TRANSPORTATION
Ferry operator satisfied with first year
The Canadian operator of the ferry service from Portland to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, finished its first season with far fewer passengers than its predecessor, but says it’s in better financial shape. Bay Ferries said Thursday that it carried 35,551 passengers since launching the service in June with its high-speed catamaran ferry, The Cat. Nova Star Cruises, which operated the route from 2014-2015, carried 59,000 and 52,000 passengers, respectively, in its two seasons. The Cat is expected to meet its financial projections for the first year with a $10.2 million (Canadian) subsidy from the Nova Scotian government, according to company officials. The CEO said he expects the company that it will be able to operate “sustainably” next year with a subsidy from Canada of about $10 million-$12 million (Canadian). Read the story.
DEFENSE
BIW decides not to challenge decision on cutter contract
Bath Iron Works officials have opted not to formally protest the Coast Guard’s decision to award a multi-billion dollar cutter contract to a Florida shipyard. Under federal rules, BIW had 10 days to file a protest challenging the Coast Guard’s selection of Eastern Shipbuilding Group of Panama City, Florida, to build the first nine of a new class of offshore patrol cutters. The total 25-ship contract has an estimated value of $10.5 billion, and BIW officials were hoping the cutter contract could help the shipyard maintain workflow and employment levels as the pace of Navy-related work slows. Representatives from General Dynamics-owned BIW met with Coast Guard officials to discuss the contract decision about a week after the announcement. Read the story.
TRADE
USM developing resources, internships to aid exporters
The University of Southern Maine is creating a new center to help companies overcome the regulatory burdens of bringing goods to foreign markets and train the next generation of compliance officers to work in the growing number of Maine companies that are exporting their forestry products, fish or farm goods to overseas consumers, especially in the North Atlantic. Attendees at workshops held by the university this week to coincide with the international Arctic Council meeting got a glimpse of the new center’s offerings. USM developed the concept of the Maine Regulatory Training and Ethics Center a year ago. Now the center’s lead investigator is developing curriculum for the certification programs that USM will soon offer to undergrads, graduate students and professional students who want to work in the center and use the certificate and experiences solving real-world business problems to land a job. Read the story.
REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION
Hannaford acquires two grocery stores
Hannaford Supermarkets has reached an agreement to purchase the Bud’s Shop ‘n Save stores in Newport and Dexter, the company said Tuesday. Bud’s has been a wholesale customer of Hannaford for 63 years and carries a wide variety of Hannaford-branded items. The transaction is expected to be completed in early December. Dean Homstead, the owner of Bud’s, will continue to own and operate the Bud’s Shop ‘n Save store in Pittsfield, Hannaford said. The company said it does not anticipate significant changes at the two full-service grocery stores. Read the story.
Ocean cluster operation expected to move
A marine-related business incubator is about to move into a new Portland space with three of its member startups, a temporary address to allow room for growth while the incubator seeks a waterfront location for its permanent home. New England Ocean Cluster will move from its Danforth Street location in the next month to one of three leased spaces in Portland, said majority owner Patrick Arnold. New England Ocean Cluster is modeled after a similar operation in Reykjavik, Iceland, where leaders of different companies, research institutions and even artists collaborated on innovative ways to use local resources, such as technology to apply fish skin to chronic wounds. The incubator business employs three people now, Arnold said. Read the story.
Eye center property sold to Nashville real estate company
A medical office company in Nashville bought Maine Eye Center’s Lowell Street campus in Portland and leased it back to eye care center. The sale closed Tuesday and terms were not disclosed. The 34,000-square-foot, Class A medical office building is within a half-mile of Maine Medical Center and Mercy Hospital. Chip Conk, CEO of Montecito Medical, which bought the complex, said in the release that the company is thrilled to grow its presence in the Portland medical market. Read the story.
HEALTH CARE
New CEO named for Mercy
An executive with 35 years of experience in health care will head up Mercy Hospital starting in mid-November. Charlie Therrien, who is currently president of Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth, has been hired to replace Eileen Skinner, who resigned in March, the hospital announced on Tuesday. Therrien, 58, will lead the Portland hospital as it consolidates to one location in the next few years. Maine Coast is a member of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, the parent company of Mercy. Therrien is also a senior vice president at EMHS, and he will retain that position even when he becomes Mercy president. Read the story.
INSURANCE
MEMIC to issue record dividends
Workers’ compensation insurance provider The MEMIC Group will issue a record dividend of $20 million to about 18,000 Maine policyholders, the company said Tuesday. The dividend amount represents 15 percent of premiums paid by Maine policyholders in 2013, the qualifying year for the dividend declaration, Portland-based MEMIC said in a news release. The average dividend will be $1,111 per policyholder. It will be the largest percentage of premiums MEMIC has ever returned, it said. The latest declaration brings the total amount of Maine policyholder dividends authorized by the MEMIC board of directors to roughly $220 million since 1998. The company has now issued a dividend in each of the past 12 years, and the record $20 million dividend is 54 percent more than was returned to policyholders in 2012, MEMIC said. Read the story.
COMMERCIAL FISHERIES
Toxic bloom closes shellfish harvesting
An unusual bloom of toxic algae has closed a third of Maine’s coastline to clam and mussel harvesting and triggered a widespread shellfish recall. Last week, the Department of Marine Resources issued a recall of mussels, clams and quahogs caught in Down East Maine after samples tested positive for domoic acid, a biotoxin that can cause illness, memory loss, brain damage and possibly death in humans. At the same time, the state banned harvesting for mussels, clams, oysters and carnivorous snails on parts of a wide swath of coastline from Deer Isle to the Canadian border. This is the first time an algae bloom producing toxic domoic acid has occurred in Maine, although low levels of the toxin have been found in shellfish for decades. The Department of Marine Resources isn’t sure what triggered the bloom, how long it will last, or what other species might be affected. Read the story.
MANUFACTURING
Possible layoffs loom for bus refurbishing crew
The Maine Military Authority notified employees Thursday about the possibility of layoffs as soon as Oct. 21. The announcement came several weeks after the state revealed it had seriously underbid a $19 million contract to refurbish buses for a Massachusetts transportation agency. Maine officials will meet Tuesday with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to see if they can make changes in the deal to refurbish the interiors and overhaul the engines and transmissions of 32 articulated buses. Articulated buses are longer than typical buses, with a joint in the middle, often covered by a rubber pleat, that allows the vehicles to get around tight city corners. The authority employs about 50 people. Read the story.
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