BUCKSPORT - In an effort to ensure a qualified, versatile work force in the face of anticipated retirements, Verso Paper Co. recently has beefed up its staff at its two mills in Maine.

For the first time in several years, the company advertised for workers at its Maine mills in Bucksport and Jay and has hired close to 200 permanent and temporary employees going into the summer. According to Verso spokesman Bill Cohen, the company has hired 20 permanent employees and 79 temporary summer employees at the mill in Bucksport and 32 permanent and 78 temporary summer employees at its Androscoggin mill in Jay. Read More

By Rich Hewitt
Bangor Daily News Staff

A four-year-old Orono technology company has won a nearly $500,000 boost from a federal grant program to help bring its innovative filtration technology to the commercial market. It's a technology that company President Susan MacKay says could revolutionize the nation's biofuels industry.

Last month, Zeomatrix received a $489,645 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Science Foundation for its Z-SEP product, a ceramic filtration device for processing and separating fuel from biomass. The SBIR grant program helps cutting-edge R&D companies bring their products to market. The two-year award is the second round of funding Zeomatrix has received from the foundation, building off $120,000 the company already won for a feasibility study on the technology.

Chris Sauer, left, CEO of Ocean Renewable Power Co., and Chris Higgins, president of Stillwater Metalworks, stand in front of a frame for a tidal turbine unitA local metalworking company, of all things, has become part of an effort to make Maine a national leader in tidal ocean energy.

Stillwater Metalworks in Bangor has teamed up with Ocean Renewable Power Co. of Portland to deploy a turbine unit off the coast of Eastport that will be the largest ocean energy device ever submerged in U.S. waters. The eight-employee firm assembled and fabricated steel components for a 46-foot-wide support structure for the installation, unveiled this afternoon at its Florida Avenue facility.

By Robert M. Cook

An Australian firm has reached an agreement to assume control of Telford Aviation Services' commercial aircraft maintenance and repair facilities at Bangor International Airport in a deal that will save 30 jobs.

Officials with C&L Aerospace Ltd., headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, indicated their deal with Telford's parent company, Milwaukee-based ACC Holdings Inc., is contingent upon the new venture's qualification for Maine Pine Tree Zone tax incentives, as well as progress in current lease discussions with Bangor International Airport, according to a release from the company.

Bob Ziegelaar, general manager of ACC/Telford Aviation in Bangor, says the deal means that 30 jobs that were uncertain as the company transitioned to new ownership under ACC Holdings will now be preserved. ACC Holdings, a cargo company, bought The Telford Group last September.

Ziegelaar told Mainebiz that Telford's existing composites shop at BIA was part of the attraction for C&L Aerospace, which wants to expand its work in aviation composites.

"I am very optimistic that they will be growing at this location," Ziegelaar says.

Ziegelaar reached out to C&L Aerospace officials after ACC Holdings announced it would close the Telford Aviation Bangor facility earlier this year. He says C&L Aerospace had been a customer of ACC Holdings in the past and has a strong international presence with facilities in the United Kingdom, Warsaw, Poland and California.

Ziegelaar says the deal is also good news for Bangor International Airport, which needs aviation businesses to thrive.

"Where there are one or two, there are likely more to follow," Ziegelaar says.

ACC Holdings had previously indicated it would close the Bangor facilities after acquiring The Telford Group because commercial aircraft maintenance activities represented a small part of its overall operations. At that time, Telford employed 67 people in Bangor.

C&L Aerospace Managing Director Chris Kilgour anticipates a new corporation will be formed to assume control of the former ACC/Telford aircraft maintenance facility by the end of April.

"I am well aware of the quality and commitment Maine workers tend to bring to the workplace and I plan to provide them with an international platform that will play to their strength, so we can steadily expand our Bangor presence going forward," said Kilgour in a prepared statement.

Attempts to reach Brian Gillstrom, marketing director at ACC Holdings, for comment Friday were unsuccessful.

Source: www.MaineBiz.biz

A public-private partnership has been awarded a $25.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce to expand broadband access in Maine.  The project, called the Three Ring Binder, will create an 1,100 mile fiber optic network consisting of three redundant loops covering northern, eastern and western Maine.  

The network will pass through more than 100 communities, allowing telecommunications providers to connect small businesses and home to the network.  It will be privately owned and operated.

The project also presents a unique opportunity to create data centers in the place or alongside Maine’s traditional industry mills.  These mills often have onsite electricity and cooling, which are key needs for data centers.  Now, data centers can be located in rural Maine with high-speed connectivity to the rest of the U.S. to the south and to Canada and Europe to the north.

Great Works Internet of Biddeford is leading the project, with partners in other telecommunications companies as well as the University of Maine System and other non-profit entities. The grant, one of 18 projects funded nationwide through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will be supplemented by nearly $7 million in private investment.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke visited Bangor in December to announce the award.  He stressed the project’s importance to economic development, research and development, education and health care.

