Mainebiz

V O L . X X X I I N O. X V J U LY 1 3 , 2 0 2 6 6 EPA backs Maine cleanup with $14.5M e U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $14.5 million to Maine communities for the assess- ment, cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated properties. Funding includes $9.5 million in brownfield grants and $5 million in supplemen- tal funding for revolving loan fund programs. N O T E W O R T H Y S T A T E W I D E AARP said that 15 organizations through- out Maine received a total of $136,000 in 2026 Community Challenge grants. Historic UNE building faces new renovation e University of New England is renovating an historic former church on the Portland campus to become the new home of the college bookstore, meeting spaces and a grab-and-go food court. N O T E W O R T H Y S O U T H E R N Waypoint Maine, a provider of programs and services for children and adults with autism and intellectual and devel- opmental disabilities based in Sanford, announced the expansion of its Assistive Technology with the addition of the CITE Library, offering a variety of assistive technology devices available on site for hands-on exploration. Ziggi's Coffee at 3 Waterfall Drive in Saco reopened under new ownership. Recreative + co., a design agency in Kittery, designed and launched the brand for the new Kittery Wine Bar located at 10 Walker St. in Kittery. Summit Natural Gas of Maine in Portland, a subsidiary of Summit Utilities, launched Contractor Connect, a program for HVAC contractors who can earn $500 per gas meter installed when they submit a quali- fying lead and complete the installation. The city of Portland announced that it is in the process of being awarded a $2.1 million grant from the Federal Highway 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 An Aroostook County sawmill that produces construction's essential lumber B y L a u r i e S c h r e i b e r A n Aroostook County sawmill that produces basic lum- ber products used in nearly any construction job is set to expand. The Ashland sawmill, which is owned by J.D. Irving Ltd. subsidiary Irving Forest Products Inc., plans to double its production from 130 million board feet a year to 250 mil- lion board feet. The basic products fall into the "dimensional" lumber category — including the two-by-fours that make up the basics of most construction framing. Although called the Ashland sawmill, the facility is across the town line, at 1218 Portage Road in Nashville Plantation. It's an area that has been defined by the forest products sector. The multimillion-dollar project to modernize and expand the sawmill will, in addition to doubling output, add signifi- cantly to its workforce, going from the equivalent of 140 full-time positions to 220. "With the planned expansion, the Ashland mill is expected to remain a top employer and economic engine in Aroostook County," said Renee Ouellette, board chair at the Finance Authority of Maine, which awarded new markets tax credit financing to assist with an expansion. FAME administers the Maine New Markets Capital Investment Program in cooperation with Maine Revenue Services. The program aims to stimulate economic growth and community development in low-income areas of Maine by attracting private investment through tax incentives. The program allows eligible investors to claim tax credits against state taxes in amounts up to 39% of a project's total cost. The last rebuild In 2014, Irving invested $30 million in the Ashland facility, including the installation of biomass boilers, dry kilns and a planer mill to produce softwood lumber, producing over 100 million board feet per year at that time. In the decade after that investment, the mill produced more than one billion board feet of lumber — enough to frame out 80,000 homes. The wood log supply for the sawmill is procured from the company's Maine freehold woodlands as well as other woodlot and timberland owners in the state. Additional expansions Founded in 1882, J.D. Irving Ltd. is headquartered in Saint John, New Brunswick, with its Maine district headquarters in Fort Kent. Irving has sawmill and woodland operations in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and in Maine. Earlier this year, an Irving subsidiary, Atlas Structural Systems, opened a factory in Lewiston — the first facility in the U.S. for the maker of factory-made wall, roof and floor systems that can be trucked to a job site and installed with a crane. In early 2025, Irving Forest Products, which owns and operates wood processing facilities in Maine and New York State, acquired a sawmill in the Aroostook County town of Masardis, just south of Ashland. Both sawmills are within close proximity to Irving's 1.3 million acres of timberlands in Maine. The company operates 10 sawmills as part of its solid wood operations, with a total annual capacity of 1.3 bil- lion board feet. SP ONSORED BY P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y J. D. I R V I N G LT D. Earlier this year, Irving installed an automatic shavings bagger system at its sawmill in the Oxford County town of Dixfield.

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