FARMINGTON – Two local companies began work at the Poland Spring bottling plant site Wednesday, officially starting a building project that has been in the works for years.

Eight E.L. Vining and Son employees from Farmington started putting in a temporary road and parking lot in a field off to one side of the old Flower farm, while workers from Cousineau Inc. of Wilton started cutting down trees in the adjacent forest.

It’s been a long time coming. Poland Spring Water Co., a subsidiary of Nestle Waters North America, spent more than two years searching out a site for its newest bottling plant then securing permits needed to build it.

The final permit, from the state Department of Environmental Protection, came through last Thursday night, Nestle’s natural resources manager, Tom Brennan, said Wednesday. The Kingfield Planning Board gave its approval for the project in October.

Wednesday’s start puts the project about a month behind schedule, Brennan said.

While the Kingfield project’s two lead managers – Poland Spring’s Andy Bishop and design-build team project manager Ed Jones of Cianbro Corporation – are not locals, the subcontractors working under them for the preliminary work are all from nearby.

Farmington’s E.L. Vining is the plant site contractor, Bishop said Wednesday, and Kingfield’s Jordan Lumber is site contractor for the pipeline and springs.

“Right now the contractors are largely from (this area),” Bishop said. “We haven’t selected the subcontractors for the actual building yet.”

Realistically, work on the site will probably have to stop sometime in January, Jones said, and won’t get started again until April or so. “This is a good time to start (excavating),” he said, “because of the frost in the ground.”

When work is going full swing, about 150 people will probably be on-site, Jones said. The plant building will probably be complete by mid-summer 2007.

When work on the $60 million plant resumes in the spring, Bishop, future Plant Manager Terry Coffin, and any subcontractors hired from far afield will move to the Kingfield area, Bishop said.

“(Coffin) will be working with me on the building construction, but also working toward hiring a staff and preparing for operation,” he said.

It feels good for a local company to be working on a project that will eventually employ lots of locals, E.L. Vining project manager Steve Hunt said. “Makes you feel good, (and) it keeps our employees working as well,” he said.

Even though she’s not planning on applying to work at the plant when it’s up and running, Grand Central Station employee Rhonda Coffren said she can’t wait for the Poland Spring plant to open. “There’s so many people in this community that need jobs,” she said.