PRESQUE ISLE – Two Presque Isle entities will benefit from more than $7.6 million in federal grants they received this month.

The Aroostook Band of Micmacs have received a $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Indian Housing Block Grant Program, while Northern Maine Regional Airport has been awarded $6.4 million in grant funding from the Federal Aviation Administration.

U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins announced the grant awards in joint statements.

The Aroostook Band of Micmacs will use the money they received to expand affordable housing and support community development for the city’s Native American community.

“With more than 1,000 members in Northern Maine, the Aroostook Band of Micmacs deserves access to quality affordable housing,” Snowe and Collins said in a written statement. “These funds not only provide decent housing for this historical community, but also develop economic and cultural opportunities to ensure the successful legacy of the Micmac Nation.”

As a part of the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996, the IHBG program provides an assortment of housing activities on Indian Reservations and Indian areas. These activities include housing development and assistance, housing management for low-income housing, crime prevention and safety, and model activities intended to solve affordable housing problems.

The Northern Maine Regional Airport will use the funding it received to reconstruct and repair one of the airport’s runways. Funding also has been provided to improve the airport’s safety areas, bringing them into compliance with FAA standards.

“The Northern Maine Regional Airport in Presque Isle is a critical gateway to many in the Crown of Maine,” noted the senators. “It is important that we continually invest in and improve Maine’s airports, both big and small, so that we may enhance and maintain critical infrastructure to ensure uninterrupted operations at all of Maine’s airports.”

jlbdn@ainop.com

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