By Deanna Jordan
Staff Writer
Topics of discussion during the August 14 executive meeting of the Northern Maine Development Commission included two grants, one of which has been awarded while the other is still in the planning stages.
Money that has been awarded to the NMDC is for a Small Business Energy Cost Reduction Program (SBECR), from the USDA Rural Development program, which will assist small businesses in their energy costs. The grant of $192,000 will be put toward 60 percent of the energy audit costs of qualifying businesses in the NMDC area of operation. NMDC staff will also assist in the audit process and will help the business owners to follow up with energy cost reduction recommendations.
The second grant hasn’t been finalized or given out yet, but they are still in the planning stages as to what the money will go to if and when NMDC receives the grant. This possible $250,000 grant will be split up between NMDC, Eastern Maine Development Corporation, Kennebec Valley Council of Governments and the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments. Awarded by the Economic Development Administration, these potential funds will be made available to assist communities after the flooding that occurred this spring.
The money would go to research into how the flooding affected the economy and businesses. After the data has been collected, NMDC, in cooperation with the Maine Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), would begin planning a risk management model for the businesses within the disaster-declared and disaster prone areas.
They would also be looking into businesses and organizations that are available to help employers with disaster response and recovery. NMDC and MEMA would then start working on specific plans for businesses to help them handle a future disaster situation.
In addition to the plans, NMDC would also put out printed and online information about disaster response and recovery, which would be made available to employers.
The final stage of the plan would be to put together all the collected information and make it available for disbursement to other areas of the state not included in the grant award.
Alain Ouellette, director of planning and development at NMDC, says “this is not something that has been awarded yet, but it does represent an important joint effort on the part of NMDC and the Economic Development Administration to help address disaster mitigation and planning.”
Ouellette added that they hope to have everything in place and have the grant money by October of this year.