The White Mountain Paper Company restarted tissue production at the end of October at the Cascades mill on the banks of the Androscoggin River in Gorham.

Production had to be halted for an estimated three-and-a-half weeks when the mill’s 1920sera boilers failed to pass a third-party safety inspection, required for all pressure vessels by the state Department of Labor, explained CEO Price Howard. He said the mill will be working on fulfilling a 45-day backlog of orders.

The mill’s boilers produce the steam needed to operate the tissue machine’s big Yankee dryer, as well as to heat water and the buildings themselves, the CEO explained.

A rental boiler system shipped in from Virginia was fired up to run the mill’s sole operating paper machine.

Permanent boilers will likely be installed in the second quarter of 2022, likely at a cost ranging between $2 and $2.5 million, Howard said. The specifics of that replacement project will require Gorham Planning Board approval.

The mill now has 65 workers on payroll.

— EDITH TUCKER/THE BERLIN SUN