Today's headlines
Friday, May 9, 2008

Otten launches wood pellet co.
Les Otten, the former ski resort owner, is investing $10 million to launch a wood pellet company in Maine with the ambitious goal of converting thousands of homes in the Northeast from oil to wood pellet central heating systems.

Maine Energy Systems, based in Bethel, will begin installing boiler systems in homes this summer, according to the Portland Press Herald. In five years, Otten hopes to replace 10% of Maine's heating oil consumption, or roughly 44,000 residences, with wood pellet fuel, the paper said. He also aims to expand into New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and New York.

Wood pellet heating systems are common in Europe, but they are an evolving market in this country. Otten and two partners, William Strauss, president of the Bethel-based FutureMetrics financial forecasting firm, and Harry "Dutch" Dresser, a former Gould Academy associate headmaster, risk oil prices retreating, the Press Herald said. They must also convince homeowners to invest in the system, which costs about $12,500, nearly twice as much as an oil boiler. But, once installed, the company says a wood pellet system will save the average home more than $1,000 a year.

Harvesting the wood and installing the equipment would create more than 1,500 Maine jobs, according to the paper.

Athletic chain sells stores
Sportshoe Center, an athletic footwear and apparel chain based in Kennebunk, plans to sell six of its 14 stores, including two in Maine.

The company plans to sell its Wells and Scarborough locations, as well as stores in Manchester, Vt., and Lake George, N.Y., to Westbrook-based Olympia Sports, according to Seacoastonline.com. Two stores in Londonderry and Merrimack, N.H., were recently purchased by an employee. Sportshoe President Marc Brunelle told the news website that the stores were profitable, but he wants to reallocate his holdings from retail to other unspecified opportunities, and that there likely would be further downsizing of the company’s eight remaining stores later this year.

Sportshoe Center also has stores in Kennebunk, Saco and Bangor.

ME may update single payer study
Gov. John Baldacci will ceremonially sign a resolution today that allows the Legislature to pursue updating a study on establishing a single payer healthcare system in Maine.

Resolve, LD 1072, appropriates $5,750 to hire a grant writer to apply for all of the funds necessary to update a 2002 study on creating a single-payer health care system in Maine, according to the bill. The study update is expected to cost $60,000, and the resolution says all of that money must come from grants.

If the Legislature has not secured the funding by August 1, the state will incur no further expenses for the new study.

Irving Oil gives up control of ME stores
Nearly 125 Irving Oil convenience stores in New England will be under new management this July.

Irving Oil Ltd., based in St. John, New Brunswick, is leasing 252 of its convenience stores, including 124 in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Vermont, to Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., a convenience store operator based in Quebec.

Under the deal, expected to close this July, Couche-Tard will purchase store equipment and inventory, while Irving will own the fuel pumps and canopies, according to a press release from Irving. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Ellsworth firm sues Mass. developer
An Ellsworth real estate company is suing a Massachusetts-based developer who brought a Lowe’s home improvement store to town for breach of contract.

Beechland Corp. recently filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Bangor against Topsfield Real Estate Corp. of Topsfield, Mass., which in 2005 paid Beechland $1.6 million for land that now holds a Lowe’s retail store, according to the Bangor Daily News. According to the lawsuit, the sales contract required Topsfield to pick up part of the tab associated with improvements to the site.

Beechland claims Topsfield Real Estate refused to pay $150,000 for costs associated with building a new pumping station at the site of the Lowe’s store, the paper said.

The good: Portland-based Hydro International bought its main competitor in the storm and wasterwater treatment market for $8.5 million in cash; the University of New England and the University of Southern Maine received nearly $1 million in grants to study health care reform in New England; and the U.S. Army awarded Bangor-based Telford Aviation $75 million to continue maintenance work on military aircraft and aerial surveillance equipment.

The bad: The internal dispute at Bath Iron Works' largest union have heated up with mention of a lawsuit. Four ousted leaders of BIW's Local S6 union are planning to sue their parent organization, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, for defaming them with allegations of financial mismanagement and the viewing of pornography on union computers, the Times Record reported. The local officials claim the parent union's investigation is a retaliation against the officers' reluctance to use local member dues to fund the union's political action organization.

The common cents: A nickel may soon not have much nickel. The U.S. House of Representatives recently unanimously approved a bill to change the makeup of the penny and nickel because the cost of their metals outweighs their value, according to the Associated Press. The bill directs the U.S. Mint to replace zinc and copper pennies with copper-plated steel pennies, and switch out most of the nickel in nickels for steel. Proponents say it could save the country $1 billion over a decade, but the bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate.