This morning at 7 a.m., a sound not heard in years greeted Tyroners.
The whistle at the American Eagle Paper Mill blew for the first time since the mill reopened one year ago as of yesterday.
“I’ve had hundreds of people ask me as to when the whistle would blow again,” said the mill’s John Ferner. “We decided to start blowing the whistle today as we begin our second year of production.”
Ferner said for now the whistle will blow three times a day at 7 a.m., noon and 4 p.m.
It was last year at this time that Tyroners saw smoke blowing from the paper mill for the first time since 2001. However, the whistle had not blown until today.
The plant had been closed until mid-November of last year and was finally able to reopen after Tyrone Borough, Blair County Development Corporation and Team Ten LLC came to an agreement regarding sewage discharge capacity and assignability.
An arrangement had BCDC being the actual owner of the company with Team Ten operating the plant until it could purchase it outright from the owners.
That move was made so the project could qualify for government funding.
The dispute over sewage capacity and assignabilty had gone on for three months last year before being settled in early November.
On Nov. 14, 2003, Team Ten LLC President John Ferner announced the first paper rolled through the number four machine early that day.
Today, Ferner told The Daily Herald, “The first year was successful.”
He said the first part of the year had some trials and tribulations. He said markets were “absolutely terrible,” but since then things have been much better. Ferner said both machines are running seven days a week and have been since mid-March. He also said the company has orders through the end of the year.
Ferner said the company has gone from 170 employees to 194 full-time and 12 part-time workers.
Officials of Team Ten, a group of 12 local businessmen and former managers of the closed mill, announced plans to reopen the mill in July of last year. The mill had last been in operation in October of 2001 when MeadWestvaco closed operations leaving 265 workers unemployed.
The mill once employed about 1,000 workers before former owners moved major operations to Kentucky back in 1970. The workforce was cut to 300 and almost closed at that time.
