RUMFORD – It’s a cavernous, century-old mill punctuated by 20-foot high, foot-thick beams, wide floorboards and brick walls. Fancy brickwork decorates the 12-over-12 windows.

It’s filled with potential.

It’s also filled with workmen and more than a hint of what the second floor will look like when offices, training areas and small businesses begin moving in next spring.

This is the No. 2 building, once owned by MeadWestvaco Corp., and it’s the soon-to-be River Valley Technology Center.

For more than six months, laborers, window specialists, asbestos removers and others with unique skills have been transforming the historic old mill into a modern facility, which will offer opportunities for today’s technology. And although it will be modern, it will have character.

The brickwork will be retained, the beams and other wooden parts will be stripped and left natural.

“We are interested in the appearance of the building. We want it to look nice, professional, crisp,” said Norman MacIntyre, director of the center, as he walked from beam to beam, pointing out where the River Valley Growth Council offices will be, the conference room, the lobby and space after space for fledgling businesses.

“We’re right on schedule,” he said.

At work renovating the second floor and installing the necessary infrastructure, and doing structural work for the first, third and fourth floors for future development are workers from CCB Inc. of Westbrook. The company is following a redevelopment plan designed by Platz Associates of Auburn, the same company responsible for the development of the former Bates Mill complex.

Each of the floors has 16,000-square-feet of space.

A corncob possibility

MacIntyre and CCB project superintendent Rob Porter discussed the best way to remove old paint from the brick and wood from a corner of the second floor. Sanding may be too rough. Crushed walnuts shells, too expensive. Perhaps ground-up corncobs. This, they said, is cheaper but might provide the desired results – smooth removal of the paint without harming the natural grain of the wood and without roughing up the bricks.

Near the center of the long, cavernous room a huge hole has been cut out of the floor. Here, an elevator for both people and freight is being installed. The hole reaches down to the first floor and will extend into the fourth. A second elevator, at the other end of the room, has already been installed.

Each of the 40 or so 12-over-12 windows will soon be restored to their unique beauty by a window specialist out of Massachusetts.

Work is also being done at building No. 1, attached to No. 2. It’s here, in the smaller brick building that the River Valley Technology Center and River Valley Chamber of Commerce offices will be established, as well as a reception area to serve the entire complex.

MacIntyre expects his office complex will be ready for moving into sometime in April. The rest of the project is expected to be completed by mid-June.

Eventually, an open house

When that happens, a community open house will be held to introduce the long-anticipated economic stimulus project.

MacIntyre said tentative plans call for moving the CareerCenter and the local office of the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments into the tech center, as well, from their current sites on River and Congress streets.

The mill hasn’t been used for much except storage for at least 30 or 40 years, said MacIntyre. But the owners of the paper company didn’t abandon it. They kept the sprinkler system and did some maintenance. MeadWestvaco deeded the mill to the Growth Council a few months ago.

Funding for the nearly $3 million project comes from the federal Economic Development Administration, Community Development Block Grants and the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development.

When complete, it will be one of seven technology centers around the state that will focus on such fields as aquaculture, composite woods and forestry. The River Valley center will focus on manufacturing.

eadams@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link