ESCANABA - Turning wood pulp into paper is a power-intensive process, so having reliable, well-maintained boilers is vital to the Mead Corporation.

Every year, Mead's Escanaba division schedules an outage to take care of maintenance and renovation needs at the plant, and last month, the building trades successfully wrapped up another agenda of projects during a 10-day schedule.

The $2 million outage employed about 100 construction workers, about half of whom were Boilermakers working in Local 169's jurisdiction. Jamar was the project's primary contractor, and API and C.R. Meyer were also on the job.

"We had a very professional group on this shutdown," said Mike Fornetti, Mead's utilities and pulping director. "The safety program of the Boilermakers, called MOST, was particularly impressive." MOST is the Boilermaker International Union's Mobilization, Optimization and Training Fund, which provides instruction and data on worker skills and safety.

This outage focused on repairing and preventing leaks in the 18-year-old No. 11 Boiler, a combination coal, waste wood and natural gas burner.

The Mead plant has had controlling interest in the Escanaba plant since 1942, and today runs five boilers, although one is usually not operational. All told, they can produce 98 megawatts, which provides about 90 percent of the plant's energy needs and could, as the company says, power a city the size of Green Bay.

So much power is needed, said Kel Smyth of Mead's government and community relations, because the paper-making process involves dehydrating wood fiber product that contains 98 percent water, into a product with a moisture content of less than 5 percent.

Mead's Escanaba division operates three coated paper machines, and the integrated pulp & paper mill has a combined capacity of 700,000 tons per year. The company also operates mills in Chillicothe, Ohio and Rumford, Maine.

Mead, the largest forest products company in Michigan, manages 672,000 acres around Escanaba and directly employs about 1,400.

The plant located in Escanaba because of its close proximity to water on Little Bay De Noc and the great variety of hard and soft woods in the surrounding area. Smyth said it is currently a "tough market" for domestic coated paper products, with imports from European and Asian suppliers cutting into market share.

GRINDING OFF old buck stay clips, which support boiler tubes, is a job for Keith Paquette of Boilermakers Local 169 at the Mead Corp.'s Boiler No. 11 in Escanaba. He was working during a successful 10-day outage.

GRINDING A 4-INCH carbon steel pipe at the Mead plant is Les Elder of Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Local 506.