Idled Deinked Pulp Mill Nears Possible Reopening

Jackson County, Indiana should learn before the end of this month if a Florida papermaker plans to reopen a Brownstown recycling pulp mill, which was closed more than two years ago.

“The closing is this week in Indianapolis,” Jim Plump said after a special Jackson County Council meeting on Oct. 6th night at the courthouse in Brownstown. The purpose to the meeting was to put the finishing touches on paperwork eliminating tax penalties on unpaid real estate taxes for the Kieffer Paper and Pulp Mills, which is being purchased by Unicell Paper Mills Inc. through a bankruptcy sale approved by a federal judge in New Albany.

Plump, executive director of the Jackson County Industrial Development Corp., said the deal to eliminate the $41,433.17 in tax penalties still faces approval from the state department of local government finance.

“We’re working with the Indiana Department of Commerce on some incentives as well,” Plump said. Those incentives might include training dollars.

If Unicell decides to reopen the Kieffer Pulp Mill plant, the company may invest as much as $25 million and might hire as many as 50 people. The plant would not be fully operational until the fourth quarter of 2005. Seymour (Indiana) Daily Tribune