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By Diana Bowley, Of the NEWS Staff - GREENVILLE - Bids will be solicited this week for construction of an approximately $1 million steel-frame building to house a wood composites incubator on Spruce Street in Greenville. Funding for the project was raised through municipal, state and federal funds. The town raised $75,000 while the remainder, including $130,000 received this week through a Community Development Block Grant for economic development infrastructure, was provided by the state and federal governments. The proposed incubator will feature 18,000 square feet of manufacturing, including space for a small office. The town contracted with A.E. Hodsdon of Waterville for the building's design. At a cost of $47,000, the company also has developed and will oversee the bid process, and will oversee construction of the building. Bids must be submitted by April 20. "We're encouraged the project is moving ahead and it would not be moving ahead without our many statewide partners," Greenville Town Manager John Simko said Thursday. Greenville officials are taking a proactive economic stance, believing that the incubator will draw business entrepreneurs engaged in developing wood manufacturing technologies. The town has no lease with a tenant or a pending lease. "There's always risks, but we are going in with our eyes open," Simko said, citing the adage, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." He said local officials would use the same approach that the successful information technologies incubator in Orono has used. Officials from that incubator offer public workshops throughout the region and it was through one of those workshops that a new tenant was found. Simko said a program schedule would be developed for the public involving wood composites. It is hoped that those programs will draw an individual who may be toying with the development and manufacturing of a product, he said. The business incubator will offer support services, technical assistance and business support, Simko said. The incubator's marketing committee, which consists of local and county representatives along with officials from the University of Maine's Wood Composites Center in Orono, are marketing the building for tenants working on three product lines: - Hurricane-resistant ad-vanced-reinforced oriented strand board, which offers a low-cost residential and light commercial panel product that would significantly improve the survival of wood structures during hurricane-force winds. - Custom veneer panels. - Extruded wood plastic composites, which are a blend of ground polypropylene (plastic milk jugs) and wood flour (pulverized sawdust), used for decks, fencing and retaining wall systems. |