LEWISTON – Bates College is among seven Maine organizations to earn grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The school will get $20,000 to support artist residency in the Bates Dance Festival. Statewide, the NEA grants will total $120,000.

“Because Maine is such a rural state, residents often do not have the same access to the arts that people in more urban areas might,” said Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins in a prepared statement.

Other awards include $10,000 to the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival in Brunswick, $20,000 to Georgetown writer Maureen Stanton and $15,000 for the Maine Arts Commission’s support of a new landscape design for the Portland waterfront.

Durham adopts new building code

DURHAM – Fourteen residents, including town officials, turned out for a special town meeting Tuesday night, voting unanimously to adopt a new building code. It took 15 minutes for voters to elect a moderator, vote by secret ballot and adjourn.

The new ordinance, which was endorsed by the Planning Board, replaces one that was outdated. The change was needed to maintain or raise the fire rating for properties within the town and had to be enacted before the end of the year.

Administrative Assistant John White moderated the session.

– Connie Footman