JAY — It’s been a year of transition for former workers at Wausau Paper’s Otis Mill, and a time of acceptance that one of the oldest mills in Maine isn’t coming back.

When the Otis Mill was operating, it employed a tightknit mill family, offered good wages and better-than-average benefits. There was a confidence that comes from a solid history of contributing to household incomes and local communities since the mill opened in the 1880s.

But that confidence was shattered when the company closed its doors for good in June. Fewer than half of the 207 former millworkers have found jobs since.

Employees received severance packages based on the number of years they worked at the mill, but nearly half of that pay went to income taxes, leaving a lot of people without a financial cushion. Some workers were eligible for federal trade adjustment benefits, including money for retraining programs.

Ninety workers have found jobs, including three who are self-employed. Another 68 are seeking jobs, 35 are in training, two are disabled, 10 are retired and two have died.

Here are four of their stories:

Career options

Randy Doughty, 47, of Jay was among the last to lose his job, and is still looking for work.

Unlike the others, Doughty thought the mill
would hang on, he said. He worked there for 23 years. A licensed boilerman,
Doughty spent the past 11 years in the boiler room.

“They told us they were going to try one machine for a year and, if
that worked, they would keep it going,” Doughty said. “It came as a
surprise when they said we’d be done in May.”

Advances in technology and the skills needed to be employed today
changed dramatically during his time at the mill, he said. Since
leaving, he has taken advantage of the Wilton CareerCenter programs and
Livermore and Livermore Falls adult education classes.

“The computer age happened while we were at the mill,” Doughty said.
“I knew enough to do my job, but always had the manual to go back to.”

Since leaving the mill Doughty has learned how to use a computer and
how to put together a resume. With his experience as a stationary steam
operator, he hopes he will be hired somewhere.

He has submitted too many applications to count, he said, but since June has had only four interviews.

“When you get the call, ‘We’d like an interview,’ it’s almost a
natural high,” Doughty said. “And when you get there and you see eight
to 12 different people who want that job, it’s discouraging. I’ve been
applying for everything.”

“We planned ahead with the severance package to be able to live on
unemployment for six months, if necessary,” he said. “The six months is
over. We basically went from making $90,000 a year to about $30,000,
plus unemployment.

“I guess the worries increase week by week,” he said. “As you get
closer to the deadline when unemployment is going to stop and you’re
still job searching … I guess I look at the 15-week extension of
unemployment as the point when I would really get discouraged.”

The hardest part is telling your kids you can’t help them at this time, when something goes wrong or is needed, Doughty said.

“I still want to either be employed with a decent wage or look into
schooling that I can find,” Doughty said. “I’ve signed up for classes
and am leaning toward carpentry.”

That field shows a 4.8 percent growth over the past couple of years, he said.

He has also looked at the green energy field.

“I just don’t know how to find those jobs,” he said. He and his
wife, Laurie, have even talked about moving to get a job, but with the
housing market the way it is, he said, they wouldn’t get back what they
put into their house.

They have cut out unnecessary spending to help them through, he said.

“I’ve worked since I could push a lawnmower, mowing lawns, helping
the elderly, snow shoveling, and never in my life have I had to collect
unemployment,” Doughty said. “It’s almost sad that it is upbeat when
you go to the credit union to deposit your unemployment check and that
you see your fellow workers doing the same.

He thought the mill would be there until he retired, but now it’s closed, Doughty said.

“So here I am at 47 years old with
basically 20 employment years left — and jobless.”

Working again

A papermaker for 15 years, Clint Brooks, 54, of Jay considers
himself fortunate that he had an easier transition than most. He chose
not to pursue a teaching degree, he said, and instead fell back on the
meat-cutting skills he learned while owning his own business before he
worked at the mill.

Once the paper company announced layoffs, he took a job weekends
in a meat department at a store in Oxford County. From there, he was
offered the job of managing the meat department at Tranten’s, a
Farmington grocery store that opened in early 2009.

Working in the mill was a great experience, he said. “I wish I was
still doing it today.” But he is grateful for the
opportunity he has.

When the news came about the job cuts, Brooks felt “sort of kicked in the stomach,” he said.

But many workers knew deep down that the mill was facing serious
competitive disadvantages, including its age. They knew the mill
wouldn’t be around forever, he said.

“I wasn’t devastated,” he said. “I’m not surprised.”

Back to class

“The day I walked into the mill, I felt I would never retire from
this place,” said Chris Bonnevie, 49, of North Jay, who worked at the
mill for 14 years. “Not that I wouldn’t have stayed, it was just too
old.”

