The growth council is currently pursuing four project initiatives.
By Eileen M. Adams
Staff Writer

CANTON – The River Valley Growth Council’s plans to rejuvenate the area’s economy through new uses for forest products will be emphasized at conferences at the University of Maine and Golden, Colo., next month.

Growth Council Executive Director Scott Christiansen told the board Wednesday night that information on biomass products will be presented at a bio-products conference at UMO on March 2.

“The Growth Council is leading the pack in forest-based bio-products,” he said. “We’re chasing four separate initiatives and going after $13 million in grants for them.”

The UMO presentation will be followed a couple of weeks later when Growth Council representatives, along with Jack Cashman, commissioner of the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development, UMO representatives, U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine, and River Valley Technology Center Director Norm MacIntyre, travel to the National Renewable Energy Research Lab in Colorado.

At the federal laboratory, the council and state will work toward gathering additional partners for the further development of one or more of the council’s initiatives.

Christiansen said the four initiatives, all based on using forest products are: a bio-refinery that could produce chemicals; further refining those products to produce fulel and other substances; membership in the Clean Energy Association, which would have national benefits for those organizations involved in alternative fuels; and a state initiative that would organize the development of all bio-products created in the state.

The Growth Council has submitted grant requests to the federal Department of Energy and other state or federal sources for each of the four initiatives.

Tentative plans are to construct a pilot bio-refinery plant in the River Valley area once funding has been secured. Whether those funds are coming should be known by summer.

A special meeting for anyone who wants to learn more about the forest products-based initiatives is invited to the Mexico Town Hall at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 7.

In other matters on Wednesday, the board agreed to fund a half-million dollar life insurance policy on Christiansen at an annual cost of $250. They also learned that a Curves franchise will soon open in the Mexico Plaza. Curves provides women with an exercise regimen and has franchises scattered throughout the state.

eadams@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link