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Friday, March 8, 2024 Volume 20 • Issue No. 10
YCCC Plans for New Welding Lab, Expanded Programs WELLS / SANFORD On Friday, March 1, York County Community College (YCCC) celebrated a new $6.5 million plan to create a new welding lab and to expand its manufacturing and trade programs. The college’s new project will be the first tangible impact of a new Maine-based alliance dedicated to increasing the number of people working in Maine’s varied defense industries. A coalition comprising Maine’s defense industries, community colleges and universities, Maine’s congressional delegation, state agencies, and the U.S. Navy gathered to celebrate a new partnership aimed at attracting and training
thousands of new employees for critical roles in the state’s defense industrial base. Maine’s largest defense contractors – General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, Pratt & Whitney, and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard – all need new, highly skilled
employees. With broad support from the Department of Defense, the Maine Defense Industry Alliance (MDIA) will guide and support training initiatives across the state by building a comprehensive, coordinated, and sustainable workforce development system.
Educational partners include the Maine Community College System, the University of Maine System, Maine Maritime Academy, and The Roux Institute of Northeastern University. The Alliance is critically needed in Maine, where the defense sector employs more than 20,000 people at over 150 companies. Defense spending in Maine totaled $3.2 billion in 2021. Over the next five years, defense contractors and the subcontractors who support them must significantly ramp up hiring, adding between 1,200 and 1,700 skilled workers each year. When including replacements needed for retiring workers and natural turnover,
Bath Iron Works, Pratt & Whitney, and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard alone anticipate needing to fill over 7,500 positions. The Alliance will focus on recruiting more people into the defense industry, delivering a wide array of training opportunities for those seeking employment in the industry, and upgrading the skills of the industry’s incumbent workforce. The initial and most tangible outcome of the collaboration is $5 million in funding from the Navy’s Submarine Industrial Base (SIB) program, executed by BlueForge Alliance, to launch See YCCC on page 26 . . .
Road Safety Survey Calls for Input from Area Residents YORK COUNTY Southern Maine residents are being urged to take a short survey to help improve safety along roadways in the communities of Berwick, South Berwick, Eliot, Kittery, York, Ogunquit, Wells, Kennebunk, and Kennebunkport. The survey was created by the Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission, and is a part of a regional study funded by the Federal Highway Administration’s “Safe Streets for All” grant program. The program aims to improve roadway safety, and to significantly reduce or eliminate fatalities and serious injuries by transforming how the transpor-
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tation system is designed, operated, and managed. The brief, anonymous survey is currently open until Sunday, March 17. To partake in the survey, visit www.smpdc.org/kactssafetyactionplan. Dean Williams, Senior Transpor tat ion Plan ner at Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission, the organization overseeing the project, says, “By collaborating with community members and analyzing new data, the project team will work to uncover the root causes of crashes, identify the areas of highest risk to safety,
and develop strategies to improve our transportation network. Those strategies will include policies, educational efforts, and a prioritized list of safety projects that aim to produce a safer transportation system for all.” Williams says in addition to developing an understanding of existing conditions through the public engagement effort, the organizers will also identify projects eligible for implementation funding through the Federal Highway Administration “Safe Streets For All” program (SS4A). The effort will focus on the needs of all users: pedestrians, bicy-
clists, e-bike and scooter users, public transportation users, and commercial vehicle operators. The final Safety Action Plan is expected to be completed early this summer.
An initial public meeting was recently held to get feedback and give the public a better understanding of the Regional Action Safety Plan, with some attendees arriving early to view exhibits and speak with members of the project team. For more information on the public meeting, visit www.smpdc.org/ kactssafetyactionplan. The “Safe Streets for All” Grant Program, established under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, allocated $5 billion to be distributed towards enhancing See ROADS on page 4 . . .
Jeff Snow Concert Shows A Softer Side of Celtic YORK Come celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with York Public Library! Musician and raconteur Jeff Snow is a talented multiinstrumentalist who shares the music, and the stories behind the music, of Scotland, Ireland and England. Growing up as the son of a drummer in a bagpipe band in a home where older Celtic songs were the everyday sounds, Jeff developed a love for the music of Scotland, England, and Ireland. Much of the musical history is preserved in song, weaving tales of the past with melodies that endure through generations. Jeff’s music has often been described as “The Softer Side of Celtic,” offering a gentle embrace of these rich traditions. Hearing these stories alongside the songs serves to both educate
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and entertain, evoking a range of emotions – from singing and laughter to plenty of smiles, and perhaps even a few tears. There is no better example of this than “The Ballad of Kilkelly Ireland.” In 1835, at 13 years old, John Hunt departed his family’s home in Kilkelly to journey to the United States. He settled in Maryland, found a job, got married and had children. John Hunt never returned to Ireland and never saw his family again. Without cell phones or the internet, communication was by annual family letter. In the 1970s, these letters were discovered by songwriter Peter Jones, who then went on to write the “The Ballad of Kilkelly Ireland,” the story of the Hunt family. In concert, Jeff plays the guitar, auto-
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harp and bouzouki. He can also find his way around a drum set and most of the percussion family. Jeff’s music has been described as “quiet and relaxing.” Much of it is, but every once in awhile he breaks out and the foot See CELTIC on page 14 . . .
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