Collins, King, Poliquin Announce Nearly $2 Million in Grant Funding for Infrastructure Upgrades & Job Training Across Maine

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King and Representative Bruce Poliquin announced that the Northern Border Regional Commission (NBRC) is awarding $1,996,186 to upgrade infrastructure and provide job training skills that will result in economic growth across Maine.

“These projects will help spur development, grow our local economy, and support job creation in Northern, Western and Central Maine,” said Senators Collins, King and Representative Poliquin in a joint statement. “The Northern Border Regional Commission is an important source of investment for Maine communities, and we appreciate their continued efforts to support worthwhile projects across the state.”

The NBRC is a federal-state partnership that was created by Congress in 2008 to help alleviate economic distress and encourage private sector job creation throughout the northern counties of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York. The funding for projects in Maine is awarded through the NBRC’s 2016 Economic & Infrastructure Development Investment Award program, which is providing over $7.4 million in grant funding to support projects in the NBRC’s four-state service area.

As a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Collins worked to increase funding for the NBRC in fiscal year 2016.

The funding in Maine is being awarded as follows:

• Town of Pittsfield: $250,000 to help replace an obsolete and failing sewer line. This project will allow a business to expand to the former SAS Industrial Complex.

• Central Maine Community College: $250,000 to renovate and expand CMCC’s precision manufacturing lab. This project will support the retention and expansion of precision manufacturing in the area by helping to provide local workers with skills and training.

• City of Auburn: $246,186 for building acquisition and demolition, construction of a new Riverway Road, changes to a floodplain boundary, the creation of a new 68-space parking lot, and the creation of new buildable space for commercial and residential uses.

• Maine Department of Transportation: $250,000 to upgrade the Sheridan Rail Bridge on the State-owned Madawaska subdivision. The upgrade will allow for 286,000 pound rail car loadings at 25 miles per hour track speeds, with 286,000 pounds being the current modern standard for rail cars in the national system.

• Snow Pond Center for the Arts: $250,000 to upgrade infrastructure on and around the Sidney-based Center’s amphitheater and build a new Expanded Learning Center.

• Maine Department of Labor: $250,000 to help Maine companies with apprenticeship, classroom, on-the-jobs and pre-hiring training services. This project will provide financial assistance for competitive “upskilling” in order to advance a minimum of 25 companies and 125 workers.

• Northern Maine Regional Airport: $250,000 to help construct a new hanger at the airport in Presque Isle that will primarily be used for medevac aircraft, but also to attract business aviation clients.

• Eastern Slope Airport, $250,000 to construct a new aircraft hangar in order to attract new seasonal visitors and outside investors to the Fryeburg airport.