The news for Berlin is grim as it has been for decades.
This Berlin is in the beautiful north country of New Hampshire, a wonderful place to play and retire but a terrible place to find a job.
Could the Great Recession hurt an economy that has been in a depression as long as younger folk can remember?
The answer is an unequivocal yes.
CONCORD – The company running the last surviving paper mill in northern New Hampshire said Tuesday it has terminated its agreement to sell the business and plans to shut down next month after the purchaser couldn’t secure sufficient financing...
Fraser Papers said in a statement that it plans to shut down the Gorham mill, which employs 240 workers
One wag suggested that if the company built dormitories for single workers on the parking lot and paid starvation wages to single men they might be able to compete with China.
An industrial town with no industry is in a rather bad fix.
There is however a rare bit of good news from a long decaying paper mill upriver:
Site approval for 70MW New Hampshire biomass project
..Berlin Mayor Paul Grenier said the project would provide jobs for the region and tax revenues for the city.
"I think the Laidlaw news is fantastic for Berlin," he said, stating that the site for the plant was an "eyesore"...
I can affirm the eyesore thingy. My eyes are still sore from the sight
of the site. Maybe the adjacent playground with swings and slide did the job. Gawd I hate that though surely respecting those trying to ameliorate a terrible situation.
Almost surely meaningless now was a promise to provide hot water to the closing Fraser paper mill through miles of piping already in place but there is other news:
There has been talk of providing heat for buildings and even for loose talk about a casino. I didn't see any mention of heat for prisons, the sole remaining growth industry in Berlin.
I swiped the "cascading" in the title from a lengthy history of multiple use of geothermal brines that is only now beginning to get long neglected attention in this country.
Geothermal is clearly superior for the purpose because it is independent of the economy, weather, fuel prices, etc. but biomass is a more neglected and even hated green energy resource.
Best, Terry