Vermont's economically-depressed Northeast Kingdom stands to gain new jobs, with help from a federal loan guarantee. A Pennsylvania-based investor plans to convert the former Ethan Allen Furniture plant in Island Pond to make wood pellets. But the plan faces a potential obstacle.
Long before the economic meltdown, Vermont's Northeast Kingdom was losing jobs by the hundreds. The closing of the troubled Ethan Allen Furniture plant was one of the last straws. But now, the old plant may get a new lease on life as plans are in the works to locate a wood pellet plant here.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, during his appearance in Vermont this weekend, announced a $9 million Rural Development loan guarantee for the project. "Many of those expected to be hired are folks who used to work at the Ethan Allen facility," he noted. "And we're gong to work with Vermont's biomass energy wood pellet plant to give the Northeast Kingdom the lift that they need for recovery."
The investor says his group already bought the now-vacant plant property and is prepared to start converting it for wood pellets by this spring. Fran Azur of Azur Enterprises said, "We've determined we may provide an impact of upwards of 160 indirect and direct jobs to the region, which I think is very vital to the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont at a very needy time. There's certainly high levels of unemployment."
But there's a problem. The wood pellet operation needs a lumber yard to hold the logs. Some local residents oppose the sale of nearby land that includes the state-owned but undeveloped Island Pond airport. Sen. Vince Illuzzi (R-Essex-Orleans) told Channel 3, "At at a public hearing last Thursday night concerning the use of the Island Pond airport, state airport grass strip, did not go over very well. The proponent of the project did not do a very good job explaining it to the community."
Without the log yard, the project can't move forward. Meanwhile, across the state line in Groveton New Hampshire, officials are eager to attract the wood pellet operation to a paper mill that shut down four years ago. With jobs scarce across the region, everyone is watching the wood pellet plant project closely -- a project that could move ahead with the help of the federal Rural Development loan guarantee.
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