Lumbra Hardwoods in Milo is closing this month after 74 years in business.
The sawmill can’t sustain rising electric and machinery costs, forcing the family business to close, co-owner Stephen Lumbra told the Bangor Daily News.
“The company can’t continue like this,” Lumbra said.
Lumbra Hardwoods is the second Milo business to close within the last two years due to rising utility prices. Costs of incentives for building solar arrays and using solar power have been pushed onto companies that can’t afford their now higher bills, Lumbra said, forcing them to close.
Lumbra didn’t say how much the sawmill’s utility bills had risen, but did say prices of some saw blades and equipment have doubled since 2019.
Milo Town Manager Robert Canney estimated the mill’s electricity bill would jump from $20,000 to $40,000 a month in 2026.
Around the time COVID-19 hit in 2020, Lumbra said the rising costs to operate the mill began to outpace revenue. Since then, the company, which has 20 employees, has had to go through layoffs, something he said wasn’t previously even a thought.
“Layoffs weren’t normal business for us,” he said.
Employees will work at the mill until the end of April when the last logs are sold, Lumbra said.
It was a “tough decision” to close the company, Lumbra said, but it came after much thought and debate about how feasible running it is while seemingly every cost has gone up. Lumbra said he felt bad that spikes in operating expenses meant he couldn’t provide or do more for his employees.
If the mill were to keep operating, Lumbra would have to go into debt, which he said he wants to avoid.
The mill will be up for sale after all the wood is processed, Lumbra said.
The site could be bought by a larger lumber company that could afford to keep some of Lumbra’s contracts, Canney said.
Lumbra criticized state and federal politicians for not doing more to stop rising costs. Prices for everything from buckets of paint to Maine-made saw blades have doubled, but representatives from both parties at every level of government haven’t worked to help affordability, Lumbra said.
“Our country has let us down,” he said.
Rising energy costs have caught local companies by surprise, Canney said, and legislation hasn’t followed to lessen the spikes.
Canney reached out to state and federal representatives about new regulations or laws that would lower bills, but changes haven’t been made yet, he said.
“A lot of things are piling on, and unfortunately it’s the small businesses like this that are not able to survive,” he said.
