Mainebiz

V O L . X X X N O. X X I I I O C T O B E R 7 , 2 0 2 4 6 Maine roads get federal relief e U.S. Department of Transportation awarded a total of $1.5 million in grant funding for emergency repairs made to Maine roads and highways damaged by storms in June and December 2023, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins announced. e funding was awarded through the Federal Highway Administration's Emergency Relief Program. MaineDOT in Franklin County received $1 million; Maine Coastal Islands Complex, Rockland, $220,709; Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, Wells, $149,196; and Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, Baring; $60,000. N O T E W O R T H Y S T A T E W I D E The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration awarded a total of $793,953 to four emergency medical service departments through its Supporting and Improving Rural EMS Needs grant program. Brooks Ambulance Service, MaineHealth and Northern Oxford Regional Ambulance Service each received $200,000 and United Ambulance Service received $193,953. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King announced that six Maine police de- partments were awarded a total of $2.1 million through the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services grant programs. FAME loan will help create and retain jobs A growing optics company in Portland won approval of a $1 million loan from the Finance Authority of Maine, and will use the money to pay for new construc- tion that's expected to help retain 10 jobs and create more than eight in the near future. FAME's board of directors approved the loan for Sawyer Enterprises LLC, which does business as FISBA North America. e company is a preci- sion manufacturer of microphotonics — a branch of technology that deals with directing light on a microscopic scale and is used in optical networking. Sawyer deploys microphotonics in optical designs that are used in medical and life sciences. N O T E W O R T H Y S O U T H E R N NBT Bancorp Inc., a financial holding company headquartered in Norwich, N.Y. with a location in Portland, and Evans Bancorp Inc., a financial holding compa- ny headquartered in Williamsville, N.Y., announced they have entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which Evans will merge into NBT. Southern Maine Community College in South Portland announced the opening of a Veterans Resource Center, the first of its kind among Maine's community colleges. Penobscot General Contractors, a commercial general contractor in Falmouth, said it has transitioned its ownership structure to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. The city of Portland announced that it was upgraded by Moody's Ratings to Aaa, the highest rating it offers. The B U S I N E S S M A I N E Business news from around the state S T A T E W I D E S O U T H E R N SP ONSORED BY How the Mainebiz '40 Under 40' took root B y P e t e r V a n A l l e n T his issue features the third annual "40 Under 40" awards. The program's origins actually go back fur- ther, to the Mainebiz Next List. For more than a decade, Mainebiz honored up-and-coming business leaders. The idea was to feature those "next" in line to take a major role in a business, nonprofit, professional services firm or health care institution. Our sister publications, the Worcester Business Journal and Hartford Business Journal, both had a long history of presenting a broader list of up-and-comers, the 40 Under 40. And of course other publications beyond those had been doing such honors for decades. There was a groundswell of interest in taking on a 40 Under 40 program at Mainebiz, but there were naysayers who worried that, with such a small state population, Maine would have a tougher time sustaining that kind of award. That hasn't been an issue, and we've been surprised by the interest the program has had among the business com- munity, which has provided a steady stream of nominees. From the start, our inaugural class of 40 Under 40s offered some surprises. As I reported in the editor's note in the Oct. 3, 2022, issue, despite their youth, the original crew paid tribute to authors like Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson and Bertrand Russell, while quoting from Teddy Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr. Even their TV and movie favorites had a classic feel. They cited shows like "Friends," whose original run was 1994–2004, "The Sopranos" (1999–2007) and "The West Wing" (1999–2006) — shows only picked up in syndication today or on platforms like Amazon Prime. We found, too, that the group of 40 was an ideal net- working group, and even the group photo shoot was an opportunity to interact. It was a fast-paced, ever-changing group; even in the course of putting together the print edition, at least two of the honorees had changed jobs. FUN FACT: The profiles of the "40 Under 40" honorees, then as now, were based on a questionnaire they filled out. In the first year of the honors, 2022, one of the questions was, "Do you have a Big Hairy Audacious Goal?" Many of you will rec- ognize the reference to Jim Collins' classic business book, "Built to Last." But we soon realized that the "BHAG," as it was known, might have been more com- mon in the 1990s. When "Built to Last" was published in 1994, even the oldest 40 Under 40 honoree would have been in 5th grade. Since then we've modified the question to ask about an "audacious goal" and have left it at that. The Mainebiz 40 Under 40 evolved out of the Next List awards, which featured nine people the first year.

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