Stephen Chute, an attorney from Rumford, and businessman Marshall Swain of Rangeley Plantation presented a plan to selectmen on Tuesday to produce wood pellets for the burgeoning pellet stove market. They have partnered with DG Energy Solutions, LLC, of San Diego, Calif., and plan to complete the purchase of the Forster plant to produce up to 80,000 tons of hardwood pellet fuel each year.
"We'll run 25 trucks a day, and we'll probably run 24 hours a day, so I want to be upfront about the extra noise and traffic in town," Chute said.
Current owners, Jeffrey and Lucinda Allen, have had the mill for sale for nearly three years. Chute and Swain will purchase 8 acres with the mill, but did not disclose a final sale price.
The company would purchase 150,000 tons of hardwood each year from wood suppliers rather than rely on leftovers, or residuals, from sawmills. The mill will strip bark from the logs to use as fuel in the boiler to generate electricity to power the plant.
Bulk loads and smaller 40-pound bags of pellets will be marketed by a distributor in Boston.
"We'll market to customers such as municipalities and school systems," Chute said. Retail hardware stores have been carrying the bags of dog-kibble sized chunks of wood and stove retailers have been marketing aggressively to consumers concerned about the rising price of oil.
Pellets will be dried in a process that removes water from the finished product.
The mill will require retrofitting for venting and a conveyer belt system to carry the pellets into a bagging system for shipment.
"We'll be bringing our vendors and principals from the company to tour the mill on Friday," Chute said. "We'll be using energy credits to offset our energy costs, and we'll have about 30 jobs we'll need to fill to operate the plant."
Selectmen and the water board of trustees will meet with the owners to learn more about the schedule of development plans over the next few months. Swain said they will order machinery in August, receive funding from the San Diego parent company in September and modify the building in October. In January 2008, they plan to start accumulating their hardwood inventory and begin testing the production process in March. With no interruptions in scheduling, the plant could begin producing wood pellets in May.
"We've presold our product five years in advance," Chute said. "We're putting about $6.5 million into this project."
International Forest Products in Boston will market the pellets to Lowes and Home Depot. The mill will not employ a sales force.
