Buckfield News Briefs

Tough sledding

So, far, it’s not been the sort of winter weather we saw last season, but that doesn’t mean towns aren’t again struggling to get by. 

In Buckfield, road crews reportedly went through 1,000 yards of sand prior to the most recent storm.  Thanks in part to the December 11 ice storm, and one other event which caused “freak” black-ice conditions, Buckfield put its trucks on the road 12 times before New Year’s, says Town Manager Glen Holmes.

According to Holmes, the town already has gone through 25 percent of its 4,500-yard sand stockpiled for the season.

Securing the trash

Buckfield selectmen are recommending the installation of security cameras at the transfer station on Route 140, following the theft of a donation box from the “swap shop.”

“There wasn’t much in there — it couldn’t have been more than $2 or $3 — because I try and get it out every week,” said the shop’s volunteer manager, Mary Alice Standard, of Sumner, who uses the money to pay the electricity bill for the two cargo containers used to house donated goods. 

Still, selectmen recommended putting in security cameras, in part because, in a tough economy, copper, steel and other materials at the site could make a tempting target for thieves.

“Knock on wood, we haven’t had problems up there in years, but there have been times,” said selectboard chairman Chris Hayward.

“It’s a small investment for what we could potentially save ourselves in damages,” agreed Selectman Chip Robinson.

At a special town meeting in October, voters okayed $3,000 for security cameras that have since been placed at the municipal complex on Route 117 and at the highway garage, on John Ellingwood Road.

Town Manager Glen Holmes said money for the transfer station cameras will be included in his budget that will go before voters at the annual town meeting in June.

Culvert conundrum

Sometimes, you have to go straight to the top.

At the November 18 meeting of the Buckfield selectmen, Town Manager Glen Holmes read a copy of a letter he’d received that day from John Meader, a resident of Roundabout Road.  In the letter, addressed to David Cole, commissioner of the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT), and copied to State Rep. Terry Hayes, Meader complained of a hole in the pavement and gravel shoulder.

“This hole originates over a culvert,” wrote Meader.  “It has occurred several times yearly for perhaps five years now and is periodically repaired by the state department of transportation.  The repairs have involved no more than filling the hole with gravel and putting tar patch on top.  This is ineffective long-term.”

Noting that the Roundabout Road is a “busy section” of Route 124, used frequently by logging trucks, Meader complained that his frequent complaints to MDOT have not resulted in a permanent fix.

At the most recent selectboard meeting, Holmes read a letter from Cole promising that the fix is on the way.

Although he said the hole in question has been “monitored” and that it “has not become a hazard,” Cole said a “major ditching project” is scheduled for the Buckfield section of Route 124 this year.

“The work will include permanent repairs of the hole by replacing the culvert,” wrote Cole.  “The decision to wait for permanent repairs is a prudent one considering all of the issues.  The culvert replacement will be achieved more efficiently in conjunction with the ditching project.”

Mutual aid

Buckfield has joined a county-wide mutual aid agreement sponsored by the Western Maine Firefighters Association.

Although Buckfield had agreements in place with all bordering towns, it frequently answered requests for help from other nearby towns, which had the potential to create legal snafus, according to Town Manager Glen Holmes.

“There are some lawyers who would tell us that if one of our firefighters got hurt in that situation, they would not be covered under our workers’ compensation because that was not a place where they were authorized to be,” he said.

Reviewed and cleared by the Maine Municipal Association, no town in the pact will have to pay for aid received from mutual aid towns.

“It’s a give and take,” said Holmes. 

Generally, he said, towns get as much aid as they receive.  The only know exception, Holmes added, occurred with aid rendered between fire departments in Rumford and Mexico.

“Mexico literally went through their entire year’s budget in six months this year, going to help Rumford, because they get so many more calls,” said Holmes.

Holmes said this should not happen to Buckfield.  However, he did make note of one in of the aid agreement, which could prove beneficial to Buckfield residents, even if the town may occasionally give more than it gets.

Under the mutual aid agreement, a Buckfield firefighter is allowed to pass off incident command to a more experienced officer from another town.  That, said Holmes, could give the town access to more advanced training in a critical situation. 

Under the agreement, it would not be unusual to hear on the scanner that a fire chief from Paris, or Oxford had taken control of a fire scene in Buckfield, if its chief was unavailable.

Sidewalk rules

Buckfield Town Manager Glen Holmes has reportedly been working on a sidewalk ordinance, which he plans to present to the town’s ordinance committee at an as-yet unscheduled meeting, sometime this month.

“It will include a parking ban,” he promised, at a recent selectboard meeting.  “It will very clearly say that if you park on the sidewalk, you will be removed.”

Roads posted

If you want to get there from here, you better stick to the state routes through Buckfield, at least if you are in a truck.

