LIVERMORE FALLS – A Wausau Paper community response team set several dates Wednesday to provide resource opportunities to Otis Mill workers who will lose their jobs by the end of the year.

More than 30 members of the team gathered at Murray Hall to give updates on their progress with their assigned tasks.

Scheduled events

It was decided a resource fair for employees and spouses will be held from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., with possible extension to 10 p.m., on Tuesday, Dec. 2, at the mill.

The Veterans Administration plans to hold a session to discuss available benefits for veterans and their families from 6 to 8 p.m. Nov. 17 at Murray Hall, if available.

A small business workshop for those interested in starting a business is scheduled on Thursday, Jan. 8, with a snow date Jan. 15, a time and place to be announced.

Trade petition

A trade petition on behalf of the company is expected to be submitted by the end of the week and a National Emergency Grant application is nearly ready to be submitted.

It will take up to 45 days for the trade petition to be either accepted or denied by the federal government. Congressional delegation has pledged to submit letters of support for the initiatives that could provide additional resources, including extended unemployment benefits and extra training dollars, additional health care services, and peer support to help workers through the process.

The paper company that straddles the Jay/Livermore Falls line announced in August that it would shut down its No. 10 paper machine permanently by Dec. 31 putting about 150 of its 235 employees out of work.

Shutdown timeline

Local United Steelworkers Union President Kim LaVoie updated the response team on the shutdown timeline. As they understand it, he said, the last day for the paper machine to run will be Dec. 21. The last pay for those workers will fall on Christmas week, severance pay is expected to be issued Jan. 2, and then workers wait a week before they apply for unemployment, he said.

Kathe Bolster, a representative of the Maine Department of Labor Rapid Response Team, said four sessions were held at the mill and they were able to reach about 130 workers.

They touched on unemployment benefits, health care and retraining options.

Though they didn’t reach everyone, she said, it was a pretty good response.

This is just the start, the tip of the iceberg, Bolster said.

Sign up for benefits

Bolster and Patty Ladd, director of the Wilton CareerCenter, both stressed that if trade adjustment opportunities are received, they are time sensitive and affected workers, and even other workers at the company should apply to keep the option available to them.

“If you haven’t signed up within the time frame, you don’t get the benefit,” Bolster said.

Even if they have a job, they should sign up, Ladd stressed.

Ladd also said testing was set up for workers through Franklin County and SAD 36 adult education programs. They will offer a career assessment replacement, a state survey, in November.

Both directors of the programs, Ray Therrien and Carrie Castonguay, respectively, plan to identify workers’ needs and address them.

One concern of workers they heard, Therrien said, is gaining the skills to navigate the technology of the 21st Century.

Learning center

The SAD 36 learning center on Cedar Street in Livermore Falls is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, Castonguay said. Interested workers should come in to sign up for college courses or available refresher courses at both centers. There is also literacy help available.

Some employees have already contacted Franklin Community Health Network about access to health services, representative Charlie Woodcock said. The organization’s Health Access program provides services on a sliding fee depending on income levels, and it has a prescription medication program that has provided $500,000 in free prescriptions over 18 months, she said.