Gov. Paul LePage will visit a North Anson wood products company Friday and hold a town hall-style meeting Wednesday in Madison as the communities struggle to deal with Madison Paper Industries closing in May.

LePage plans to tour Cousineau Wood Products in Anson at 9 a.m. Friday, according to a news release Thursday from his office.

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Mike Pelletier makes makes stencils of gunstocks on raw wood stock that will eventually be turned into finished gunstocks for firearms at Cousineau Wood Products in North Anson last year. Gov. Paul LePage plans to visit the company Friday morning . Staff photo by David Leaming

The release said that the tour comes as the company “explores paths for expansion.” Sen. Rod Whittemore, R-Skowhegan, plans to join the governor on the visit. The business is seeking to hire more workers in an area that will be hit hard by the mill closing, which is expected to put more than 200 out of work.

Next week’s public meeting comes two weeks after Madison Paper Industries, the largest taxpayer in the town and one of the largest employers in Madison, announced the mill will close and days after a meeting with Madison officials and lawmakers about securing tax relief.

Measures proposed by House Majority Leader Jeff McCabe, D-Skowhegan, to help the Madison area failed on Thursday to gain enough support in the Legislative Council to win consideration by the full Legislature. One of them was a bill intended to prevent the sale of the mill’s hydorelectric power generating capacity separately from the mill itself.

Madison Paper Industries’ closure in May will result in laying off about 215 workers.

“The governor undoubtedly will talk about what the executive and legislative branches are able to do to help the town of Madison and the 214 families affected by the mill closure,” his spokeswoman Adrienne Bennett said in an email Thursday.

“The Department of Labor has been closely involved with assisting the workers since the company made the announcement,” she said. “The governor will likely talk about the situation during his opening remarks and go into further detail as the town hall progresses and people ask specific questions.”

Cousineau Wood Products is part of parent organization Cousineau Forest Products, based in Wilton. The Anson plant, which has been open since 2001 and employs about 85 people, manufactures laminated gun stocks and bleacher seats. Company Vice President Brody Cousineau said earlier this month that the company hopes to add 25 to 50 jobs by the end of 2016.

Next week’s meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at Madison Junior High School and is open to the public, according to a news release issued Thursday by the governor’s office.

The release says the meeting will focus on the “governor’s vision for Maine, including further reducing the income tax; welfare reform; cutting energy costs; and addressing Maine’s high student debt burden.”

In an email Wednesday, Bennett also said the meeting will focus on the hardships the Madison community and surrounding areas face, given the impending closure of Madison Paper. “These issues include tax burdens and energy costs, which are heightened right now due to the mill loss,” she said.

On Tuesday, LePage met with officials from Madison and state lawmakers about Madison and other communities hit by large tax value losses securing more state education money.

Lawmakers say they hope to pass emergency legislation as early as next week that would require the state to recognize immediately a loss of $150 million in tax value at the Madison mill that took place in 2014. Under the current state education funding model, the value would not be recognized until three years after the loss.

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