OLD TOWN (AP) – At least four companies will move into the idled Georgia-Pacific paper mill, creating 1,000 jobs but ending paper-making in a town where the industry has been a mainstay for more than a century.

Gov. John Baldacci, who announced the mill’s transition Monday, said it fits into the state’s move toward energy diversification and independence.

“The outlook for the Old Town mill site is bright,” the governor said during a formal announcement at the site, about 10 miles north of Bangor.

The companies that plan to move into the site include Tamarack Energy, a developer of renewable energy; Hallowell International LLC, a maker of home heating and cooling products; and Lamtec Inc., a manufacturer of pressure sensitive labels. All three were at Monday’s announcement.

Also, a group of private investors under the company name Red Shield will run the mill’s biomass boiler to produce electricity. The company’s long-term plan is to use the boiler to make ethanol, a substitute for MTBE used in gasoline.

“We are in discussions with a couple of other (companies), but we just haven’t signed them up yet,” state economic development Commissioner Jack Cashman said after Monday’s announcement. While Cashman would not identify the other companies, he said they are involved in manufacturing.

Georgia-Pacific announced last March it would be closing the mill, putting more than 400 people out of work. Four wood chip mills in Costigan, Milo, Portage and Houlton that supplied the mill also were closed.

Georgia-Pacific said at the time of its announcement it would help the state to find a buyer for the mill. The Baldacci administration has been closely involved in efforts to bring new business activity to the site.

Cashman, who is from Old Town, said Monday that the companies moving into the mill have agreed to give preferential consideration for hiring to the displaced paper workers.

He said the mill had “a very productive work force.”

Baldacci said the mill’s new uses tie in with research being done at the University of Maine and the state’s goal of energy independence. Power generated on site will be sold to other industries that will also locate at the mill site, and those companies will also add manufacturing jobs within this site.

“This marks the first time a closed pulp and paper mill in Maine has been reused for new state-of-the-art production that will transition employment opportunities, create new industry and stabilize the employment and tax base of the community,” Baldacci said.

The state has said it will provide training money for the displaced mill workers, and Baldacci said the state will work with the new companies to get people back to work as soon as possible.