Maine Awards $3 Million to Advance PFAS Solutions for Farmers

May 15, 2026
Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry

AUGUSTA - The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry (DACF) today announced $3 million in new PFAS Fund research grants to support Maine farms impacted by PFAS. While the vast majority of Maine farms are not impacted, DACF is

USDA Distributes Oral Rabies Vaccine for Wildlife in Northern Maine

AUGUSTA-- In cooperation with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services' Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC), officials from U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Wildlife Services will begin to distribute oral rabies vaccine (ORV) baits this week. USDA Wildlife Services will distribute nearly 450,000 ORV baits in Aroostook County from May 13 through May 22.

This spring ORV bait distribution is in addition to the annual fall distribution and is in

Proponents submit petitions to place ranked choice voting people's veto on June ballot

Augusta, Maine - The Elections Division of the Department of the Secretary of State today received petitions for the people's veto of "An Act to Implement Ranked-choice Voting in 2021." The proponents of this veto effort submitted 13,440 petitions with an estimated 72,175 signatures to the Elections Division on Friday, Feb. 2, 2018.

Elections Division staff will now have until March 5 to certify the signatures on these petitions, to confirm whether enough valid signatures have been submitted to qualify the question for the June 12, 2018 ballot. The number of valid signatures of registered Maine voters currently required is 61,123 (10% of the total votes cast for Governor at the November 4, 2014 General Election).

Petitions for this effort were issued on Nov. 6, 2017. This people's veto effort would repeal parts of Public Law 2017, Chapter 316, which was passed by the Maine Legislature in October 2017. The law would delay the implementation of ranked-choice voting until December 1, 2021 unless, prior to that date, the voters of the State ratify an amendment to the constitution of Maine; and would indefinitely postpone implementation if the constitutional change is not made.

Ranked-choice voting was initially approved by the voters in November 2016; legislators voted for the delay/indefinite postponement due to constitutional conflicts in the ranked-choice voting law.

The people's veto seeks a partial implementation of ranked-choice voting, as allowed by the Maine Constitution, for Maine's primary elections and for federal elections. If the petitions are certified to meet the signature threshold, ranked-choice voting will be in effect for the June 12, 2018 primary election.

In the event that the veto question is certified to appear on the June 12 ballot: If the ballot question is approved, ranked-choice voting would be used for the offices of U.S. Senate and U.S. Congress for the general election.

If it is not approved, PL 2017, C. 316 will take effect and ranked-choice voting will not be implemented, unless the voters amend the constitution as provided therein. Visit http://maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/citizens/index.html to view the proposed legislation in its entirety.

Augusta Presentation to Focus on Maine History Captured in Postcard Images

Augusta, Maine - Postcards were the Instagrams of the early twentieth century. During a period from 1909 to World War II, the Maine-based Eastern Illustrating and Publishing Company was the U.S. market leader in production of genuine postcards and amassed an archive of over 22,000 glass plate images of Maine architectural photography from the period. The collection is now housed at the Penobscot Marine Museum.

On Wednesday, April 19, 2017, Maine authors W.H. "Bill" Bunting, Kevin Johnson and Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr. will be on hand for a special program of the Kennebec Historical Society and Maine State Library to talk about the Eastern collection and their recent collaboration on the 2016 book on the subject, Maine on Glass.

The program will be held at 6:30 PM at the Maine State Library, 230 State Street in Augusta. The event is open to the public and free of charge. For more information, contact the Kennebec Historical Society at 207-622-7718.

Maine State Museum’s Free Family Saturday Features Invention Challenge! on Saturday, March 18

Free Admission All Day

Augusta, Maine - The Maine State Museum in Augusta presents Invention Challenge!, a chance for everyone to get creative while designing, building, and testing their own inventions on Saturday, March 18, 2017. All activities and museum admission are free of charge from 10 am to 4 pm.

“The museum is full of stories about Maine inventors and their inventions,” comments Chief Educator Joanna Torow. “The activities planned for March 18 give us a chance to help everyone discover those stories and then try their own hands at inventing. It will be a fun, creative time for everyone. A special feature will be a chance to play the museum’s own Path to Invention game.”

The Invention Challenge is the second in a series of free family Saturdays to be held one Saturday each month at the museum through August. Free family Saturdays are sponsored by Oakhurst Dairy and Renys. The next free family Saturday is April 15 and will feature a traveling natural history program and live animals presented by the Chewonki Foundation.

