur economic development,” she said. “This celebration is a tribute to the men and women who work here.”