WORKFORCE: Coalition targets marine-jobs bond

The University of New England is teaming up with Southern Maine Community College and a Portland startup on a proposal to develop marine-related products and bring them to market.

The coalition, which also includes two Washington County organizations, is preparing to bid on a $7 million state bond earmarked for creating marine-related jobs. At the center of the group’s proposal is a plan to establish a privately run business incubator on the Maine State Pier to work with Maine companies, marine scientists, college students and laboratories to develop new products and bring them to market. The group is only one of the potential bidders for the bond money, for which RFPs are expected to go out within two weeks. Read the story.

Casting a wider net for potential tech employees

An event to spotlight opportunities in technology companies for people without college degrees drew a crowd to Idexx Laboratories in Westbrook, a company that considers job applicants’ experience, not just alma mater. The event also celebrated Maine’s designation as a TechHire community by the White House on Aug. 4.

Among attendees were U.S. Sen. Angus King, who was joined by members of Educate Maine’s Project>Login, an initiative that aims to provide a capable workforce for the state’s technology-based companies through efforts such as internships. The TechHire designation will provide Project>Login and Maine businesses a network of resources, such as partnerships with national corporations. King said he’s heard there’s $100 million in potential funding for TechHire initiatives, though nothing is set in stone. Read the story.

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Youth target of global economic forum

The World Economic Forum recently picked Portland to join a network of 450 other cities around the world to be part of its Global Shapers Community, an initiative it created in 2011 to engage young people in addressing the world’s problems, one community at a time.

Spearheading the effort for Maine is Adam Burk, 35, who runs a nonprofit called The Treehouse Institute and is director of the annual TEDxDirigo conference. Burk recently returned for a week’s training in Geneva and will start looking for 15 to 20 people between the ages of 20 and 30 who want to join the group and work on community projects. Read the story.

MANUFACTURING: Huhtamaki lands big school contract

The Huhtamaki fiber plant in Waterville won a contract last week to provide its novel paper trays to six of the largest school districts in the country.

The trays, which are made from 100 percent compostable paper scraps, are intended to replace Styrofoam-type products currently used in those systems. School managers say the trays send a message to students about environmental responsibility and are nearly as affordable as the serving ware they are replacing. The trays will be used the Urban School Food Alliance in schools in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Orlando and Dallas. Combined, those districts serve 469 million meals annually. Read the story.

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LEGAL: Verso-NewPage merger under review

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., heard oral arguments Monday afternoon on whether Verso Paper Corp.’s acquisition of NewPage Holdings Inc. was in the public interest.

Judge Tanya Chutkan is reviewing the settlement agreement that the U.S. Department of Justice entered into with Verso to allow the $1.4 billion acquisition, which closed in January. That agreement required NewPage to sell its paper mills in Rumford, Maine, and Biron, Wisconsin, to Catalyst Paper in order to prevent the new Verso from controlling too much of the coated paper market in North America.

Monday’s oral arguments are a continuation of the complaint DOJ filed on Dec. 31, 2014, to prevent the acquisition unless the conditions of the agreement are met. Though the DOJ agreement allowed Verso’s acquisition to go ahead, a federal law created in the 1970s called the Tunney Act provides for a public comment period in the wake of such DOJ settlement agreements, according to Kim Tucker, a lawyer from Lincolnville. Representing Local 1821 of International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Tucker argued the merger is against public interest, noting the spate of paper mill layoffs, machine idling and price increases in its wake. Read the story.

REAL ESTATE AND CONSTRUCTION: Train shed project slated to start despite appeal

Crews will start work on an Amtrak train layover facility in Brunswick next month even though the Board of Environmental Protection could kill the project if it rules in favor of a neighborhood group that is appealing a decision to allow construction. Clearing of the site will start as early as Sept. 14 and the superstructure is scheduled to be built this fall, said Matt Tonello, project executive with Consigli Construction, which is building the $12.4 million, 60,000-square-foot train shed. The site is an abandoned rail yard polluted with coal ash. The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, which manages the Downeaster train service, has all the necessary permits to begin construction and is confident that the appeal of a crucial stormwater permit will be rejected, said the authority’s director. Neighbors have opposed the plan because of noise and pollution concerns. Read the story

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New designs unveiled for Portland Co. complex

Developers of a historic Portland property unveiled new images of their plan Wednesday, including original brick facades, new office space and a waterfront plaza. But missing from the renderings was an industrial building that preservationists say needs to stay. The former railroad equipment manufacturer’s erecting shop sits at the entrance to the Portland Co. complex and is among the eight buildings that the city’s Historic Preservation Board is recommending for preservation. In the drawings, however, the shop’s footprint is part of a public plaza that connects Fore Street to the Fore River. The formal unveiling Wednesday and the concern about a missing building highlight the next challenge for the project as developer CPB2 heads toward a Planning Board meeting next month to review historic preservation rules. Read the story.

ENERGY: Heating oil prices fall with crude oil prices

Oil prices continue to slide in Maine, a reflection of falling crude oil prices. Findings from an Aug. 24 poll released by the Governor’s Energy Office Thursday showed the statewide average cash price for No. 2 heating oil was $2.08 per gallon, down 9 cents from two weeks ago. Prices ranged from a high of $2.39 in southwest Maine to a low of $1.74 in southwest, eastern and western parts of the state. According to the federal Energy Information Administration, U.S. crude oil inventories remain extremely high, at levels not seen (in August) for the last 80 years and refineries are operating at near maximum capacity. Gas also fell 5 cents over the previous week’s prices. Read the story

GENERAL BUSINESS: DeCoster maintains ownership, but not management, of egg farms

Austin “Jack” DeCoster, the infamous egg magnate sentenced to jail for his role in a national salmonella outbreak, will have “absolutely no role in the management” of three central Maine egg farms that he owns, according to their new leaseholder. A representative of Hillandale Farms said Tuesday that DeCoster still owns the farms in Turner, Leeds and Winthrop but has no ownership stake in any of the Hillandale companies. Hillandale is a Pennsylvania-based egg producer founded by a longtime ally and business partner of DeCoster, Orland Bethel. Iowa farms controlled by Hillandale and DeCoster were at the center of a 2010 salmonella outbreak estimated to have sickened more than 56,000 people nationwide and resulted in the recall of half a billion eggs. In the aftermath of the outbreak, for which DeCoster was sentenced to three months in jail, he announced he was turning over his farms to a Land O’Lakes subsidiary. The subsidiary reached an agreement in July to sell the lease to Hillandale. The farms are still owned by DeCoster’s companies. Read the story.


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