SANFORD — The owners of Pleasant River Lumber on New Dam Road say the sawmill is doing well and is now poised for a $750,000 expansion.

“The facility has been outstanding … and now it needs to grow,” Jason Brochu, co-president of the lumber company with his brother, Chris, told the city council Tuesday. He further explained that the company needs to expand its planing capacity.

Based in Piscataquis County, Pleasant River Lumber Company purchased the New England Building Materials sawmill in December 2012, following NEBM’s bankruptcy filing earlier that year. The Sanford facility produces Pleasant River Pine.

Brochu and other company members appeared before the city council Tuesday to seek their approval on an application for $240,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds to help with the $750,000 expansion that is also expected to add eight workers to the payroll. The Sanford location currently employs 42 full-time workers and a few part-timers.

Sanford Regional Economic Growth Council Director Jim Nimon said the agency, Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission and the company had worked together to develop the application.

Jason Brochu said his family has owned lumber mills in Maine for 35 years and began Pleasant River Lumber in Dover Foxcroft in 2004. The company also has mills in Enfield and Hancock and sells wholesale lumber throughout the East Coast.

“We’re hands-on,” he told the council. “We try to be responsible employers and treat our people well. We form a strong relationship with the towns we’re in and invest in our mills.”

He said the company has worked with the state using CDBG funds to help fuel expansions in Dover-Foxcroft, were they employ between 70 and 100 people, and in Hancock, where 35 are employed.

The council put their seal of approval on the application.

“We appreciate your business being here,” said Mayor Tom Cote.

The New Dam Road sawmill has been a part of the Sanford scene for many years. It was built by Albert Lavalley in 1944 and was sold by the Lavalley family in 1999 to a private holding company called United Ventures, LLC. In 2009, the company purchased holdings in Massachusetts and changed the company name to New England Building Materials. NEBM underwent a rapid expansion, acquiring other holdings in Maine, but the business faltered. Some retail holdings were sold or closed, and the owners filed for bankruptcy.

The sawmill had been operated by NEBM off and on since their bankruptcy filing, but had not been running when Pleasant River Lumber took over.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or [email protected].