MILLINOCKET, Maine — Among the empty storefronts on once-bustling Penobscot Avenue, longtime resident Jean McLean stood in her art gallery, the sole employee left at a business that once had three. ADVERTISING MILLINOCKET, Maine — Among the empty storefronts on
MILLINOCKET, Maine — Among the empty storefronts on once-bustling Penobscot Avenue, longtime resident Jean McLean stood in her art gallery, the sole employee left at a business that once had three.
“Right now, it’s pretty dead,” McLean said, looking at the sunlit mountains of northern Maine. “All the young people left to find work.”
This rural region is long on natural beauty and short on jobs after the back-to-back closings of paper mills that decimated the economy, sending young people fleeing, creating sky-high unemployment and shrinking property values.
Yet many residents have opposed a significant proposal aimed at helping: the new Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, created this week by President Barack Obama. Supporters have said the project could bring 450 jobs in a sparsely populated region where unemployment has been as high as 20 percent in recent years.
McLean and other supporters hope that steadfast critics, who warn federal government intrusion will threaten the economy and a heritage built on free recreational access to land, come around. Local politicians worry the monument could mean more regulations to dissuade manufacturers from coming to town.
But the paper mills and $30-an-hour jobs, McLean said, are never coming back. The Millinocket paper mill was demolished last year, and the East Millinocket mill closed in 2014 following $40 million in taxpayer-backed financing.
“We have to make what’s left of our surroundings and put them to use, make them desirable,” McLean said. “Once they see what happens with it, they’ll accept it.”
