MILLINOCKET - Katahdin Paper Co. LLC officials are figuring costs in a tentative plan to build a biomass boiler that would wean the local mill off its almost total dependence on oil and save 208 jobs.

The installation, which could save company officials from shutting down the mill, could occur in substantially less than the 18 to 24 months mill management originally predicted - and for much less money - but would still cost tens of millions of dollars, mill Manager Serge Sorokin said on Friday.