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V O L . X X I I N O. X X I I I O C T O B E R 3 , 2 0 1 6 8 B U S I N E S S M A I N E B U S I N E S S M A I N E B U S I N E S S N E W S F RO M A RO U N D T H E S TAT E casino expansion, which will include a 106-room hotel and restaurant. Churchill Downs Inc. in May announced plans for a hotel as part of the 33,634-square-foot expan- sion. "We've been working through design and construction documen- tation and are fi nalizing our plans," Jane McClay Hoyt, casino spokes- person, told the Sun Journal. "We're very close to signing a general contractor and we look forward to making that announcement soon." She added that plans still on track to open the hotel, restaurant, expanded kitchen, meeting and gaming fl oor in late summer or early fall of 2017. e expanded facilities are expected to create 60 full-time and 1,000 temporary construction jobs, Hoyt told the newspaper. N O T E W O R T H Y C E N T R A L & W E S T E R N Blue Marble Geographics in Hallowell and Alain Olivier Geomatique, the fi rm's partner based in France, said that the French Military of Defense signed a three-year agreement to deploy Global Mapper throughout all of branches of the country's armed forces. The Maine Department of Education in August was awarded $67,184 from the U.S. Department of Education through the Advanced Placement Test Fee Program. The award will be used to partially subsidize the cost of Advanced Placement tests for low- income high school students. L/A Arts, the arts agency for the cities of Lewiston and Auburn, said it received a pledge of $20,000 from the JCL Foundation. The fi rst $10,000 was funded immediately and once that amount is matched an additional $10,000 will be provided. P R E S E N T I N G S P O N S O R WESTBROOK October 20 | 5–7pm | One Riverfront Plaza www.mainebiz.biz/OTRwestbrook 207.761.8379 x341 R E G I S T E R T O DAY Join Mainebiz as we make our last stop at Reader's Choice winning location — Westbrook! Break away from your desk to meet and mingle with other members of the Westbrook business community. This is a great forum to put a face with a name plus make new business connections. u admission is free u complimentary hors d'oeuvres u cash bar FOLLOW US @MBEVENTS #OTRWestbrook16 R E G I O N A L S P O N S O R 2 0 1 6 R E A D E R S ' C H O I C E W I N N E R 2 0 1 6 R E A D E R S ' C H O I C E W I N N E R its facilities on its Desert Road cam- pus to support 250 students from early childhood to 12th grade and 50 faculty and staff members. VNA Home Health Hospice in South Portland received $175,000 from the Boyne Foundation to establish the Dr. Philip J. Boyne Education Fund. The money will be used to en- hance the expertise of its clinicians and caregivers by offering certifi - cations in select areas, including congestive heart failure, geriatric physical therapy, hospice and pal- liative care and to purchase three American Hospital Association ap- proved manikins to be used as train- ing tools to support basic lifesaving skills certifi cation in South Portland, Bangor and Caribou. Oxford Casino chooses contractor for $25M expansion Offi cials at Oxford Casino told the Sun Journal earlier this month that they are close to signing a gen- eral contractor for the $25 million Why did the Coast Guard bypass BIW for cutter contract? Bath — The announcement that Bath Iron Works came out on the losing end of a three-way competition for a potential $11 billion U.S. Coast Guard contract left many wondering how the Maine-based shipyard was passed by. A $110.29 million contract was awarded Sept. 15 to Eastern Shipbuilding Group Inc. of Panama City, Fla., for the production of the lead Offshore Patrol Cutter, with the potential for up to eight follow-on cutters for a total value of $2.38 billion for nine cutters, according to the Coast Guard announcement. BIW was competing with Eastern Shipbuilding and Lockport, La.-based Bollinger Shipyards Lockport LLC to build the fi rst of what could be 25 new Coast Guard cutters to replace the Coast Guard's aging 29-ship fl eet. According to the Bangor Daily News, the 25-cutter contract is projected to be worth approximately $11 billion. According to the Maine Public, the Coast Guard was expected to offer more details about its decision to award the contract to Eastern Shipbuilding. But the decision came as a surprise to Chris Cavas, naval warfare correspondent at Defense News, who told MPBN that Bollinger Shipyards, with a long history of working with the Coast Guard, was the favorite to win the contract. "That Eastern won the contract I think surprised every- body — most people gave the inside track to Bollinger," Cavas told Maine Public. In a release, Eastern cited its record of delivering 149 out of 150 mid-range tonnage commercial ships on time and on budget for the past 14 years as a factor in winning the contract. This was the fi rst government contract awarded to Eastern, according to Cavas. Although BIW has worked extensively with the Navy, it hasn't built a Coast Guard ship since the 1930s, but that didn't put BIW out of the possible running, he told MPBN. Cavas said the Bath shipyard's quality of work and ability to build larger-scale ships, like the new series of cutters, made it a contender. Ultimately, costs likely played a large factor in awarding the contract to Eastern. According to the BDN, BIW President Fred Harris told employees in a memo that: "In preparation for the bid, we invested heavily in workforce training, facilities and process improvements." Additionally, he wrote, "We worked with IAMAW Local S6 on a new [collective bargaining agreement] to become more fl exible and effi cient in the shipyard. Our bid included subcontracting some units to a Gulf Coast shipyard to lower our overall construction costs. Even with that innovative approach, we were still too costly." Coast Guard Chief Warrant Offi cer Chad Saylor echoed a similar sentiment to the Portland Press Herald. "Affordability was a good piece of the decision into select- ing the ultimate winner," Saylor told the Press Herald. — M a i n e b i z S t a f f R ENDER I NG / C OU R TES Y BATH I RON WOR KS A rendering of the new U.S. Coast Guard cutters. C E N T R A L & W E S T E R N

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