Feds pump $275,000 into northern Maine manufacturing program
The Northern Maine Development Commission will receive $275,000 from the federal government’s “Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership” to promote manufacturing in northern Maine.
Mike Eisensmith, NMDC’s director of regional planning, told the Bangor Daily News the grant would be used to promote the manufacturing of biomass heating appliances in northern Maine. That focus is an outgrowth of the Biomass Clean Tech Manufacturing Cluster Strategic Plan developed by Mobilize Maine.
The project will take a two-pronged approach, with one path exploring an in-region design and manufacturing capability and the other developing a strategy to attract a European manufacturer of biomass heating appliances to the region, according to an NMDC press release. The monies are coming from a $200,000 award from the U.S. Department of Commerce and a $75,000 award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development program.
“This funding will build on the focus that NMDC and the Aroostook Partnership for Progress have had on promoting the use of wood pellets and chips as primary heating alternatives for County businesses and homes,” said Eisensmith in the NMDC release. “It will leverage the expertise and connections that we have developed over the past two years into tangible jobs and new business in the region.”
NMDC is the only organization in Maine to receive funding in the first round of grants awarded through the federal government’s “Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership,” an Obama administration initiative to accelerate the resurgence of manufacturing in the United States.
As one of 44 organizations nationwide receiving grants in the first round, NMDC will be eligible to apply for up to $25 million in funding that will be awarded to each of six to nine organizations in the second round of funding. That funding is designed to implement manufacturing plans developed in the first round.
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