For more information, contact the museum at 287-2301 or visit www.mainestatemuseum.org.

THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS IS LITHGOW LIBRARY’S CHOICE FOR A CAPITAL READ 2017

Augusta, Maine - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is Lithgow Public Library’s choice for A Capital Read 2017, which will feature several events in April celebrating the library’s community-wide reading project.

Author Rebecca Skloot uncovers the mystery of Henrietta Lacks, a poor black tobacco farmer known to scientists as HeLa. Her cells were taken without her knowledge in 1951. Skloot vividly recounts how HeLa became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and today her family can’t afford health insurance.

Soon to be released as an HBO movie by Oprah Winfrey and Alan Ball, this New York Times bestseller takes readers on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers filled with HeLa cells, from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Va., to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells the story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery and faith healing; and of a daughter consumed with questions about the mother she never knew. It’s a story inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we’re made of.

Winner of several awards, including the 2010 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Nonfiction, the 2010 Wellcome Trust Book Prize, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Award for Excellence in Science Writing, the 2011 Audie Award for Best Non-Fiction Audiobook, and a Medical Journalists’ Association Open Book Award, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was featured on over 60 critics’ best of the year lists.

Events for A Capital Read 2017 will include:

Tuesday, April 4 at 6:30 pm: Kate McBrien and Joanna Torow, “Malaga Island, Fragmented Lives.”
Wednesday, April 12 at 6:30 pm: Gregory Fahy, Ph.D., “Exploring Bioethics: Consent, Ownership, and Medical Research.”
Wednesday, April 19 at 6:30 pm: Book Discussion led by staff.
Saturday, April 29 at 2:00 pm: “A Conversation with the Lacks Family.”


A Capital Read is sponsored by Bangor Savings Bank and the Friends of Lithgow Library, in partnership with the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine, Barnes and Noble, and the Augusta Civic Center.
   
Copies of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks will be available at Lithgow Library, Bangor Savings Bank Augusta locations, and The Holocaust and Human Rights Center at UMA, while supplies last.
   
All events for A Capital Read 2017 are free and open to the public.  For more information, contact Lithgow Library at 626-2415 or visit lithgow.lib.me.us.

Gardening Experts to Host Book Discussion at Maine State Library

Augusta, Maine - As caretakers to the natural world around us, gardeners can promote biodiversity and fight species extinction by selecting the certain trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals that nurture insects, birds, and amphibians and help create a self-regulated ecosystem.

On Tuesday, March 14 at 6:00 PM, Maine authors and gardening experts Reeser Manley and Marjorie Peronto will host a program at the Maine State Library to about ecologically-minded garden planning strategies. Admission is free and open to the public. The authors will remain after the presentation to sign books. Copies of their book will be available for purchase at the event.

Manley and Peronto recently published The Life in Your Garden, a must-read call to action for gardeners concerned about Earth's biodiversity crisis. The title is a follow-up to the duo's 2013 book, The New England Gardener's Year: A Month-by-Month Guide for Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Upstate New York.

Reeser Manley has gardened in South Carolina, Washington state (while earning a Ph.D. in Horticultural Science), Massachusetts, and, for the last 15 years, in Maine. From 2007 through 2015, he wrote about the garden in a weekly column for the Bangor Daily News. He taught courses in horticulture at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the University of Maine, Orono. In 2013 he retired from teaching chemistry and physics at a small high school on the coast of Maine to devote his time to gardening and garden writing. Marjorie Peronto, a professor for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, has been teaching courses in fruit and vegetable gardening, ecological landscaping, and pruning for 26 years. She is a resource among her colleagues on native and invasive plants of the Northeast. Marjorie oversees Downeast Maine's Master Gardener Volunteers Program, training individuals to conduct community outreach projects that promote sustainable gardening and food security. She has developed nationally recognized school gardening courses for teachers.

For more information about the program, please contact the Maine State Library at 207-287-5600.

DHHS Hosts Sold Out Conference: Confronting Maine's Opioid Crisis

Augusta, Maine - The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) brought national and local leaders together to discuss the best ways to combat Maine's opioid crisis. This conference was organized between DHHS and the National Safety Council (NSC) who provided several keynote speakers. Recently, the NSC recognized Maine as a leader in our efforts to address the opioid epidemic.

