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Paia Sugar PAIA, Maui -- His grandchildren call him the cloud maker, likening the smoke floating from Paia sugar mill's smokestack to dream clouds drifting across Maui skies.
Mill Closes
Workers', residents'
sweet memories
remainBy Gary T. Kubota
Star-BulletinFor machinist Dan Rather, the mill has helped to make his dreams come true.
"I raised five kids," said Rather, 50. "This job enabled me to put them through college."
Late last night, the smoke stopped rising from the mill, as Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. discontinued more than 125 years of sugar production in Paia.
Citing the need to cut costs to compete with foreign sugar companies, Hawaiian Commercial plans to consolidate production of its 37,000 acres of sugar cane land under its remaining mill at Puunene.Hawaiian Commercial's general manager, Stephen Holaday, said that while the mill continues to produce 1.25 million pounds of sugar a day, revenues have dropped about 25 percent to $62 million annually.
The company anticipates hiring 40 employees in its expansion at Puunene and believes most of the remaining workers laid off in the Paia closing will qualify for retirement.
The mill, which once had a foundry where it made its own nuts and bolts, offered many Maui residents the opportunity to learn an industrial trade while working as an apprentice.
During the early 1900s, Paia had a network of employee camps around the mill.
The plantation served as a foothold for contract immigrant workers to obtain a job and entry into the United States.
Residents say the Paia mill will be remembered for the way its employees and their families worked together to create a community, with neighbors helping neighbors and fostering strong family values."I'm really going to miss the people," said mill manager Brian Ross.
"The people here have a lot of aloha spirit. They're really more of a family than a workplace here."
ILWU business agent William Kennison said: "To me it's more than a mill closing -- it's a way of life. A job's a job, but they built their lives around it."
Paia is changing, growing more trendy and catering more to visitors, with more windsurfers and short-term residents living in town.Residents say they are saddened by the closing of the mill and what they see as the gradual shift away from a slow-paced agricultural economy where people worked and socialized together.
"It's a real disappointment," said Rather, who lives in lower Paia. "They know they're not going to lose their jobs, but it's still upsetting."
Rather said that when he began working at the mill about 21 years ago, he did not have a car but he did have good neighbors.
"The guy across the street gave me a car. He said, 'Pay when you can.' I didn't even know him that well," Rather recalled.
Mill employees went fishing together after work. Residents had "mortgage parties" to help raise money for neighbors who had problems meeting payments.Neighbors visited occasionally to drop off vegetables raised in backyard gardens.
Rather said employees have worked as volunteers to create a haunted house at the Paia Community Center during Halloween and helped neighboring schools with electrical and plumbing problems.
"I really felt we were part of this community, and I think the community is going to miss us being around," Rather said.
Mill workers will be cleaning the plant this week. A final goodbye party is scheduled for Oct. 6.
Ross said the company plans to keep the Paia mill "in mothballs" for a year, as a potential backup to the Puunene mill.
"After that, we'll see," he said.
