WASHINGTON, D.C. — After successfully negotiating to pause the planned shutdown of the Pixelle Chillicothe paper mill, Ohio lawmakers are looking for a solution to keep the mill open.

The paper mill in Chillicothe, known as “Paper City,” has been printing book pages and other specialty papers since 1812.

Last week, the mill’s owner, H.I.G. Capital, announced it would shutter the mill and phase out about 800 layoffs over several weeks.

H.I.G. Capital is a private equity firm that manages businesses worth $69 billion.

Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, sent a scathing letter on April 17 to Pixelle and H.I.G., writing that “somehow your collective greed and/or inept business choices managed to close the doors to a paper mill that survived the Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the transition to the digital age, and a global pandemic.”

“And it has to be able to survive a private equity company,” Moreno added at a press conference opposing the closure on April 18.

Several Ohio lawmakers attended the press conference, including Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine and Attorney General Dave Yost.

Several accused H.I.G. of using predatory practices.

“There are so many private equity firms that have bought up companies in this state and in this country, and chopped them up and made profits off of the pieces, and left the communities and the workers and the people who relied on those jobs, they’ve left them with nothing,” Husted said.

Following Moreno’s letter, Pixelle announced it would postpone the closure of the mill until the end of the year, writing in a statement,

“This is a moment of optimism. Our commitment now is to our employees, our customers, and to doing the hard work that comes with turning this opportunity into a positive outcome.”

Moreno added he wanted to enact more guardrails to prevent private equity firms from buying companies only to strip their assets for a profit at the cost of workers.

Rep. Dave Taylor, whose district includes Chillicothe, said he and other lawmakers were hoping to facilitate a new buyer of the mill that would keep it in operation.

“You lose 800 jobs in a town like Chillicothe. That’s just a decimating thing,” Taylor said. “There are a number of ways forward now. I think the most likely, the most appealing path forward would be to find another interested party and run it like it’s been run for two centuries, successfully and profitably. Because it doesn’t seem like Pixelle and H.I.G. are really in this as a long-term business concern.”