"In order to successfully address Maine's opioid epidemic we must work together. This epidemic is destroying the very fabric of our families and communities," said Commissioner Mary Mayhew. "In my role as Commissioner, I witness the impact of drug abuse across our state and certainly in our child welfare system with so many children coming into protective custody because of parental substance abuse. It is my hope that today's collaboration will build on our success and continue to advance new efforts to support reduced prescribing and expanded access to evidence-based treatment."

Maine leads the nation in the rate of long-acting opioid prescriptions, dispensing over 80 million pills in 2014. In our state, this has led to an average of more than one person a day dying from an overdose, more than 1,000 babies annually being born drug affected and more than 60% percent of children involved in our child welfare program being directly related to parental substance abuse risk factors.

A short time ago, the Surgeon General released a report ( https://addiction.surgeongeneral.gov/surgeon-generals-report.pdf ) on the impact of alcohol, and drugs on health-this report was the first of its kind. According to the report, in order to change these trends, we must improve the way we treat chronic pain to prevent abuse, addiction and overdoses before they start. As the US CDC has indicated, opioids are not first line or routine therapy for chronic pain. To do this, we need to improve opioid prescribing practices and promote the use of state prescription drug monitoring programs.

In Maine, we have made great strides to do succeed in this area especially with the passage of Public Law 488. This law mandates the necessary communication between patient, prescriber and dispenser to promote the safe and appropriate prescribing of opioids. Additionally, it requires the use of Maine's prescription monitoring program (PMP), limits the duration and quantities of opioid prescriptions, and requires annual education for opioid prescribers and dispensers to advance our healthcare practices.

"This legislation is crucial to ensure responsible prescribing methods of these highly addictive painkillers. This Administration works tirelessly to understand what practices will help support individuals on pathway of recovery and sustained sobriety," said Commissioner Mayhew. "We continue to evaluate and implement evidence-based treatment options such as medication-assisted treatment and, most recently, Opiate Health Homes."

Last year, the National Safety Council applauded Maine's robust and comprehensive efforts to address opioid abuse by bestowing Maine with a "Making Progress" distinction in its Prescription Nation report. Only four other states - Kentucky, New Mexico, Tennessee and Vermont - earned a "Making Progress" rating in the report, which grades states based on six key indicators proven to effectively address opioid abuse.

The full agenda and additional background information can be found online: http://www.cvent.com/events/me-325-500-confronting-maine-s-opioid-crisis/event-summary-abad877edeff4132a24589b82f3b980b.aspx

Lithgow Public Library to Host St. Patrick’s Day Music Special March 16

Augusta, Maine -  Join Lithgow for a lively evening of Irish songs and instrumental music with Ladies of the Lake members Sharon Pyne (flute and whistles) and Maggie Ericson (accordion, vocals and guitar), as well as fiddler Hank Washburn on Thursday, March 16 at 6:00 pm. This program, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Community Room.

Specializing in traditional Celtic instrumental music and ballad singing, the Ladies of the Lake have performed for many years as a group and as individuals in Maine and beyond.

Lithgow Library is located at 45 Winthrop Street in Augusta.  For more information, call the library at 626-2415 or visit lithgow.lib.me.us.

RIDE RESPONSIBLY - Snowmobile Safety Campaign

Augusta, Maine - This snowmobile season, the Maine Warden Service and the Maine Snowmobile Association have teamed up once again to remind people to ride responsibly. Game Warden Corporal John MacDonald and MSA Executive Director Bob Meyers met with several media outlets Thursday morning to discuss Maine’s busy snowmobiling season. Thursday’s press conference highlighted the need for snowmobile riders to work together and reduce crashes. Driving under the influence, speeding, operating in adverse weather conditions, and operating on unfamiliar water bodies are common contributing factors with snowmobile incidents here in Maine.

To reduce incidents related to snowmobile crashes and search and rescue incidents, we ask that riders provide trip plans to family members and carry essential items with them. If you deviate significantly from your trip plans, please let a family member know. Search and rescue involves significant resources and are often hazardous to conduct. Many search and rescue missions can be avoided using good common sense.

When possible, carry a phone or other communication device in the event of an emergency and dial 911. Other key items include a means to make a fire, extra gas, snowshoes, small shovel, hand warmers and perhaps some food and water in the event your trip gets delayed or you must spend the night in the woods unexpectedly.

