In 1976, after serving in The United States Army, Scott Millbury and David “Joe” Haley returned home to Rangeley, Maine and began their career working at harvesting and trucking wood products. Joe bought a skidder for harvesting and road-siding of the wood and Scott handled the transportation of the wood with the truck he purchased. In 1981, after gaining a foothold in the wood business, the partnership of M&H Logging and Construction was formed. Harvesting and hauling wood and constructing forest management roads was the primary task for the next few years. In 1985 M&H purchased two complete logging camps and all the logging and construction equipment from Paul Bolduc Logging Company. With the additional equipment and manpower, it seemed that each new venture grew into another line of work for which there was a demand. With an ever-increasing workload and commitments, a second partnership of J&S Logging was formed. J&S Logging assumed the role of woods operations, harvesting and roadside placement of wood products. With continued expansion of woods operations and sensing an increased environmental concern, in 1992, J&S purchased a cut-to-length harvesting system. The new (at the time) Rottne system of a single grip harvester and Rottne forwarder allowed them to entirely clear a wood lot, or selectively thin out areas and selectively cut damaged or diseased trees, thus promoting a health forest. In 1993, M&H and J&S were voted “Northeastern Loggers of the Year” by The Northeastern Loggers Association of Syracuse NY. Throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s, M&H began traveling to the central and southern parts of the state to expand their construction work. While maintaining a close relationship with their private clients, house foundations, driveways, and septic systems back in Rangeley, M&H branched out into many other areas of public construction. State, municipal, and private development work, roads, bridge repair/replacement, and utility work. In 1998, M&H purchased a gravel pit off of Route 16 that is now known as Rangeley Sand & Gravel. Later purchasing a Shale pit in the mid-2000’s now known as Oquossoc Shale & Gravel. Contracting with the Department of Conservation, M&H has built access roads and cleared public lots. Working with the Department of Transportation, M&H has built several stretches of major highways including the reconstruction of Route 2 in Dixfield, Route 27 in Coburn Gore and the Route 3 connector off exit 113 in Augusta. M&H also does commercial pipe work for municipal water and sewage treatment plants, commercial and residential site work for homes and business including building roads, driveways and installing conduit for utilities in residential subdivisions is a large part of their business. The mid-2000’s saw a scale back as M&H returned home to the Western Mountains as there was an increasing amount of work to be done around the Rangeley Lakes Region. With new commercial buildings going up around town there was plenty of earth to be moved from their backyard. Over the past decade and a half M&H has helped construct the Rangeley Public Safety Building, Backwoods Clothing & Embroidery, Franklin Savings Bank, Rangeley IGA, Parkside & Main Restaurant just to name a few, as well as serving many other local clients. Recent projects include phase 1 of the Rangeley Town Park, rebuilding and replacing the water main on High & School Street, and the rebuilding of the Carry Road in Oquossoc. On the logging side of things, M&H and J&S transformed from hand crews to a mechanical crew with the purchase of a feller buncher, two grapple skidders, delimber, and a chipper during this timeframe. M&H traded away the Rottne Cut-to-Length operation in 2015 as their job was complete after 20 years of service. M&H has grown and prospered through diversification, top notch quality and good, old fashion hard and honest work. They are ever thankful for a very competent and loyal work force.
