ORRINGTON, Maine — The Penobscot Energy Recovery Company (PERC) has new buyers after it was sold for $1.2 million during the company's third auction Tuesday, Nov. 15.
Chris and Mark Faith Holdings, which is owned by Mark Boswell and Bill Richardson, made the final bid, purchasing the renewable waste company. The company has southern roots, with Boswell being from Florida and Richardson from Little Rock, Arkansas.
Plant manager Henry Lang said the previous sale from the auction that took place on Nov. 2 fell through after the winning bidder, Delta Thermo Energy, failed to make a 10-percent payment before the five-day post auction deadline. Delta Thermo Energy's fault on the first payment put PERC back up for bidding.
The new buyers, Boswell and Richardson, said they are unsure when they will start to accept waste again, but they said they are thankful for the support they have received from employees and from the community throughout the process.
"Any place you go with any kind of technology in waste energy, you're going to need the support of the county, the state and everything else, and we feel like we have that here," Boswell said.
Boswell said the city and town manager Chris Backman have consistently pushed to make sure PERC secured a buyer.
Backman said there was originally a deadline that would force PERC to foreclose if the company did not secure a buyer and pay its overdue real estate and personal property taxes by November 22. The town council voted to delay the deadline, pushing it back one year.
Backman said he feels that pushing the tax payment deadline back not only gave PERC more time to secure a buyer, but he said he believes it also took pressure off of the buyer since they don't have to pay the taxes on the purchase until next year. Backman said the taxes will still accrue interest, but he said he hopes that deadline adjustment with help further seal the deal.
Boswell said Chris and Mark Faith Holdings owns waste facilities in Arkansas, Kentucky, Florida, and Missouri, but there is a sense of compassion and comradery in Maine that he rarely sees in other places.
"Coming here three different times, you get to meet them, and you get to have them show you around the plant and you just get to their work ethic," Boswell said. "The fact that some of them are furloughed they're always helpful and always wanting to please everybody and help out in every way they can. It just speaks a lot of the city and the plant."
Boswell said their first priority is to get salaried and part-time workers back on schedule within eight weeks. Lang said his staff has been holding on by a thread.
Lang said his part-time workers are furloughed, and he had to extend the furlough through the end of November. He said most of those workers are relying on unemployment. Salaried workers aren't receiving their full pay being that their work hours have been reduced from 40 hours per week to 24.
"People are stressed," Lang said. "They have seen some of this coming they have put a little bit of money away. Some of them are starting to look for other employment. That is one of my real fears. "
Lang said he's hoping his staff can continue to hold out until things are fully up and running. Boswell said he is working with Lang to ensure the best outcome for all full-time and furloughed part-time employees who want to continue working at the facility.
"We really enjoy the employees here and how much they have done for the plant and what they continue to do," Boswell said. "And we feel like we can put this back in working order and create those jobs back again."
Boswell said he will start to weatherize and heat the plan immediately to prevent equipment damage caused by the cold.
Lang said because PERC is a steam and water cycle plant, most of the equipment and their components contain water. Lang said its nearly impossible to drain the equipment without using a source of heat to evaporate the water from inside the piping of various equipment at the plant.
Boswell said once he and his co-owner Richardson restore the plant back to its regular workflow, they will customize the plant to be compatible with its unique technology called recycling solutions technology (RST).
The RST creates a recycling method that eliminates front-end processing and separation, Boswell said. He said the materials go through a process that takes all the organics and converts them into gas that is used to make electricity, making everything 100 percent recyclable.
"Everything that comes out the back is 100 percent recyclable, recyclable all the way down to a paperclip," Boswell said.
Boswell said he is transitioning the waste energy plant in Florida, which was an old biomass plant, and also the new plant in Arkansas, which was originally a green field, making both plants compatible with the RST as well. He said plants are also in the works internationally, including Ghana, Vietnam, and India.
"The biggest thing is for our energy is to not let these plants fall," Boswell said. "When these plants collapse then that hurts our industry in the waste energy business. We don't want to see that."
PERC stopped accepting waste at the end of September. Boswell said he is not sure when they will be back on track to begin accepting waste again, but he plans to strive for the goaled eight-week period.