We encourage every rider to make sure their sled is registered and join a snowmobile club before they ride. Your snowmobile registration dollars provide the funding and support clubs need to maintain our great trails and also provide game wardens with tools needed to keep you safe.

With early and ongoing snowfall, visitors from all over the Northeast are headed for Maine’s 14,500 miles of snowmobile trails. Thanks is due to the thousands of volunteers who belong to 289 clubs statewide whose hard work in the off-season make the trails ready to ride as soon as enough snow hits the ground. Show them your support by joining your local snowmobile club before you ride. Thanks also to generous landowners statewide who allow us the use of their property – please respect their generosity by treating their property as if it were your own.

And when you register your snowmobile, it is a great time to purchase an Outdoors Partner membership from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. For a nominal fee, you help provide critical support to Maine’s Landowner Relations Program. Maine’s rich tradition of public access to private land for recreation is essential for everyone who enjoys the outdoors. Your participation ensures that landowners across the state get the support they need and deserve to continue to allow access.

Now is also the time to brush up on safety and remind yourself of the simple rules that will keep your riding season safe and enjoyable. Some basic safety tips include:

STAY ON MARKED TRAILS. Respect the property of the thousands of landowners that allow trails on their property. Riding off-trail can lead to crashes with hazards buried under the snow.

NEVER DRINK AND RIDE. Many snowmobile accidents involve alcohol. The Maine Warden Service will be on the trails all season to strictly enforce Maine’s tough OUI law. Offenders pose a risk to all riders, and if caught will face large fines and jail time.

ALWAYS OPERATE YOUR SLED AT A SAFE AND REASONABLE SPEED. Operating at a safe and reasonable speed means being in control of your machine at all times. If you have any doubt, slow down.

ALWAYS RIDE TO THE RIGHT. Stay on the right hand side of the trail at all times. Remember to always pull well off the side of the trail when you stop.

APPROACH EVERY HILL, CORNER, AND INTERSECTION WITH CAUTION. Ride your sled as if another will be coming toward you on your side of the trail. On Maine’s busy trail system, you must keep an eye out for other riders.

LET OTHERS KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING. Leave a note on your dashboard saying where you’re going and when you expect to be back. If you go missing, searchers will have a starting point to look for you.

DON’T RIDE ALONE. Riding with others ensures that someone else will be there to help should you encounter problems. Many times help can be hours away, and having friends along will help ensure a safe trip.

WITH ICE CONDITIONS, IF YOU DON’T KNOW DON’T GO. Check conditions with locals. Area chambers of commerce or snowmobile clubs are excellent sources – they know conditions first hand.

MMA Releases “Your Vote Counts” Campaign

Augusta, Maine - The Maine Municipal Association unveiled public service announcements this week thanking town and city election workers, and polling volunteers, for their service during the recent election.

Two short videos also explain the election process to voters and assure the integrity of Maine’s municipally administered system.

“It is important to us that the hundreds of election officials and volunteers are recognized for their diligence in upholding the integrity of the election process here in Maine,” said Stephen Gove, executive director of the MMA.

Featuring municipal clerks Kathy Montejo of Lewiston, Lisa Goodwin of Bangor and Becky Hapgood of China, the PSAs recognize Maine’s election staff and volunteers for their months of preparation and the countless hours spent to ensure fair, open and professionally run elections.

MMA will implement a social media, electronic media and print strategy to share the PSAs throughout Maine. Maine media may feel free to post these videos to their websites and share them on their Facebook pages.

For more information about the Maine Municipal Association, including its PSA campaign, please visit the association Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MaineMunicipal

Heart ‘n Soul Quartet To Visit Lithgow Public Library For Holiday Concert

Augusta, Maine - Join us for a festive evening of holiday music! Heart ‘n Soul, a quartet with Maine-ly Harmony women’s acapella group, will perform at Lithgow Public Library on Tuesday, December 13 at 6:00 p m. This program, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Community Room.

Heart ‘n Soul Quartet is part of the larger competing chorus, Maine-ly Harmony. For over 30 years, Maine-ly Harmony has performed and competed all over the state. Members of Heart ‘n Soul Quartet are: Jan Flowers, Sue Staples, Anne Danforth, and Cathy Anderson.

Lithgow Library is located at 45 Winthrop Street in Augusta.  For more information, call the library at 626-2415 or visit lithgow.lib.me.us.

