DrMcMeow

DrMcMeow t1_j3urzmu wrote

open to the public year round.

The Eaton Farm & The Back River Trail are adjacent to Chewonki Neck to the east. Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company donated the 200-acre Eaton Farm to Chewonki in 2005 as part of a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission settlement agreement. Chewonki agreed to create a nature preserve, maintain public access, foster stewardship of the estuarine environment, and provide a forum for dialogue on environmental policy issues. The Back River Trail at Eaton Farm got underway in 2005 – with 4.5 miles of trail opened to the public in 2006. This leg is the first in a long-range plan for a trail from Chewonki Neck to the Town of Wiscasset. When completed, the trail will comprise the longest coastal hiking trail outside of Acadia National Park. Day use only, no camping. Hunting is permitted.

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DrMcMeow t1_j3svf2v wrote

last april auburn city council decided to earmark 3 million from their covid-19 stimulus package towards a new police activities league facility.

the facility will cost roughly 9 million total.

the city has raised 2 million or so through philanthropy.

rougly 3 million more was needed.

susan collins earmarked 3 million from the omnibus spending bill last month towards the PAL center.

the new PAL center breaks ground this spring.

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DrMcMeow OP t1_j1x5z2y wrote

A group opposed to the creation of a consumer-owned utility turned in signatures Tuesday in support of a 2023 ballot question that would ask voters to approve any government debt over $1 billion.

The effort is in response to the Pine Tree Power proposal that would create a consumer-owned utility to replace Central Maine Power and Versant Power.

The group No Blank Checks turned in more than 93,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office in hopes of getting on the November ballot.

“No Blank Checks is about as commonsense as it gets,” Willy Ritch, executive director of the campaign, said. “If we are going to be on the hook for billions of dollars in government debt, voters should get the final say on whether to take that on.”

In late October, Our Power turned in signatures to put a question on the 2023 ballot to create a consumer-owned utility.

Our Power estimates that the takeover would cost $9 billion, while No Blank Checks puts the cost at $13.5 billion.

No Blank Checks reported just over $1 million in contributions as part of its ballot question campaign, almost all of which came from Avangrid Management Co., the parent company of CMP.

On the other side, Our Power reported $543,401, with the top donor listed as Susan Bartovics, an environmentalist living on North Haven who gave $56,000, according to reports filed with the Maine Ethics Commission.

Earlier this month, both CMP and Versant ranked near the bottom on a nationwide residential customer satisfaction survey by J.D. Power.

Out of 145 utilities, CMP was second from bottom and Versant came in third from last, just above CMP.

The Secretary of State’s Office now has 30 days to verify the signatures.

https://web.archive.org/web/20221228013250/https://spectrumlocalnews.com/me/maine/news/2022/12/27/group-opposed-to-maine-consumer-owned-utility-turns-in-signatures-for-a-ballot-question-of-its-own

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DrMcMeow OP t1_j1gkl2y wrote

When homeowners are interested in residential solar, they will typically call a solar installation company. The company determines whether the location is suitable for rooftop or ground-mounted solar panels, and will figure out what system will meet the homeowner’s energy needs.

Then, the company applies to a utility company, such as Versant Power or Central Maine Power Co., for their customer to connect to the grid. The utilities are responsible for the system of poles, wires, substations and other equipment that make it possible to deliver electricity. The solar installation company’s application includes details such as the number of panels needed and the kilowatts of electricity the homeowner’s system is anticipated to generate.

But recently some Mainers have had their applications denied due to a lack of capacity on the electric grid. One was Matt Quinn of Trenton, whose rooftop solar application was denied by Versant on Dec. 7.

“The fact that we would own our solar panels and essentially reduce our electric bill by 80 percent was very impactful for us,” Quinn said. He said the state’s goal to be carbon neutral and to electrify is important, but to him “the policies don’t jive with reality.”

Danny Piper, the owner of Sundog Solar in Searsport, a company that installs residential solar systems, said he has recently seen three other customers, in addition to Quinn, have their applications to connect to the grid denied.

Versant, which serves 159,000 customer accounts in northern and eastern Maine, did not provide an alternative or suggest modifications to help Quinn connect, Quinn said. The utility’s emailed response to him said it was denying his application because the level of generation would cause high voltage with the existing system. Versant also said the project designed for Quinn’s residence was beyond the scope of a minor modification.

“When people are generating lots of solar energy and using only a fraction of it, they’re pushing out a whole bunch of energy onto the grid for other nearby customers to use,” said Judy Long, the manager of communications at Versant. “And when they aren’t generating enough solar energy, they’re pulling in power from us.”

The electric grid wasn’t built to have a lot of power sources on the distribution system or to facilitate a two-way flow of energy, Long said. In addition, utilities do not have discretion and are not allowed to save room for rooftop solar programs.

“There are more requests to connect to the grid, megawatts-wise, than we actually even have demand for electricity,” Long said. “So if we interconnected all these projects, we would be making more energy than we use.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20221224041216/https://www.bangordailynews.com/2022/12/23/mainefocus/maine-solar-grid-stressed-by-demand-joam40zk0w/

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DrMcMeow OP t1_j1blh7a wrote

The restaurant was found to have violated child labor laws at least 691 times, most of which involved overscheduling employees under the age of 18, along with a handful of violations for employing workers under the age of 16 without permits, according to the Kennebec Journal.

The establishment was initially asked to pay $172,750 to the Department of Labor, but that penalty was reduced by $155,475 in an agreement that owners Steven and Anne Lachance would adhere to a settlement and commit no additional violations.

Of the 691 violations, 520 of them were attributed to workers under the age of 16. Those violations were likely scheduling related, as minors cannot work more than 40 hours a week or eight hours a day when school isn’t in session.

A variety of other stipulations apply to workers under the age of 16, including that they are prohibited from working more than 18 hours a week or three hours a day when school is in session; more than six consecutive days; or between the hours of 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., except during summer vacation, during which the law prohibits work between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m.

The Maine DOL also found that the restaurant employed five minors younger than 16 who did not have work permits, resulting in 78 citations. At least 62 of those violations stemmed from a worker under the age of 16 who was employed between Aug. 20, 2020 and July 20, 2021, according to the Augusta newspaper.

https://web.archive.org/web/20221223021907/https://www.bangordailynews.com/2022/12/22/news/central-maine/the-quarry-tap-room-child-labor-violations/

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