Deal with NewPage puts tire recycler closer to start up

Hank Murphy

      The City of Niagara last week moved a step closer to taking control of 47.1 acres and two buildings at the Niagara Mill, a development that should pave the way for a new company to begin operations at the former paper manufacturing site.

The City Council accepted a certified survey map that includes the mill’s pressurized ground wood facility and the wood room, Mayor George Bousley said Monday. A deed will be fashioned to fit the property description. When the city receives the deed, it will issue a lease to American Tire and Recycling Inc., a company poised to become the first new business at the site of the shuttered NewPage paper mill.

In June, Marinette County agreed to lend American Tire & Recycling $200,000 from its revolving loan fund to get the recycling operation off the ground. The company is expected to employ 30 to 60 workers.

Originally, the city and NewPage were expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the acreage and buildings at the mill. The two sides, however, could not agree on the language.

“They tried to throw all kinds of wrinkles at us,” Bousley said, so a simple deed seemed to be the best approach. The property conveyance from NewPage to the city dovetails with an adaptive re-use plan that NewPage has agreed to, Bousley said.

NewPage Corp. closed the Niagara Mill, which had employed 319 people, in July 2008.  Since that time, the property has been eyed for many potential uses.

In early September, NewPage sent the city of Niagara a check for $100,000 for economic development. The payment is expected to be the first of five such disbursements.