Maine State Library and Kennebec Historical Society Host Talk on Maine's German POW Camps

Augusta, Maine - Between 1944 and 1946, more than 4,000 German prisoners of war called Maine home. How they arrived, and the lasting impact that they had on the people who encountered them is one of Maine's most interesting and obscure stories.

On Wednesday, August 24 at 6:30 PM, the Maine State Library will host David Greenham of the Holocaust and Human Rights Center to share the lively and surprising tale of this interesting chapter of Maine history. It is a story of cooperation, kindness, and enemies who became colleagues, and even friends.

The program is sponsored by the Kennebec Historical Society and is free and open to the public. The Maine State Library is located at 230 State Street in Augusta.

David Greenham is an adjunct professor of Drama at the University of Maine at Augusta, works as a grant writer and Program Manager for the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine (HHRC). He spent 14 years as the Producing Artistic Director of The Theater At Monmouth, and has been a theater artist and arts administrator for more than 25 years. In 2013, David was the creator and performer of Maine at Work, a touring program commissioned by the Maine Humanities Council. He has also been seen as a performer with Everyman Repertory Theater, Bath Shakespeare Festival, Camden Shakespeare Festival, and Capitol City Improv in Augusta. In 2013, David created the exhibit Maine Boys Overseas, and German Boys in Maine for the HHRC. The exhibit and the research to create it was the inspiration for the POW Camps in Maine program that has been presented for several community groups in Maine. He continues to research the project with the goal of writing a book about the topic in partnership with several historians.

For more information, contact 207-287-5600.

Secretary Dunlap Announces Official Results of 2016 Primary Election

Augusta, Maine - The official results of the June 14, 2016 State Primary Election are now available, Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap announced Friday.

Maine law requires the Secretary of State to tabulate the election returns and submit them to the governor within 20 days after an election. Governor Paul LePage signed the election results Friday.

The full election results are now posted on the Maine Department of the Secretary of State's Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions website at http://maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/results/index.html .

The State of Maine recognizes three political parties: Democratic, Green Independent and Republican. The primary election determined each party's candidates for various offices, including: Representative to Congress (both districts), all 35 State Senate districts, all 151 State Representative districts; and the following county offices, which vary depending on the county: Judge of Probate, Register of Probate, County Treasurer, Register of Deeds, Sheriff, District Attorney and County Commissioner.

Winners in these races will represent their political parties in the Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016 General Election.

Fort Western to host Summer Youth Programs

Augusta, Maine - Old Fort Western, the 1754 National Historic Landmark fort, store, and house museum on the Kennebec River in downtown Augusta, invites children of all ages interested in local history and stewardship to register for one of our Summer Youth Programs: Apprenticeship Program (ages 8-12) or the Jr. Interpreter Program (ages 13 and up).  These one-week sessions start Monday, June 20th and continue through September 2nd.

Children in the Apprenticeship Program will experience what life was like in the 18th century by

Work to Begin on Mount Vernon Avenue in Augusta

Augusta, Maine - Crews will be back reconstructing Mount Vernon Avenue in Augusta on Monday, April 4th.

Mount Vernon Avenue is being completely reconstructed as part of a $2.9 million project. The work requires one-way alternating traffic with flaggers that will assist motorists through the work zones.

Work will begin at the Bond Street end of the project to complete water, sewage and drainage improvements as well as building retaining walls. However, work will take place along the length of Mount Vernon Avenue northerly to University Drive. All work will take place during daylight hours.

Motorists are encouraged to drive carefully through the work zones or find an alternate route.

In addition to road reconstruction, the project includes water and sewer improvements as well as new drainage and sidewalks along with new retaining walls.

While weather dependent, it is anticipated all work will be completed by the end of June, 2016.

Blaine House Christmas trees to celebrate a children's winter wonderland

*The Kennebec Valley Garden Club has decorated Balsam Firs donated by the Granger Family Farm*

AUGUSTA, Maine - In preparation for the holidays, the Kennebec Valley Garden Club has decorated two of three Blaine House balsam fir trees donated by Granger Family Farm in China, Maine. The two trees will be displayed inside the Blaine House for the holidays. A third tree will be located in the First Family's private living quarters and will be decorated by the LePage family. According to First Lady Ann LePage, this year's annual theme is: A Children's Winter Wonderland.

