Saturday, August 16, 2008
A long
line of Cianbro employees, all wearing blue Cianbro shirts and white
hard hats, stood in the sun Friday listening to a string of speakers
tell them that they are the reason the new Eastern Manufacturing
Facility already is a success.
The
employees stood in front of the administration building while
several hundred people sat in folding chairs under a large white
tent during the facility’s grand opening ceremony.
"It’s
all about the people," said Peter Vigue, Cianbro president and CEO.
Vigue
led a list of speakers that included Gov. John Baldacci; Sen. Susan
Collins; Rep. Michael Michaud; Gail Kelly, community leader and
state director for Sen. Olympia Snowe; Mayor Manley DeBeck; David
Lloyd, brownfields program director for the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency; and William B. Welte, Motiva CEO and president.
"What
I’m going to do is address the important people first, and that’s
the employees of Cianbro," Welte said, pointing to the workers and
getting a round of applause from the crowd.
Motiva
hired Pittsfield-based Cianbro Corp. to build 53 refinery modules
for the Motiva Port Arthur Refinery, which is in the middle of a $7
billion expansion that will make the Texas facility the largest
crude oil processing plant in North America.
"You are
a big part of that project," Welte said, adding that the expansion
is the largest capital project ever undertaken in Texas.
In order
to build the refinery modules — self-standing building skeletons
filled with pipe — Cianbro needed to find a place with deepwater
access that would accommodate barges that will be used to ship the
structures to the Gulf of Mexico.
Back in
November, Cianbro chose the site of the shuttered Eastern Fine Paper
Co. mill, which closed in January 2004, and spent the last 10 months
changing the abandoned mill site into a place with 500 well-paying
jobs.
At
first, leaders of Motiva, which has headquarters in Houston, needed
convincing, Vigue said.
"What?
Maine? Ice. Cold. And if that doesn’t get you, the bears will," he
said, joking about how Motiva officials reacted when he suggested
Brewer for the project.
But,
Vigue said, what they didn’t understand then, but do now, is the
determination of Maine workers.
"We have
a client who believed in us, who trusted us," he said while giving a
tour of the facility. Now they understand that "we have the finest
work force in the world."
In
addition to the workers, Brewer City Manager Steve Bost, and D’arcy
Main-Boyington, economic development director, and Tanya Pereira,
economic specialist, dubbed "the dynamic duo," also received
accolades.
Vigue
thanked the 22 federal, state and local agencies that had a hand in
the project and Maine congressional leaders who supported the
project and helped procure cleanup and transportation funds.
"This is
about teamwork at its best in Maine," Vigue said.
To thank
Motiva for hiring Cianbro, Baldacci gave Welte a key to the state,
the first ever issued.
For at
least two former Eastern Fine workers and a recent University of
Maine graduate, the redeveloped mill site is a dream come true.
Mayor
DeBeck worked at Eastern Fine for 18½ years and was sad to see the
mill close, but is cheering the return of jobs to his community.
Scott Mitchell, who worked at the mill for 17 years, also is happy
about the new jobs, especially since he’s one of the hundreds
working for Cianbro.
"I
didn’t think I’d be back here," he said with a big smile on his
face.
Brayden
Sheive, who graduated from the University of Maine this spring with
a degree in construction management, said he’s happy to be working
in his home state, making an "excellent salary" as a field engineer
for Cianbro.
Sheive
and Mitchell stood with their fellow Cianbro employees during the
grand opening and answered questions and gave tours.
Over the
last 10 months, Cianbro has trained 250 people to work at the site
laying pipe, welding, operating the huge cranes and other jobs,
Vigue said.
"This is
a model for the future," he said.
