HOULTON, Maine — Town councilors on Monday evening accepted a grant that will assist in the construction of a multi-million dollar animal food processing and testing facility in Houlton.
During the brief meeting, Nancy Ketch, economic and community development director for the town, discussed a $275,000 community development block grant that the state has approved for the town. It will support the purchase of capital and non-capital equipment for operations of Laboratory Feeds of Maine, a facility to be constructed at Houlton International Airport, she said.
The 12,000-square-foot facility is to be used as a processing and testing facility for mouse food. It will be constructed on five acres of land in the Houlton Industrial Park, near the town’s airport.
Ketch said the town still has to complete the project development phase of the grant. She said Wednesday that the process entailed finishing a checklist of items to do in order to receive the cash, such as an environmental review and final cost estimates. She expected that it would be wrapped up within three months.
The Southern Aroostook Development Corp., a Houlton-based group that works to bring new businesses to the region, would lease the building to Laboratory Feeds of Maine.
Grant money will finance extensive paving, painting, equipment installation, and external silos for the building. The facility is expected to bring an estimated 10 full time jobs and seven more indirect jobs to the community.
The Northern Maine Development Commission in Caribou also submitted an application for a $1.6 million grant to the federal Economic Development Administration for the project this past summer. Robert Clark, executive director of the NMDC, said Wednesday that the organization has not yet heard if the grant has been secured.
“We have been told they are going to look at the application in next year’s funding cycle, which starts Oct. 1,” he said. “I was told they had a lot more applications than they expected this year.”
In July, NMDC received a $250,000 grant from the Northern Border Regional Commission that will assist in the construction of the facility. The money was part of a total $2.9 million the organization awarded to address eight infrastructure projects throughout Aroostook, Somerset, and Knox counties, according to U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King.
Laboratory Feeds of Maine also will apply for a $2.7 million loan from Coastal Enterprises Inc. and combine it with a $1.3 million cash injection from investors, according to local officials.