Like Brooks, Bonnevie said he wasn’t surprised by the
news of the mill closing. Employees knew it had been
losing money for a while, he said. “It was just a matter of time.”

Bonnevie said he was supposed to be laid off last December, “but I got the news a
few days before that I had to be held over to train a worker to do my
job.”

The news was upsetting, he said, not that he had to train his own
replacement, but because he had already looked into going to school and
those plans had to be put on hold.

He was laid off in February and missed the start of the first semester.

“It kind of hurt me,” Bonnevie said. “I wanted to go to work at
first. I was kind of up and down about going to school and then I
decided I should. After that, I thought it was the way to go. There was
nothing to be had out there.”

Now enrolled in Kennebec Valley Community College, Bonnevie is intent on becoming a respiratory therapist assistant.

“I originally thought about nursing, but the program is so full and hard to get into,” he said.

He now travels to Fairfield four days a week, sometimes five, and has lots of homework.

“I like it. It’s a lot of work, but I like going to school,” he said.
“My workload is fairly heavy. It’s a two-year program but in reality,
it will take about three.”

Having never been to college, he had to take prerequisite courses during the summer.

He began school in August, getting all of his core courses out of
the way. He is now on a waiting list to get into the respiratory
program.

“I’m going to do the best I absolutely can at it,” he said. “I don’t
see that I have a choice. The health field is the only thing left.”

Still looking

Among the last group of millworkers to lose his job, Randy Berry, 49, of Livermore, is searching for work.

A former state representative, Berry worked at the Otis Mill for
nearly 20 years, taking his first job there in 1982. He was laid off
later that year and went to work at International Paper until the 1987
strike. He was rehired at the Otis Mill in 1989.

For paper millworkers, a layoff is not an uncommon experience, Berry said.

His portfolio is about 2 inches thick, filled with his resume and
accomplishments, including training and proof of college courses he has
taken. The credentials haven’t helped him get a job in the stagnant
economy.

“I’ve tried to get away from manufacturing shift work,” he said. “With my background, I feel I should be able to move ahead.”

He has taken odd jobs over the years, pumped gas and worked in the apple orchard in freezing conditions.

For his next job, “I’d like to something I want to do,” he said.

“Working in the mill all those years, it really was not a satisfying
job,” he said. “I think that is why I did so much with the Fire Department and those things that were rewarding.”

Berry was Livermore’s fire chief and emergency manager for more than
a decade, and worked as the emergency coordinator at the mill.

“It has been depressing to feel like I’m not contributing to the household,” he said.

His applications for school have been accepted at the University of Maine at Farmington and Kennebec Valley Community College. He has been looking for jobs and constantly checking online opportunities.

“There are some things I don’t want to do, but at some point I may have to rethink that,” he said.

He and his wife have been living frugally. Berry cuts firewood off his own property.

“I’m not crying in my beer,” he said. “It is the national economy that is
struggling. I guess that’s why I’m still optimistic. I
never realized I identified myself so much with my job. I’ve been
brought up to be a contributor to the household. Though my wife’s 26
years of teaching and being at the top of the scale is a blessing for
us, I don’t feel right living off her salary.”

Clint Brooks stocks the meat section of Tranten’s in Farmington. Brooks was an employee of the Otis Paper Mill in Jay until they closed their doors recently. Luckily, Brooks had experience as a meat cutter and was able to find a new job quickly.

Clint Brooks says that he misses the overtime at the Otis Paper Mill, but really enjoys his new job at meat department manager at Tranten’s in Farmington.

Former Wausau mill worker Randy Berry and his wife Diane at their home in Livermore.
The Turkish smoking room.

Chris Bonnevie works on his algebra homework in Jay recently. Bonnevie enrolled at Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield after the paper mill he worked at for 14 years closed down. “It’s a full-time job. It’s all I do,” Bonnevie said of going back to college.

Chris Bonnevie gets a note from his algebra teacher.

Randy Doughty, 47, of Jay, is still searching for a job after losing his at Wausau Paper’s Otis Mill in Jay in June. If a job isn’t found, he is leaning toward going to school for carpentry.

Randy Doughty, 47, of Jay, is still searching for a job after losing his at Wausau Paper’s Otis Mill in Jay in June.

Richard Ciarcia, left of Livermore and Scott Fetterhoff of Jay joke around Saturday night at the veterans hall in Jay. In 2009 Wausau’s Otis Mill closed and all 207 of the mill’s workers lost their jobs. The workers still gathered Saturday night to celebrate their traditional holiday party. So far about half of the workers who lost their jobs have found re-employment, others have either returned to school or are still looking for work.