A local metalworking company, of all things, has become part of an effort to make Maine a national leader in tidal ocean energy.
Stillwater Metalworks in Bangor has teamed up with Ocean Renewable Power Co. of Portland to deploy a turbine unit off the coast of Eastport that will be the largest ocean energy device ever submerged in U.S. waters. The eight-employee firm assembled and fabricated steel components for a 46-foot-wide support structure for the installation, unveiled this afternoon at its Florida Avenue facility.

"It's so different than anything we've ever worked on before," says Stillwater President Chris Higgins, adding that tidal energy projects will represent a significant part of the company's future business. "This really opens the doors."
Harbor Technologies of Brunswick manufactured composite components for the frame.
Today's unveiling marks a final step leading to a major milestone for ORPC slated next month. The company will submerge the device -- comprised of a 10,000-pound electric generator flanked by yet-to-be installed hydrokinetic turbines -- early next month in Cobscook Bay. With a capacity of 60 kilowatts, and drawing energy from tides that rise upwards of 20 feet twice a day, the unit will be the largest of its kind ever in U.S. waters, according to ORPC.

"This is a huge deal," says Chris Sauer, ORPC's CEO. "We'll really establish Eastport as the tidal energy center of the U.S."
ORPC began testing a prototype of the turbine off the coast in late 2007. If all goes well during a two-month testing phase of its latest design, during which the Eastport Coast Guard station will draw electricity from the device, ORPC plans to have a commercial-scale tidal generator unit connected to the electric grid by the end of the year. Sauer hopes to have 200 megawatts of capacity installed by 2015.

The Portland firm has also teamed up with US Windblade and Custom Composite Technologies in Bath, as well as the University of Maine, Maine Maritime Academy and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.

Bangor's Stillwater Metalworks, founded in 2002 under BanAir Corp.'s business incubator program, has proven itself adaptive and well suited to work with ORPC far into the future, according to Sauer. "These are not off-the-shelf components, obviously," he says. "This is new technology."

BY JACKIE FARWELL
Mainebiz Staff Reporter

 
©2010 New England Business Media

Bangor ranked number 23 among Money Magazine’s Best Places to Retire, one of only three northeastern cities to make the cut. The city’s much older population, small town atmosphere and wide variety of activities for seniors were among the top reasons why the magazine’s editors chose Bangor.  The two others were Philadelphia, ranked No. 10, and Providence, R.I., which came in at No. 17, according to the article, which can be seen on the magazine’s Web site.

The profile also noted that the region in which Bangor is located “has four distinct seasons, and outdoor enthusiasts can enjoy snowmobiling and cross-country skiing in the winter and switch to golfing, fishing and hiking when the weather turns. Acadia National Park and Baxter State Park are about 90 minutes away, but there are 30 parks in Bangor. The City Forest comprises 650 acres with 5 miles of biking and cross-country trails.

The profile doesn’t, however, mention that Greater Bangor has a wide range of amenities that retirees might be drawn to. These include two major hospitals, the Hammond Street Senior Center, a public bus system, a number of assisted living and senior housing facilities and several educational institutions, to name a few.

The magazine looked at nearly 2,000 communities before coming up with its list of the top 25 places to retire. Selection factors included tax rates, recreational opportunities, medical care, arts and culture, housing costs, income and age ranges, job growth, fastest and slowest commutes, weather, air cleanliness and statistics regarding rich singles.

Good news for Bangor International Airport came from Allegiant Air as it announced that it will expand its service at BIA through a twice-weekly non-stop service between Bangor and the Tampa Bay area. The new route started on November 20 at an introductory rate of $89.99.

Forbes magazine recently issued its list of the 20 best franchises in the nation. So who made it in? Bangor franchise Coffee News ranked 18th with a worldwide circulation of 7 million readers.  

Coffee News has 725 franchises in the United States, including 29 in Maine from Kittery to Caribou, Buckley says. It claims a worldwide weekly readership of 7 million, and Buckley estimates about 200,000 per week in Maine. The operation charges $8,000 for the first franchise and $5,500 for subsequent franchises. With recent declines in home equity loans, home values and available credit, Coffee News is for the first time working with outside lenders to finance new franchises, including a local bank that may soon finance franchises nationwide, Buckley says.

Though recognized several times over the years by Entrepreneur magazine, Coffee News has earned its first-ever recognition from Forbes, a fact Buckley attributes to the glossy magazine's recent effort to attract franchisers to its ad base. "We're just flabbergasted," he told Mainebiz. "Not that we think we didn't deserve it. We didn't think people would notice. We're a niche publication; we're not The Wall Street Journal."

The Air National Guard base in Bangor is expected to construct a $28 million hangar as part of the President’s new budget. The hangar will provide space for crews to do scheduled maintenance checks on the bases 10 KC 135 aircraft. These aircraft perform aerial refueling with other planes.