Funds set for wood composites incubator

GREENVILLE – Time and persistence have paid off for town officials who are planning to build a wood composites incubator next spring.

“Things are going well. We have sufficient funds to do the project,” Town Manager John Simko reported Wednesday to his board of selectmen.

A potential occupant of the incubator, or business hatchery, has told town officials that the earliest he would be interested in setting up operation would be late spring or early summer of 2004.

With this in mind, Simko said town officials have no interest in hurrying the project along this fall. He said he expects to bid the construction of the 120-foot by 150-foot building in February and have a contractor before spring.

Town officials have retained A.E. Hodsdon of Waterville to do the engineering for the nearly $1 million project that will be constructed at the Greenville Industrial Park on Spruce Street. The firm submitted the lowest bid of $42,706. Discussions are continuing about the construction of a wooden building.

The town is partners in the incubator with the town of Sanford and the Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center at the University of Maine.

The occupants of the building could manufacture a product developed at UMaine or one of their own.

Project developers hope businesses using the incubator will be so successful they will operate factories in the community to manufacture their products, according to Simko.

The end result would be more jobs and new businesses. The potential exists for added valuation, Simko said.

The Spruce Street site is considered ideal for the development of a wood-related business because it is located next to Greenville Steam Co., which offers cogeneration possibilities, the railroad and the edge of the Maine woods, Simko said, a critical economic mass with the incubator the key.

Residents earlier this year voted to borrow $75,000 for the project.

In addition, the town received $450,000 from a state bond issue and $223,000 from Housing and Urban Development.

The USDA Rural Development program and the Composite Technology Center also have earmarked funds for the project.