Buckfield has permanently posted four roads — East Buckfield, Bear Pond, Paris Hill and North Hill — to heavy trucks with more than two axles.  Exempt from the ban are emergency vehicles, moving vans, school buses and delivery trucks, as well as trucks belonging to residents of the four roads, as well as current and future businesses.  Fines are set by the ordinance at $50 for a first offense and $100 for a second.

According to Town Manager Glen Holmes, the roads have been posted for years.  However, signs posted at either end of each road lacked bite, at least until the October passage of a road posting ordinance.  Selectmen are able to pass traffic ordinances without a public vote.  The creation of the ordinance will allow for easier prosecution of offenders, said Holmes.

"This is not a personal pet peeve with me,” said Diane Dunn, a North Hill resident who stumped for the postings.  “I am concerned that heavy truck traffic will damage our roads and increase cost to taxpayers."

The four posted roads are 9.81 miles long, combined, representing about 21 percent of all public roads in Buckfield.

Community counts in fire response

PARIS — Monday’s meeting of the Paris selectboard began and ended with thanks or local firefighters, who battled valiantly for four days against a raging blaze at the NEPW Logistics warehouse on Pine Street.

However, firefighters were quick to deflect that gratitude, pointing instead to the community reaction that helped make their work possible.

It wasn’t just local folks who turned out.  Firefighter spouses from as far away as Rumford and Farmington manned the firehouse kitchen alongside regular auxiliary members and planning board chairman Russ Case, turning out meals for hungry firefighters.

No complaints were heard from businesses shut down during the first day of the fire, when firefighters worked off Main Street hydrants, before switching over to draw water from the Little Androscoggin River.

Instead, many carted food over to the fire scene, including Maurice’s, Yanni’s House of Pizza, Dunkin’ Donuts and many others. 

“McDonald’s sent over just boxes and boxes of hamburgers,” said Deputy Chief John Longley.

Despite the halt in traffic, the Big Apple station at the corner of Main and Pine Streets acted as a warming station for firefighters.

“Basically, they kept the doors open just for us,” said Paris firefighter Darrell Rugg.

On top of that, workers from Elements Day Spa offered massages to weary firefighters, some of whom worked 20 hours without a break while Oxford sent over fresh socks to warm feet forced to trudge through water that ran to the knees at some parts of the NEPW warehouse, as crews dumped in water for days on end.

Oxford Hills Middle School, closed for two days by the fire, offered up its space as a command post, media center and bunkhouse.

And, with the operation necessarily running into the wee hours, the Oxford Hannaford opened its doors after hours to the fire service, as needed.

But perhaps most important at all, according to Paris Fire Chief Brad Frost, were the nameless folks who stepped in to lend a hand.  Just ordinary people off the street who brought coffee, passed out bottles of water, lent modal support, or simply held their tongues during a frustrating few days.

“I’ve really got to thank everyone, and I mean everyone in this community for their support,” said Frost.  “We really appreciate it.  I mean, I know, we had Market Square pretty well bunged up [with fire hoses and blocked traffic] for quite a while.”

“The thing is, we’ll never be able to thank everybody,” said Longley, “and even when we try, we knows that, unfortunately, we’ll miss someone.”

“There are some people who chipped in that, really, we’ll never know who they were,” said Rugg.

Frost agreed.  Having been so focused on command during the long ordeal, he said he was still learning of different ways people helped out.

“Frankly, I still don’t know about a lot of what went on, as far as the community kicking in,” said Frost, added, however, that he was glad for the support since it allowed him to concentrate on the work at hand.

Drew Gilman, who owns the NEPW warehouse, said Tuesday that he’s thrilled with both Frost’s on-scene leadership and the behind-the-scenes support of the community.

“It was just phenomenal on all angles,” he said.  “From the fire department, to the rescue workers, the auxiliary members, the Chamber of Commerce, the local businesses and even regular citizens, the public support was just incredible.

“We can’t say enough in terms of the help people in this  community have offered us, and are still offering us days after the fire was put out,” said Gilman.  “It’s very humbling.”

“What happened here has really restored my faith in people,” agreed Longley.  “I’m really very proud of my town.”

Cost of warehouse fire far-reaching

PARIS — It took nearly 100 hours, but by midday Sunday, the fire at the NEPW Logistics warehouse, on Pine Street, in Paris, was declared officially snuffed.

Now comes the hard part.

Paris Fire Chief Brad Frost says the four-day fire will prove costly to his department.  On Monday, he was still trying to calculate the cost, although some aspects were beginning to come into focus.

Although only two people joined Frost on scene in the first 10 minutes — including a driver and one firefighter not-yet certified to wear an air pack — all 29 people on the Paris fire roster eventually logged time at the Pine Street scene.

Some put in more than 60 hours.  A handful, including Frost and Deputy Chief John Longley put in 20-hour shifts before taking a break.

