Firm clearing section of Luke mill
Aug. 11—LUKE — The town of Luke has been notified that a company will clear up to 55 acres at the former site of Verso Corp.'s Luke paper mill.
Verso closed the plant in 2019, resulting in a loss of nearly 700 jobs. Since then, Allegany County government, the mill ownership group as well as the town of Luke have been working to rehabilitate the 168-acre property.
"We are hoping someone new will come into the site but we also realize that in order for someone to move in certain things have to be removed so it can be repurposed," Ed Clemons Jr., Luke mayor, said. "Obviously it's not going to be a paper mill."
Clemons said Port River West LLC has made application to remove parts of the former mill site for the purpose of "future redevelopment."
"The town is working with the applicant to ensure all laws and environmental concerns are addressed," Clemons said.
According to Clemons, Port River West will not build infrastructure.
"They are not the ones that would construct anything but they will be the ones to remove things that would be a hindrance so the site can be redeveloped," he said. "It's about roughly 55 acres that is going to be staged. It's a lot to take on. It's a big change to how things were for 100-plus years."
Clemons said the No. 8 and No. 9 paper machine buildings, the shipping warehouse, administrative building, engineering building, water plant and stack will remain.
"A large portion of the mill will still be there," said Clemons. "But there are certain select things they will be removing."
Retro Environmental LLC has been hired to handle removal of any harmful materials. "They will be responsible for abating all the asbestos and chemicals that may or may not be still in the mill," Clemons said.
The property is owned by V Luke LLC, under the leadership of Bill Firestone, founder and CEO of the Capital Recovery Group.
"The intent of all this is to make it more attractive to prospects," Jeff Barclay, Allegany County economic development director, said.
"We've been working behind the scenes trying to attract other businesses there," Barclay added. "We've been working with Andrew Sargent at the Maryland Department of Commerce and Kevin Clark with Mineral County (West Virginia) Development Authority."
The mill property consists of 168 acres in Allegany County and across the Potomac River in West Virginia, including the town of Piedmont.
"We've had prospects that we take out there," Barclay said. "They do their due diligence to see if they can make it work. Sometimes it just doesn't work out. We are competing with other sites as well.
"All of us and the owners decided that we really needed to demo and get some of the artifacts that are in there out. No one else is likely to use them, such as large tanks used in the paper industry and things that could have a scrap value as well. Some of things are from the early 1900s."
Barclay said a company based in Turkey had purchased and removed the last operational paper machines. "It took some time. There was over 100 shipping containers that went out of there," Barclay said.
According to Barclay, no county money is involved in the rehabilitation at this point. Port River West is contracted with the mill ownership with much of its profits coming from the scrap value of the materials removed. The work is expected to take up to 24 months.
Clemons said Serena McIlwain, Maryland secretary of the environment, recently visited the site and was supportive of rehabilitating the property in an environmentally safe fashion.
"There is a little bit of progress going on over there and we are hopeful they can get the site ready and somebody new will move in," Clemons said.
Greg Larry is a reporter at the Cumberland Times-News. To reach him, call 304-639-4951, email glarry@times-news.com and follow him on X @GregLarryCTN.
