A former Maine mill town is planning for its future with an eye on past mistakes

A former Maine mill town is planning for its future with an eye on past mistakes

When the first paper mill in Lincoln was built in 1882, its creators likely didn’t think about the day it would close, or what would happen to the land in its place. Flash forward to 2015, and a boiler explosion forced the mill — then owned by Lincoln Paper and Tissue and employing more than 100 people — to file for bankruptcy, leaving the mill site vacant and in need of a $60 million chemical cleanup. The town acquired the mill, dam and nearly …