Economic Activity Report
September 2008
The slumping national and global economy is beginning to be felt by local companies. One local company is reporting that one of their clients has notified them that they were withdrawing a significant contract that should have kept the company busy for two to three years. I'm in the process of working with this company to find new clients so that our local company won't have to layoff any of its employees.
What is going on in Washington and Wall Street should be of great concern to us since their actions will impact the availability of money for our existing companies and the availability of capital for any new companies thinking of relocating to our area. These negative factors further challenge our attempts to diversify and expand our economic base.
While on the subject of jobs, here are the latest numbers from NH Employment Security keeping in mind that these are August numbers. Unemployment in Berlin went from 5.1% in July to 4.9% in August. Berlin region from 5.1% to 5.3% Colebrook region from 3.7% to 3.9% Coos County went from 4.8% to 5.1% A broader look at unemployment outside our county, Littleton 2.8% Conway 3% Manchester 4.7%.
I continue to work with Clean Power Development on their scaled down version of a biomass power plant. The project was scaled down after a wood availability study commissioned by CPD revealed that there was a limited supply of biomass grade wood chips available in the North Country. Mel Liston of CPD also took into consideration the demand for chips that the new biomass steam boiler at the Cascade Mill will require and indicated that he did not want to put that project in jeopardy with a larger power plant.
On October 2, the State Of New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee held a public meeting in Groveton on the subject of the Noble Wind Farm project. This is a project that will have 33 wind turbines that will have a capacity of 100MW. This project is expected to utilize almost all of the capacity available on the transmission lines in Coos County and has led to a debate over the construction of more capacity for future projects. This is another issue that needs our close attention.
I've been working on an economic development proposal that I hope will be ready for presentation to Mayor and Council by the end of the month. The loss of the pulp mill in Berlin as well as the events in Groveton require that we "look out of the box" for ways to replace the $200 million per year loss in wages and related economic activities. To put it in perspective, the closure of the mills is equal to the value of building a new Federal Prison every year! We need to think in terms of a new economic engine to replace what was in place for almost 100 years and fueled our regional economy. There's no question that this effort will be challenging in many ways, but not confronting the issue will result in unacceptable declines economically and socially.
Norman Charest
Economic Development Director
| 
