Maine potato traffic collapse in the 1970s

What happened to all of the potato traffic that moved for decades out of Maine? NPR's Planet Money podcast has a recent episode "The Maine Potato War of 1976". While the completion of I95 and the Penn Central collapse were major contributors, the podcast (24 minutes) goes into the financial war between Western potato growers and those from Maine in the New York Mercantile Exchange. The result was nail in the coffin.
https://www.npr.org/2024/01/12/11979564 ... ze-default

Very entertaining story


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PennCentral..

I saw a little clip on some TV news or similar with as potato farmer raving about his 'farming' and the present use of railroad as means of transportation. (2023) Aroostook County I think. Maybe everybody forgets but obvious different era.

Potatoes travelling by rail in 2022/2023 has been discussed in other threads, as Lajoie Growers of Van Buren was sending them west in UP/ARMN reefers.

It doesn't sound like the potato business returned this year. Combination of the market and transit times. The proposed potato chip plant at Loring might drum up some business, but its too early to tell.

Developers plan $55M potato chip plant on former Aroostook air base

February 21, 2024


The Taste of Maine potato chip plant would employ 75 workers at Loring next year and eventually expand to 100.
An aerial view of the Loring Commerce Center in Limestone. Credit: Courtesy of Loring Development Authority
LIMESTONE, Maine — Local developers have chosen the former Loring Air Force Base as the site of a $55 million potato chip processing plant that could open next year.

Bruce Sargent and Jim Pelkey of Falcon Transportation in Presque Isle, announced Wednesday that they plan to locate Taste of Maine Potato Chip Co. at Loring Commerce Center, the 3,800-acre industrial and commercial park that opened after the base closed in 1994.

That’s good news for the Loring Development Authority, which has revamped its efforts to bring modern industries to Loring. Since last year, the authority and Portland-based Green 4 Maine, which now owns 450 acres of the commerce center, have been planning for a future $4 billion sustainable aviation fuel plant and other businesses focused on artificial intelligence and rocket production.

“[Taste of Maine] is about creating good will for the local community and well-paying jobs,” said Thomas Manning, a Green 4 Maine representative.

Sargent and Pelkey plan to break ground on the 80,000-square-foot Taste of Maine facility in early July and open the plant in fall 2025. They also want to construct a $2.5 million solar garden adjacent to the production plant, Pelkey said Wednesday. He did not specify the solar garden’s projected size.

Taste of Maine will employ 75 people at the start of production in 2025 but eventually expand to 100 employees, Pelkey said.


James Pelkey of Falcon Transportation announces plans for a potato chip plant at the former Loring Air Force Base during a Loring Development Authority board meeting Wednesday. Credit: Melissa Lizotte / Aroostook Republican
Sargent and Pelkey had been looking at sites in Fort Fairfield last fall, but have since chosen the site of the former Damon School, which served elementary school children of military families at Loring.

Pelkey and Jonathan Judkins, interim president and CEO of Loring Development Authority, announced Taste of Maine’s plans Wednesday to the Authority’s board of directors and Green 4 Maine officials.

“Bruce and I have been talking about building a potato chip factory for eight years and last year we decided to look around the community,” Pelkey said. “We’ve been working with the town of Limestone and Loring and are very excited about this facility.”

Taste of Maine will be located on a parcel of the commerce center that Green 4 Maine could have the option to purchase if they meet certain job creation and lease milestones, Judkins said.

The company could also benefit from future tax increment financing districts located at Loring, in which developers receive a portion of their property’s increased tax value after construction or expansion.

Limestone residents will soon vote on whether to allow town officials to draft credit enhancement agreements with Green 4 Maine for land they currently own or plan to own, which will include Taste of Maine’s property. If residents agree, the town could draft a separate credit enhancement agreement with Taste of Maine.

A meeting to vote on the tax increment financing districts was set for Wednesday, Feb. 21, but has since been postponed to Feb. 27, said Interim Town Manager Alan Mulherin.


Limestone residents agree to pursue tax incentives for Loring developers


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Somebody old enough might ask what happened to my favorite potato chips ?? For some reason they seem to vanish. New England ? State Line. (bankrupt?) Wachusett (bought by UTZ) Humpty Dumpty ? seems bought by a Canadian company and then vanished... Others I assume. Hopefully a new 'from Maine' potato chip ?

Anybody can make a potato chip but quantity ?

Rail forum...hopefully use rail....

They'd need an active rail connection to use, first.... it's 33 miles from the end of active track to the airbase, and the line is heavily overgrown to the point you can't tell it exists in some spots.

I think the group which has been pushing for the redevelopment of the base has been pushing towards getting grants to at least reopen the track to 10 MPH. Its probably not going to happen anytime soon, but the owners of the plant also own a trucking company. And said trucking company has a warehouse with a spur in the PI industrial park. So, if they need/want rail service it wouldn't be too hard.

Probably pie in the sky but the idea of the Baldwin retunring to life switching a potato processing facility there is certainly cool.

As other have already said, bwteen I95 truckers omce t road was completed, bankrupt 1970s Penn Central letting undelivered potao loads freeze in their yards or on their trains (At no recomp for the growers, brokers, or originating RRs since they were bankrupt.... so PC got paid every time, but PC never paid anybody back for anything), plus growing western comptetition thanks to new govt-funded water supply projects that made large scale watern growing possible at minimal to no cost to western growers.

oibu wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 6:39 pm Probably pie in the sky but the idea of the Baldwin retunring to life switching a potato processing facility there is certainly cool.

As other have already said, bwteen I95 truckers omce t road was completed, bankrupt 1970s Penn Central letting undelivered potao loads freeze in their yards or on their trains (At no recomp for the growers, brokers, or originating RRs since they were bankrupt.... so PC got paid every time, but PC never paid anybody back for anything), plus growing western comptetition thanks to new govt-funded water supply projects that made large scale watern growing possible at minimal to no cost to western growers.

I don't think the chip factory alone would be enough to restore rail service. But there are other potential tenants looking at the former base which would bring enough traffic to warrant a rebuild.