Good news from the Fox Valley.

COMBINED LOCKS – Appleton Coated, a mill that shut abruptly last fall when it went into receivership, has been inching back to life, with its third machine restarted Monday and 230 of its 600 employees recalled to work.

Its improbable rebirth is coming under an equally improbable owner, used machine dealer Industrial Assets Corp.

Other mills that shut in the past, like NewPage in Kimberly, are no more than a pile of rocks today.

Appleton Coated, instead, is getting back on its feet.

“The business going forward is going to be a very different model than we’ve had in the past,” said general manager Doug Osterberg, who was previously president and CEO of the company. “There simply will not be as many people. But it’s a much stronger business and will be much more sustainable.”

The mill still makes traditional printing and writing papers, he said, but is gradually shifting to corrugated medium and container board grades.