Maine Military Authority visit by high-ranking officials to hopefully spur additional work

    The agreement would allow the MMA to receive civilian work directly from the Army and/or National Guard. As a state entity, MMA cannot qualify for the same set-aside contracts other small businesses are privileged to and lacks the sheer manpower necessary to bid on billion-dollar contracts.
    “As a state entity, [Maine Military Authority] is sort of stuck in between where we can’t get the same set-aside as small businesses, but we’re not big enough to get the billion-dollar bids,” said MMA Executive Director Tim Corbett.
    Over the years, the MMA has accrued attention of high-ranking congressional, senatorial, and military representatives due to the high quality and low cost of their refurbished vehicles and the precariousness of MMA’s contractual situation.
    “We have worked very closely with Gen. John Libby (adjutant general of the Maine National Guard) and Tim Corbett among others who have worked very hard to make sure that this facility gets the work that it needs to be successful,” Sen. Collins said before the start of Friday’s floor tour. “The Maine Military Authority is a major employer in Aroostook County, approximately 370 individuals work here and we want to showcase the capabilities of this facility. These are jobs that have good benefits, they’re jobs that pay good wages and they’re jobs for the skilled craftspeople that we have in Aroostook County.”
    “I’m confident that this facility can handle anything, and that’s my message to the Army and National Guard officials here today,” she added, “if you need it, we can deliver it under budget, on time and at the highest possibly quality.”
    MMA representatives lead the high-powered group of almost 20 individuals that included special assistant to the Under Secretary of the Army Kathryn Condon; Maj. Gen. Raymond Carpenter, acting director of the Army National Guard; Maj. Gen. Libby and Sen. Collins through the facility —affectionately known “Blue Goose” — to get a first-hand view of the refurbishment processes underway and the people who have reconstructed almost 10,000 Humvees since MMA first opened in 1997.
    Those 10,000 Humvees have made their way into the world, and stories have filtered to back the MMA mechanics about how Guardsmen hope to be assigned a unit with an MMA sticker on it because they know that an MMA sticker means a good vehicle.
    Pointing to his heart, Byron “Barney” Skidgel of Caribou said “[stories like that] makes you feel good right in here, because you know you’re doing something good and you know that it’s your kids or my kids that might be over there next, so you’ve got to do a good job and you’ve got to do the best you can; that’s one of the only ways that we can do our little part up here.”
    Skidgel, currently a supervisor, has been a mechanic with MMA since they opened in ’97. Currently he and his crew are working on refurbishing Howitzers, (and his grandkids think it’s awesome.)
    In order to properly refurbish the Howitzers, a couple of his crew members will devote themselves to one specific unit, from breakdown to buildup, ensuring that it’s done right.
    Of course, MMA mechanics don’t just tear down and rebuild the units that they work on. They take it to the next level and will breakdown the components of each part to make sure that it works, and it works right.
    Many places that do similar vehicle maintenance will take a piece off of a vehicle and replace it with a new one, but you won’t find Skidgel doing that, you won’t find the members of his crew doing that, and you won’t find any MMA employee doing such a replacement. Instead, “we take the part off, put it into 40 pieces, figure out what we can do to make it work, and then put it back,” Skidgel said. As a result, an MMA mechanic will put $25 worth of solidly placed parts back into the vehicle instead of buying a new $500 item. Furthermore, some of the parts necessary to fix some of the older vehicles are few and far between. That’s where the general know-how of MMA workers comes into play; they’ll either modify an existing part from a tractor shop or other alternative source or they’ll head down to the machine shop and make their own part.
    “What has always impressed me in my previous visits to the MMA was the innovation that I saw,” Sen. Collins said. “I remember talking to one mechanic who had developed a whole new tool in order to make the refurbishment of some part of the Humvee more efficient and more cost effective, and that’s the kind of ingenuity among the Maine workforce that I look forward to showing these officials today.”

Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
    Maine Military Authority employee Marvin Jenson of Perham explains the work he does to Sen. Collins and Maj. Gen. Raymond Carpenter, acting director of the Army National Guard.

    Jokingly, Collins also added that she had told Maj. Gen. Libby that the work at MMA is so thorough that they even put that “new Humvee smell” in every refurbished vehicle.
    All joking aside, while few questions the quality and cost effectiveness of refurbished vehicles from the MMA, obtaining enough contractual funding to keep employees is an ongoing factor.
    “The budget this year for the facility is not quite at the level that I would like to see, so we’re working to try to identify work that the Army needs to be done that could be done here that would help keep the workers employed and it would also guarantee that the Army would get the best value for its dollar,” Sen. Collins said.
    Before the budget can be solidified, the need for refurbished military vehicles needs to be established.
    “We have to figure out what our requirements are and, based upon those requirements, figure out how we can get the best deal for the taxpayer and the best product for our soldiers as they pursue their responsibilities,” said Maj. Gen. Carpenter. “The effort here is to get the best product for the lowest price.”
    As the tour concluded, Sen. Collins was confident that the Army and National Guard officials were impressed by what they saw.
    “My hope is that this will motivate all of these officials to identify work that can keep this facility going strong,” she said.