BANGOR, Maine (AP) – Bankrupt Eastern Pulp and Paper Corp. has tentatively secured a loan that will allow scheduled maintenance to begin next week.

After more than three weeks of trying, a federal bankruptcy judge this week received the terms of a $2.5 million loan that is needed to finance routine annual maintenance at Eastern Pulp’s two mills in Lincoln and Brewer.

Without the infusion of new capital, the company might have been forced to shut down its two mills next week. All parties agreed to the terms of the loan, which awaited the signature of Judge James B. Haines Jr.

The scheduled maintenance, which is supposed to start next Monday, is required to renew operating licenses, including some that expire Sunday night.

Without the licenses, the company would not be able to operate its mills or secure required insurance on its machinery and other equipment.

Eastern Pulp filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2000. The company operates Lincoln Pulp and Paper in Lincoln, which employs 482 people, and Eastern Fine Paper Co. in Brewer, which employs 243 people.

The bills have been accumulating since then. The company lists debts in bankruptcy court of more than $10 million.

The creditors, including Cianbro Corp. of Pittsfield, Congress Financial Corp., which already is owed $27 million by Eastern Pulp, and the unsecured creditors of the papermaker, had been fighting the original terms of the loan for weeks.

All parties ultimately signed off on the deal, which calls for Corsair to loan Eastern Pulp up to $2.5 million at 15.45 percent interest plus a $75,000 fee that is payable at the closing of the loan.

Robert Keach, the unsecured creditors’ attorney, said negotiations with the company had been progressing.

“We have made sufficient enough progress for us to hold our nose and allow (this loan) to happen,” he said.

AP-ES-08-26-03 1314EDT