Chillicothe — Possibly 18 potential buyers have looked at the Pixelle facility before the deadline to make offers. Again, the weekly meeting of the ‘paper mill response team’ was in executive session to be free to hash out plans – as reminiscences from employees, as well as rumors about what is happening there and what is being removed, fill the internet.
Mill operator Pixelle – based in Pennsylvania, and owned by H.I.G. Capital of Miami, Florida – has been cooperative with corporate tours of the facility that has been largely shut down.
Tammy Eallonardo, Director of “Greater Chillicothe & Ross County Development,” offered a statement to me after I had to leave the closed response team meeting on Monday, July 7th.
Eallonardo, as head of GCRCD, is a member of the Pixelle Response Team that has been discussing the situation weekly since the mid-April surprise announcement of the mill’s closure.
She wrote: “Since the closure announcement in April, at least fifteen potential buyers have toured the paper mill.” (The below Gazette interview with Ross County Commissioners Jack Everson has him saying 18.)
“The deadline set by HIG for purchase offers to be submitted – July 3 – has passed. To date, no information has been shared with local leaders or regional economic development partners regarding a sale or the future of the mill.
“The most recent information regarding cease of operation is that August 10 will be the last day. Sciotovalleyforward.com is available for mill workers seeking information and resources.”
After I spent more than half an hour interviewing Ross County Commissioner Jack Everson on the paper mill recently, Chillicothe Gazette reporter Destiny Torres interviewed him. Key points that she brought up from him in her July 7th story:
“‘In less than two months since the [April 15th] announcement, there have been eighteen companies that have come in and looked at the site’…there are still three or four strong companies that still have an interest in the paper mill site, including a lot of paper makers.”
“‘We’re negotiating with surrounding property owners to expand that site to about 560 acres, from the 200 and some acres that Pixelle currently uses, to have a mega site for a major manufacturer. Perhaps supply chain companies there would easily make up the job loss with the hiring of new employees in those separate locations.”
Follow links in the online article to other Gazette stories on the paper mill, new and old.
I recently found two Facebook pages and an upcoming book that are helping to save the legacy of the paper mill.
“Chillicothe Mill Heroes” has employees as the heroes. “2025 Chillicothe mill shut down” records the sequential close down. And, there will be an upcoming book of images by local photographer and councilman Gunner Barnes, “Growing Up in the Shadow of the Stack.”
See also “Chillicothe Ohio Papermakers” for many more reminiscences, as well as other local history pages. (I have posted about all these on my Facebook pages, as well as my observations on the mill’s history.)
As mill employees have photographed and video-recorded the ending of operations in the mill, Mike Throne even waxed both nostalgic and optimistic about the silencing of the mill in his blog for the Chamber.
Also find many articles here about the paper mill since the fateful day of April 15th, 2025.
