Pelletier appointed to taskforce
Officials with the Maine State Planning Office have announced the appointment of eight new leaders to its Broadband Capacity Building Task Force, including an Aroostook County man.
Officials credited taskforce appointee Ryan Pelletier, director of Workforce Development for the Northern Maine Development Commission, to work in the nexus between technical education and economic development in rural Maine.
The Task Force’s job is to recommend regulatory, investment and best-practice strategies for expanding the availability and use of high-speed Internet in rural Maine.
UMFK/MSAD 27 receive $2.6 million for biomass system
Officials with the USDA Rural Development, the University of Maine at Fort Kent and the Maine School Administrative District 27 have announced the awarding of a $2.6 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to construct a biomass heating system to heat 11 buildings on the UMFK and Fort Kent Community High School campuses.
“We are thrilled about this,” stated Virginia Manuel, USDA Rural Development state director. “Because there are very few of these grants that get awarded nationwide. “This grant will be used to basically fund a new district heating plant what would support a street area in Fort Kent where the UMFK is and the high school is along that street as well. It’s a college community project that’s been under development for five years, called Pleasant Street Academy, a joint venture between UMFK and SAD 27,” she added.
The $3 million project is expected to save the two institutions more than $4 million in energy costs during the next 10 years.
“This new heating system will reduce energy costs by 80 percent, which is staggering in a county like Aroostook — being able to reduce their energy costs by that much is hugely significant,” said Manuel.
The project will utilize woodchips or other sources of natural fuel.
Wood chips are available at an “energy equivalent” price that is approximately 80 percent lower than the cost of heating oil. That would cut heating costs for the affected facilities and enable UMFK and SAD 27 to save $282,389 in the first year alone, based on a cost of $2.83 per gallon for fuel oil and $40 a ton for wood chips.
