Mainebiz

V O L . X X I X N O. I I JA N UA R Y 2 3 , 2 0 2 3 6 U.S. Sen. Susan Collins announced that the fiscal year 2023 government funding package that was recently signed into law included $503 mil- lion to continue the modernization of Dry Dock #1 at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery. The legislation includes a provision requiring the Navy to induct a class of at least 100 apprentices at the shipyard and to provide $2.5 million to help plan and design a new on-site day care center. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection an- nounced the recipients of the sec- ond round of Waste Diversion Grant awards for recycling and organ- ics management projects state- wide. Recipients included Auburn School Department/ShareCenter, Auburn, $40,000; town of Montville Transfer Station, $30,000; city of Rockland, $13,701; city of Portland, $9,000; and town of Ogunquit, $7,327. Maine Community Bank in Westbrook donated a total of $50,000 to 12 food organizations in Central and Southern Maine to help curb food insecurity in Maine. Partners Bank in Sanford, in col- laboration with Maine's Channel 8 WMTW and Maine's United Way partner program, Keep ME Warm, raised $250,000 for heat- ing assistance. The funds will be divided amongst the United Way of Southern New Hampshire and the Keep ME Warm fund. The Maine Community Foundation in Ellsworth announced that its Maine Land Protection grant pro- gram awarded a total of $173,600 to seven nonprofit conservation projects that will conserve more than 4,000 acres across the state, including 70-plus acres that will be returned to Wabanaki tribes. In addition, the foundation awarded 14 nonprofit lead- ers of color from across the state B U S I N E S S M A I N E Business news from around the state N O T E W O R T H Y S O U T H E R N S O U T H E R N N O T E W O R T H Y M I D C O A S T & D O W N E A S T M I D C O A S T & D O W N E A S T B R I E F Maine Law starts 'next chapter,' unveiling new home in Portland B y R e n e e C o r d e s P o r t l a n d — Reflecting on her own law school days, Gov. Janet Mills helped inaugurate the new home of the University of Maine School of Law in Portland. "I learned to think on my feet and perfect my research skills," Mills said of her time on the school's law review in her last year, during which she recalls eating a lot of choco- late and drinking a lot of coffee. Forty seven years after Mills graduated in 1976, Maine's first female attorney general and first female governor cut the ribbon on Maine's new home at 300 Fore St. at a Jan. 12 ceremony and open house attended by hundreds. The leased building formerly housed the Council on International Education Exchange, which eliminated 248 jobs at the start of the pandemic. The nonprofit has since moved to South Portland. Maine Law moved in after renovating a 64,000-square- foot building that brings students to the heart of the city's Old Port, close to state and federal courts and the offices of several law firms. The building also puts Maine Law under the same roof as the University of Maine Graduate and Professional Center, the University of Maine Graduate School of Business and the University of Maine Portland Gateway, along with offices of the University of Maine Foundation and the University of Southern Maine's Muskie School of Public Service. Maine Law Dean Leigh Saufley, a Maine Law alumna and former chief justice of Maine's Supreme Judicial Court, remarked on how the building renovation had been completed in "20 short months." "If people tell you that the University of Maine System doesn't know how to be nimble. they're wrong," Saufley said at the opening event. In a shoutout to Consigli Construction, she said: "They still kept us on budget at a time when everything was challenging in the construction world ... and managed a very challenging timeframe." Saufley emphasized that the most important reason for the move is the students, a theme that University of Maine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy also touched on in his remarks. "Law schools," he said, "are nothing less than citadels of freedom." P H O T O / R E N E E C O R D E S MAINE LAW'S NEW HOME 300 Fore St., Portland / 64,000 square feet 9 classrooms with state- of-the-art technology, cus- tomizable furnishings and natural light and extensive small group study spaces Legal Aid clinics combined on one floor to be more comfortable, convenient and accessible to clients with an additional 1,000 square feet of space Amenities include parents' room, prayer room, cafe, bike storage room, showers and lockers Close to state and federal courts Opportunities for interdis- ciplinary and collabora- tive work with university partners Gov. Janet Mills cuts the ribbon at Maine Law's new home on Fore Street, assisted by UMaine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy and Trish Riley, chair of the board of trustees. F I L E P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY Leigh Saufley in front of 300 Fore St. in Portland

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