CAPE CORAL, Fla., Nov. 9 /PRNewswire/ — Last February, the town of Park Falls, Wisconsin was dealt a harsh economic blow when Smart Papers announced the closure of all their pulp and paper mills. As the company spun into bankruptcy, all 300 jobs that the mill provided to the Park Falls area disappeared. Good news came in late June when Butch Johnson and his investment partners announced that they had shored up the capital resources needed to reopen the plant under the name Flambeau River Papers LLC. A key element of Mr. Johnson’s success was an economic development package put together by the State of Wisconsin.
Johnson’s plan for reopening the mill was aggressive — his expectation was that the final court decision granting approval of the mill ownership change would occur in mid July and he wanted to have the plant making paper as early as the first week in August. With only a skeleton management team in place, Flambeau River Papers began planning for a mill reopening that would eventually bring all 300 jobs back to the community. One of the things standing in the way was a mandatory maintenance project on three of their steam turbines. Having worked with Turbine Generator Maintenance, Inc. (TGM) in the past, key members of Flambeau’s maintenance management team were comfortable with TGM’s approach to turbine and generator projects and asked them to prepare for the pending inspection. TGM immediately put the necessary resources in place and postured themselves to complete the work on an expedited basis to meet the company’s mill opening deadline.
As per Johnson’s expectations, the court made their decision in July granting Flambeau River Papers the green light to move forward with their business plan. Subsequently, TGM was given the go ahead and quickly mobilized to perform major inspections on two Worthington mechanical drive turbines and one 5.7 MW General Electric steam turbine generator set. Working closely with Flambeau’s maintenance managers, TGM performed the turbine and generator maintenance required to bring the plant back on line – all in accordance with the mill’s aggressive time schedule. The successful maintenance project was a major factor that allowed the plant to reopen on August 7 and reemploy many of its previous employees from the town of Park Falls, Wisconsin. Dan Hoffman, TGM Vice President of Sales and Marketing stated, “TGM is very proud to have played a small part in this great news story for Northern Wisconsin. Our hats are off to Butch Johnson and his team as well as to Governor Doyle for their combined economic support of the community.”
About TGM
Turbine Generator Maintenance, Inc. (TGM) performs turnkey inspections and repairs on steam turbines, combustion turbines, generators and associated equipment for the majority of segments within the utility and heavy industrial markets. For more information go to: www.turbinegenerator.com
