Federal funding for a new National Guard Readiness Center in Presque Isle cleared a major hurdle on Wednesday when the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee approved $17.5 million for the project.
The funding is included in the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, which will now be considered by the full Senate, according to U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, who sits on the appropriations panel and submitted the funding request.
“A new center is essential for the 185th Engineer Support Company of the Maine National Guard to maintain its recruiting efforts as well as the readiness levels we ask of them to provide security for our nation,” Collins said in a press release announcing the funding approval Thursday.
The money is to be used to build an energy efficient, 43,400 square foot training facility at a 10-acre site in the Skyway Industrial Park, near Northern Maine Community College.
The readiness center will be home to the engineering unit and will replace an older building with significant repair needs currently used in Caribou, Maj. Norman Stickney, Maine National Guard public affairs officer, told the Bangor Daily News in May.
Construction is slated to start next spring and finish by late 2019, with the National Guard company set to move in early in 2020, Stickney said.
Collins said Thursday that she asked appropriations committee members last May to include the funding and that she emphasized the importance of the facility during an appropriations subcommittee hearing last month.
Stickney said last spring that the readiness center will house a general purpose maintenance bay for servicing the engineering unit’s equipment and vehicles, as well as offices, an assembly hall, class rooms and a fitness room.
“The facility will contain the latest in sustainability features,” Stickney said. The building will be powered with a photovoltaic solar array and combined heat and power units that generate electricity and capture heat for the building.
The Maine National Guard’s 185th Engineer Support Company includes about 120 Guard members who are based at the main Caribou facility and a site in Houlton.
Stickney said that the unit is expected to grow to 150 members by the time the new building is complete. About 60 positions will remain in Houlton and about 90 positions will be stationed in Presque Isle.
The Maine Army National Guard also completed a new Army Aviation Readiness Center in Bangor in 2015, and there are plans for a readiness center for southern Maine in Saco.
