With Centuries-Old Ohio Paper Mill Set To Close, Locals Hope For A Miracle

Authored by Jeff Louderback via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Judy Sowers is the matriarch of a family that has seen generations work at “the Mead,” which is what the paper mill in Chillicothe is known as by many locals.

On May 8, Sowers gathered around a kitchen table with two of her daughters, her brother, and her son-in-law in a house across the street from the mill and its red-and-white striped tower.

Their conversation was on a topic that is on the minds of residents, business owners, and local officials in this community of 21,895 in the Appalachian foothills of southern Ohio.

Pixelle Specialty Solutions—and its parent, private equity firm H.I.G. Capital—announced on April 15 that it would be shutting down its paper mill in Chillicothe.

The company said the closure was necessary as part of its effort to “align its operation footprint with long-term business objectives.”

Jobs are on the line for around 830 workers. The company originally intended to shut down the mill in phases over the weeks that followed the announcement.

The decision was delayed after freshman Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) secured a commitment from H.I.G. Capital, which bought the mill in 2022, to pause the facility’s closure until the end of the year.

Chillicothe is known as the “Paper City.” The mill was opened in 1812.

Sowers’s grandparents worked at the Mead. So did John Angus Sr., Sowers’s father. Several other family members have spent their careers at the mill.

“If you didn’t work there, you had family work there, or you knew someone who worked there. Kids grow up hearing stories from generations of family members about working at the mill,” Sowers, 74, said.

John Angus Jr., Sowers’s brother, recalled his 42-year career that stretched from his early 20s to retirement age.

“It took me five years to get on there after I graduated from high school. At the time, it was a job many people wanted to have if they wanted to stay here,” John Angus Jr. told The Epoch Times.

“I worked shift work for almost 43 years, so I missed a lot of stuff with the family, but it put bread and butter on the table. It would be a shame to see it close.”

Chillicothe became the first capital of the Northwest Territory in 1800 and Ohio’s first capital in 1803.

Chillicothe’s downtown has been revitalized over the past decade and serves as the centerpiece of the city, featuring an ambience reminiscent of a Norman Rockwell painting.

Restaurants, antique shops, coffeehouses, taverns, and Grandpa Joe’s Candy Shop occupy historic buildings reflecting an architecture from a bygone era.

With its downtown and attractions such as the amphitheater, where an outdoor drama about Shawnee Indian Chief Tecumseh still plays every summer, Chillicothe draws outside visitors.

Most of the businesses rely on local traffic, though, provided by major employers such as Adena Regional Medical Center, two state prisons, a VA Medical Center, a Kenworth semi-truck manufacturing plant, and the mill.

Trent Fannin and his wife opened Rost Coffee in downtown Chillicothe in 2016. The shop buzzes with traffic from mill workers, employees from downtown businesses, and high school and college students.

“Downtown Chillicothe has a lively pulse that downtowns in most towns across southern Ohio don’t have. It’s a destination, and hopefully, we don’t find out the impact of losing the mill. We’re concerned, but hopeful,” Fannin said.

Residents and local and state legislators are hopeful that Pixelle finds a way to keep the mill open long term or sell it to a company committed to making a long-term commitment to Chillicothe.

It was purchased by Col. Daniel Mead of Dayton, around 75 miles northwest of Chillicothe, in 1890. The Mead was one of the largest paper manufacturers in the country for more than 100 years.

In 2002, the Mead merged with Westvaco in a $3 billion stock transaction.

The headquarters of MeadWestvaco was relocated from Dayton to Connecticut, and then to Richmond, Virginia.

After learning about the plan to shutter the mill, Moreno wrote a letter to H.I.G. CEO Sami Mnaymneh, charging the executive with “selfish business decisions and corporate greed.”

“H.I.G. Capital is an investment firm with $69 billion of equity capital under management, riddled with Wall Street executives, including Mr. Mnaymneh, a billionaire five times over and one of the wealthiest people in the world,” Moreno wrote.

The firm’s business model is “to suck the proverbial blood out of companies it acquires until the companies declare bankruptcy, leaving the employees and communities it decimates behind,” Moreno said, pointing to the outcomes of some of the other transactions the private equity firm has made.

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