Although called volunteers, because they hold other full-time jobs, Paris firefighters actually are paid for their time spent on emergency calls and regular training hours.  The rate of pay runs from $10 to $12 an hour.

On Monday, Frost said last week’s warehouse fire will cost about $12,000 from his annual $70,000 budget for wages.

Darrell Rugg, who has assisted Frost with some of the department paperwork, says Paris will pay out more in wages for the four-day event than it usually spends in two months.

And the work doesn’t end there, Frost said.  Firefighters still have several days of cleanup ahead of them, not the least of which is returning equipment belonging to other towns and getting back items lost on scene — a hazard of running an operation involving 53 different towns.

Frost said he also depleted his diesel account, due to having to run his fire engines almost nonstop throughout the event.

Between wages, fuel and other costs not yet calculated, including food and beverage costs, Frost said over the weekend that it is likely he will deplete his budget before the end of the fiscal year, June 30.

If it comes to that, he said, Paris may have to hold a special town meeting to draw on its undesignated reserve accounts.

No jobs lost in warehouse fire, company will rebuild

PARIS — The owner of NEPW Logistics, which last week suffered one of the most dramatic and far-reaching fires in state history — involving nearly 200 firefighters from 53 towns over four days — says no workers will lose their jobs as a result of the devastation.

Drew Gilman, of Cape Elizabeth, is one of three owners of the warehousing and transportation company, which takes in pulp by rail from Canada and distributes it on demand, as needed, to paper mills across Maine. 

The company was founded as New England Public Warehouse in 1988, using a 187,000-square-foot building once occupied by the A. C. Lawrence tannery.  Since then, the facility has expanded to 233,000-square-feet and six additional locations. 

Gilman bought the company in 2002 and, the next year, changed its name to NEPW Logistics.  Despite the company’s growth, Gilman says Paris remains vital to its operations, thanks to a spur of the St. Lawrence and Atlantic rail line that can handle 11 rail cars at a time, 22 per day, each loaded to the brim with 500-pound squares of pulp the size of a hay bale.

Paper mills generally keep no more than a 30-day supply of pulp on hand at any one time.  The issue they face, Gilman says, is that product from the Canadian plants does not flow at a steady rate.  It comes out in spurts, necessitating the need to warehouse product.

That product he says, is easily worth “millions” of dollars. 

“In fact, even before the fire, what was in the building was more valuable than the building itself,” he says.

It’s too soon to put a dollar figure on the loss, says Gilman, who’s been sequestered away, nearly nonstop, with agents from for different insurance companies.

However, Gilman is clear on two points. 

First, despite early assumptions, his Paris employees were not put out of work by the fire.

“Our business goes 24/7 and everyone is still at work,” said Gilman, Tuesday.  “We are working full throttle.”

Seven office employees are now working out of NEPW’s Mechanic Falls site, where phone and internet line already have been transferred.  The 22 warehouse employees have been shifted to a variety of functions, from continuing work at new, leased locations, performing inventory checks to determine how much of the Paris material is salvageable, and giving tours to insurance reps.

“We’re definitely not laying anyone off,” says Gilman.  “I wouldn’t do that to people at this time of year, anyway.”

Gilman says that, in the short term, he has leased warehouse space in Oxford from John Schiavi and in Auburn from Safe Handling.  Product will be hauled from the rail lines using NEPW’s fleet of 40 tractor-trailor trucks, while Gilman continues the search for additional space.

“It can be hard to create 200,000-square feet of storage space all in one shot” says Gilman.

The second point Gilman stresses is that NEPW will remain a presence in Paris.  Because of the rail spur, the property itself has a high degree of value.  The only real question is, can the old tannery building be rebuilt, or should NEPW knock it down and make a fresh start.

“That’s really way up in the air, right now,” says Gilman.  “We’re going over things with insurers and inspectors and structural engineers to determine the best course of action.”

For now, Gilman says, the top priority is to keep product flowing, whatever the additional cost.  And that cost, he said, without putting a price tag on it, is “very expensive.”

The one saving grace, he says, is that a number of mills were on short-term shutdowns, meaning there is less demand for storage at the moment than there might ordinarily be this time of year.

But will a disruption in the supply chain create a ripple that might prolong those shutdowns.  No, says, Gilman.  That’s one reason why he’s scrambling to secure short-term warehouse space.

“I strongly believe that we will be able to bring in all the pulp that was scheduled to come in and, although it may cost more to truck it, we’ll get it our customers in a way that is as seamless as possible,” said Gilman.

Still, getting back up to speed and humming on all cylinders will be a long process, he said, which could take as long as six months to a year.

“Working in the paper industry, every day is challenge,” said Gilman.  “What gets me out of bed every morning is knowing that this is just one more challenge.  We’ll figure it out.”