Shingle business brings jobs to Ashland
By Kathy McCarty
Staff Writer
ASHLAND — Local and state officials joined with the owner of the town’s newest business venture, Ecoshel — which will be located near E.J. Carrier Inc.’s mill, formerly owned by Fraser — for a special ceremony Tuesday to announce the company’s plans for development.
“Bryan Kirkey, owner of Ecoshel, plans to move his office to Portland from Georgia. He’s purchased a portion of the property Carrier bought from Fraser and will have access to off-road trucking, just as Carrier would,” said Ashland Town Manager Ralph Dwyer.
Dwyer said Ecoshel produces specialty shingles. According to the company website, they’re “premium quality cedar shingle panels for roofing and siding.”
“The company’s main product now uses red cedar brought from the West Coast; they’ll likely use Maine white cedar too. I believe they’ll be using both rail and truck to bring raw materials to the Ashland locale, once the facility is constructed and employees are hired,” said Dwyer. “Initially about 60 jobs will be created.”
Governor Paul R. LePage and Kirkey, in a joint statement, announced Tuesday the company planned to create a total of 78 new jobs at its Ashland manufacturing facility which will produce a new patented cedar shingle system.
Located at the Levesque sawmill site on Levesque Mill Road, Ecoshel plans include the addition of up to 10 production lines in the coming years, which would boost employment even further. At the start of production, an estimated 150 additional indirect jobs will be created.
“It is with pleasure that I welcome you and your company, Ecoshel Smart-Shingle System, to the great state of Maine,” LePage stated in a letter to Kirkey. “Not only will you bring much-needed and welcomed jobs to Ashland, but your product line will also create hundreds more indirect jobs that will have a significant economic impact on communities across Aroostook County and the state.”
George Gervais, commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development, spoke at Tuesday’s gathering on behalf of the Governor. Kirkey praised DECD for its rapid response in assisting him to locate his company in Maine.
“When we made the decision to set up an advanced manufacturing system in Maine, I contacted Commissioner Gervais and Rosaire Pelletier, forest products industry liaison at DECD, to see if they could help,” Kirkey said. “I’m very thankful for how hard they have worked to make this possible and for all of the well-run, well-designed programs, such as MTI, MRDA, FAME and the Community Development Block Grant Program. These are exactly the types of programs that businesses need to grow and create jobs, especially in this economy.”
LePage highlighted the coordination between government and the company to make the project a reality.
“Today’s announcement is another example of what can happen when the government and the private sector work together,” stated the Governor in a press release.
To facilitate the location of Ecoshel in Maine, the LePage Administration’s economic development team expedited a Maine Rural Development Authority loan for the company, assisted with site selection, connected Ecoshel with suppliers of raw materials, and started the financing process with FAME and other agencies.
Over the last two years, Ecoshel has been in beta production of their Smart-Shingle System, premium cedar shingle panels for roofing and siding, at a facility in Gainesville, Ga. The company decided to build its permanent manufacturing facility in Maine to be closer to an abundant source of northern white cedar and its proximity to the nation’s largest cedar shingle markets in New England, according to Kirkey.
In addition to processing northern white cedar, Ecoshel will import western red cedar.
Dwyer said this was big news for his town, which was hit hard when the economy hit a downturn a few years ago, resulting in at least one mill closing that created a trickle-down effect to other businesses in the community.
“This is very good news for us. We’ve been waiting for something like this to happen. We’re anxious to get things going,” said Dwyer, noting Ecoshel has no set date for construction to begin. Dwyer said things should move quickly once work begins.