"Paul and I truly appreciate the wonderful job that the Kennebec Valley Garden Club does each Christmas season to create a festive atmosphere at the Blaine House," said First Lady Ann LePage. "The generous gift of balsam fir trees from the Granger Family Farm will be adorned with snowmen, sleds and dolls in keeping with this year's "Children's Winter Wonderland" theme. Thanks to the Granger Family Farm and the Kennebec Valley Garden Club, the Blaine House is ready to celebrate the holidays and welcome in the New Year."

According to Clark Granger, the gift is his fourth. Clark has been growing Christmas trees since the 1950s and has planted over 200,000 trees in his lifetime.

For more information on the Blaine House, go to: http://www.blainehouse.org/index.html

Information on the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry is available at: http://www.maine.gov/dacf

New Danforth Exhibit to Showcase Creative Work of UMA Architecture Faculty through Dec. 8th

Augusta, Maine - The University of Maine at Augusta Charles Danforth Gallery is displaying a new exhibit, Architects: On the Inside, from October 28th through December 8th. There will be a reception and artist talk on Thursday, November 12 at 4:30pm.

“Who are the professors and instructors teaching in UMA’s Bachelor of Architecture program? What do they do that supports their creative lives and professions as architects?” asked Karen Adrienne, UMA Danforth Gallery Director. “These are some of the questions that came to mind while working with this outstanding faculty,” she added.

Architects: On the Inside is a collaboration of creative work by UMA Architecture faculty members, Eric Stark, Amy Hinkley, and Rosie Curtis with support from, Roger Richmond, Jessie Carroll, Michael Belleau and Toby Gabranski among others. The exhibit consists of drawings, paintings, and sculptures that inspire, enrich, and compliment their work as professional architects and architecture faculty members at UMA.

For more information about the exhibit visit: http://www.artsuma.com/. You can see images of the exhibit on the Danforth Gallery Flickr Page, or on the Danforth Gallery Facebook page.

UMA’s Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch.) program, the only professional architecture degree in Maine, is a small, integrated, hands on program that inspires students through community engagement, collaborative coursework and essential design elements. For more information about the program visit: uma.edu/BArch.

The Charles Danforth Gallery is located in Jewett Hall on UMA’s Augusta campus. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday from 9:00am to 5:00pm and on Friday from 9:00am to 3:00pm.

Maine Army National Guard Force Structure Update

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, VETERANS AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
Headquarters, Maine National Guard
Camp Keyes, Augusta, Maine 04333-0033
Contact:
Major Norman J. Stickney
Public Affairs Officer
Maine National Guard
(207) 430-5759

Maine Army National Guard Force Structure Update

AUGUSTA, Maine – Brig. Gen. Gerard F. Bolduc, the acting Adjutant General for the Maine National Guard, announced today that all plans to convert the 133rd Engineer Battalion to an Infantry Battalion have officially been stopped. There will be no changes to the force structure of the Maine Army National Guard in the foreseeable future.

“As we’ve said all along, the 133rd Engineer Battalion is staying right here where it belongs,” said Governor Paul R. LePage. “Now that the command plan has been finalized, I am confident we can move forward with a clear path for the future of the Maine National Guard.”

The Maine National Guard confirmed that the National Guard Bureau’s command plan will retain all of the existing Maine Army National Guard units and that none would convert to an Infantry unit.

“We are pleased with the decision to retain our storied [133rd] Engineer Battalion in the great State of Maine,” Bolduc said. “The capabilities and expertise of our Engineer units is second to none.” The Maine National Guard has a rich history and tradition of excellence and remains trained and fully prepared to respond to any of the state and nation’s needs.

Professional Logging Contractors (PLC) of Maine to conduct comprehensive economic impact study of Maine logging industry with support from Farm Credit Northeast and the University of Maine

Augusta, Maine - The Professional Logging Contractors (PLC) of Maine will conduct its first comprehensive economic impact study of Maine’s logging industry over the next year with support from the Farm Credit Northeast AgEnhancement program and the University of Maine.

Farm Credit Northeast AgEnhancement has awarded an $8,000 grant to the PLC to support the study. The remaining balance of $12,000 will be provided through in-kind contributions from the PLC and University of Maine.

“The PLC of Maine is very fortunate to have the support of Farm Credit Northeast for such an ambitious review of the impact of our industry,” said Dana Doran, PLC Executive Director. “This economic impact study will be very important to not only quantifying the economics of logging, but telling a larger story of its importance to the Maine economy.”

While many studies have been conducted to determine the broad impact of the larger forest products