2 min read

RICHMOND

An Dresden elderberry manufacturing company will take its plan for a processing plant in the Ames Mill on Front Street before the public during a public hearing at the Planning Board meeting at 6 p.m. tonight as part of a development review.

Richmond Code Enforcement Officer James Valley said that applicant Geo Johnston is looking to have an elderberry processing operation occupy about 2,000 square feet of the third floor of the Ames Mill at 307 Front St., owned by Richmond Contract Manufacturing. The Dresden business needs a larger facility and would bring in the berries frozen, thaw and wash them, process and bottle them, and ship them out. The berries, once squeezed, would be taken back to Dresden for compost.

Valley said the impact should be minimal. The board will be looking at applicable performance standards, such as parking and waste disposal, which are expected to be minor. The Richmond Utilities District doesn’t foresee problems and will do water tests. Johnston will be adding a commercial sink and some additional sinks. The commercial elevator and existing restrooms will be utilized, and there will be offstreet parking. Plumbing and construction of partition walls need to be inspected, but no changes to the exterior of the building are being proposed.

While it wasn’t clear the hearing is required by ordinance, Valley said Johnson wanted to make sure the town was notified of every step going forward. It will be the third time Johnson has been before the Planning Board and, at its last meeting, the board granted Johnson pre-application approval.

Johnston is operations director Eldertide Farm and Maine Medicinals, which processes antioxidantrich organic elderberries and blueberries into a concentrate called anthoimmune, used to boost immune systems. After being named the 2014 Small Business Administration Tibbetts Award winner in June, the company was visited by U.S. Sen. Angus King and SBA administrator Seth Goodall in August. At that time, Johnston said that Eldertide would soon expand its manufacturing operation to downtown Richmond, and keep the lab and research center in Dresden.

The move to new facilities he said, is expected to allow Maine Medicinals to increase production through added efficiencies and add jobs.



Comments are not available on this story. Read more about why we allow commenting on some stories and not on others.