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| Contributed photo Congressman Mike Michaud visited the Maine Military Authority on Aug. 13; pictured viewing an impressive SCTV (Survivable Combat Tactic Vehicle) recently refurbished at the famed Limestone facility are, from left, Tim Corbett, CEO of the Maine Military Authority; Rob McAleer, director of the Maine Emergency Management Agency, Mark Bouchard, director of logistics, Congressman Michaud and Terry Susee, director of production. |
By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — The Maine Military Authority was recently awarded a $40 million dollar contract from the Army National Guard Bureau for Humvee maintenance, which enabled the Limestone facility to re-hire 26 mechanics previously laid off in March of 2011.
The $40 million will yield the refurbishment (and cost-saving reuse) of over 725 Humvees for the National Guard Bureau.
Thirteen of the newly re-hired individuals had already clocked in at MMA as of Aug. 13, and the rest are slated to re-join the skilled crew on Monday, Aug. 20.
“This has been received obviously very well,” said CEO of the Maine Military Authority Tim Corbett, adding that people generally feel that MMA is on the upswing — a sentiment the CEO whole-heartedly believes. “I think we have some things in the pipeline that we’ll be able to keep some momentum going, and hope that we can call more people back in the not-so-distant future.”
Projects in the pipeline include the School Bus Refurbishment Program, which takes the bodies of winter-ravaged buses, tears them down to the frame and puts them solidly back together — extending a bus’ life by seven to 10 years for less than half the cost of buying a brand new bus.
“The [bus] program is build around body and frame corrosion mitigation,” MMA Director of Business Development Tim McCabe explained to The Aroostook Republican back in May. “The price tag for us to refurbish a bus is about $30,000 and the price of a brand new bus is about $85,000.”
While MMA currently has about two buses being refurbished at any given time at the Limestone facilities, Corbett believes that number will increase from two to four, and then six or even eight.
“One of the problems we’re having with the school bus program is that it was approved by the legislature after the school districts had already formed their budgets,” he explained. “The schools are very supportive of the concepts that they see, and we’ve been told that as the schools formulate next years’ budgets, they’ll be actually factoring in money for the school bus program, which will be good.”
“The beautiful thing about the school bus program it that it gives school districts a tool to actively manage their fleet,” Corbett added.
Be it bus or Humvee that’s built back up by the skilled MMA workforce, all vehicles now make their way through state of the art facilities that were upgraded over the past year; those upgrades came with an approximate price tag of $10 million and have proved to be money well spent.
The massive upgrade to the facility and equipment (or transformation project, as MMA officials call it) not only improved MMA’s signature standards of yielding high-quality, low-cost refurbished vehicles in a timely fashion, the approximately $10 million in upgrades have already proven their worth in another way.
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| Contributed photo During his visit to the Maine Military Authority on Aug. 13, Congressman Mike Michaud was provided the opportunity to take a passenger seat ride in one of MMA’s famed refurbished vehicles. |
Corbett feels the facility improvements directly impacted the decision to award MMA the $40 million contract.
“A direct result of that transformation project is the $40 million that we were awarded from the National Guard Bureau,” Corbett said. He also stated that the National Guard Bureau has sent senior officials to the Limestone site at least three times since the transformation project was completed, and the general sentiment from those officials was quite positive.
Before the transition project, MMA’s highly skilled work force took about 250 hours to refurbish a Humvee; during a meeting with his directors on Monday, Corbett was informed that it now takes MMA employees about 220-225 hours to rebuild each of those nationally-renowned Humvees.
Corbett said he anticipates that number of hours will drop even more with the rehiring of 26 skilled mechanics, which will only further strengthen MMA’s production line.
“There’s no one in the world who will be able to produce a Humvee as quickly as we can,” Corbett said without a trace of exaggeration. “There’s no doubt about it.”
That confidence in MMA’s abilities has been continuously echoed by the region’s congressional delegation; Corbett cited Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe as well as Congressman Mike Michaud for their support.
Congressman Michaud visits the Limestone facility about twice a year, and spent time there on Aug. 13 learning about MMA’s plans for the future.
Michaud and Maine’s senators praised the announcement of the $40 million contract awarded to MMA last week.
“This funding will not only provide the National Guard with fully refurbished vehicles, but it’s also a shot in the arm for the local economy with the reemployment of a number of highly skilled workers,” Michaud said on Aug. 8, shortly after the announcement. “MMA has shown again and again that they can produce a top-qality vehicle at an extremely efficient rate. I know they will continue their track record of excellence with this new funding.
Sen. Snowe had equally positive remarks about the Maine Military Authority.
“This critical funding is an affirmation of the tremendous skill and dedicated work ethic the employees at Maine Military Authority bring to the table,” the senator said. “It is a testament to all of the men and women at MMA that the National Guard Bureau has recognized the extraordinary value that they are able to provide by quickly and efficiently refurbishing Humvees for the National Guard.
