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ICYMI from The Monitor: Schools across Maine confront unique challenges in ridding their water of forever chemicals. Funding and delays have kept schools on bottled water for over a year as they try to eliminate their PFAS.
Also from The Monitor this week: Community solar is booming in Maine, but who owns the projects? A Maine Monitor analysis finds developers have bundled projects and then sold them to some of the world’s largest corporations and investment firms.
Two people died when a single-engine Cirrus SR22 crashed on approach to Hancock
County-Bar Harbor Airport on Thursday, according to airport manager Leroy Muise. The aircraft had taken off from Morristown Municipal Airport in New Jersey," a Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson said. "The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. | Ellsworth American
Maine was awarded a $69 million grant to address climate change. Funded through the $575 million Climate-Ready Coasts initiative, Maine's largest ever climate grant will focus on nature-based solutions, shoring up working waterfronts, and building capacity to prepare for climate change. | Portland Press Herald
Dennysville residents are being asked whether they're willing to end school choice in order to save on elementary school tuition costs. | Quoddy Tides
The US agriculture chief announced that Maine will receive $4 million for Maine solar projects. Small businesses, including farms, will receive federal money to install rooftop and ground-mounted solar projects, low-energy lighting, heat pump systems and help to advance clean energy projects. | Portland Press Herald
Scrambling to respond to a decline in participating attorneys and a backlog of cases, the Maine's public defender commission this week added some flexibility to the qualifications that attorneys must meet in order to take court-appointed cases. The emergency rule will be in effect for 90 days. | Maine Public
A section of road on Mount Desert Island that has been closed since it was severely damaged by storm surge last winter is expected to reopen late Friday, according to a contractor working on repairs. | Bangor Daily News
Former two-time gubernatorial candidate and registered sex offender Eliot Cutler can no longer practice law in Maine. On Monday, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court issued an order approving a petition from the Maine Board of the Overseers of the Bar to revoke Cutler’s law license. | Bangor Daily News
A series of vehicle thefts in Calais has kept police and fire department officials busy over the past month. | Quoddy Tides
Maine’s sixth annual Opioid Response Summit draws hundreds to Auburn
Gov. Janet Mills thinks the enhanced prescription monitoring program is one of the factors that brought down the number of drug overdose deaths last year. | Portland Press Herald
Maine regulators direct utilities to make power grid more resilient against storms
Utilities are also directed to apply cost-saving technology that helps manage peak demand. | Portland Press Herald
Last summer’s rate increases in Bar Harbor are producing the intended effects, nearly doubling the town’s net parking revenue and increasing space turnover in the first fiscal year. The net revenue from parking was $3.85 million this year, $707, 840 higher than anticipated. | Ellsworth American
American Iron and Metal (AIM), which owns dams on Toddy Pond and Alamoosook Lake and on Silver Lake in Bucksport, intends to pull out of dam ownership, which has left municipal leaders and others concerned about the fate of the local economy, the environment and recreation should that happen. | Ellsworth American
Pembroke residents have been filing comments in opposition and state and federal agencies have requested intervenor status following the filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission of an application for a tidal power project on the Pennamaquan River. | Quoddy Tides
A new Ellsworth water treatment plant is in the works to replace the current facility on Branch Lake. The new facility is in the conceptual design phase, but officials say they hope to break ground this year and aim to finish the project in 2026. | Ellsworth American
Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound is moving from its current location at the end of the season. Owner Charlotte Gill plans to pack up and move the “legendary” eatery down the road to the Seawall Motel and Tidewatch Suites. | Mount Desert Islander
The Harpswell select board has approved a so-called "right to fish" policy, in light of noise and odor complaints from residents about the town's working waterfront. | Maine Public
A new national study published this week concludes that PFAS chemicals are getting into pesticides in a variety of ways, as active and inert ingredients, but also leaching from containers and other unknown sources. The study found a variety of PFAS present in pesticides, including PFOA and PFOS, two of the most toxic PFAS. | Maine Public
Thousands of honeybees invaded the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. Somewhere between 40,000 to 50,000 honeybees set up a home for themselves inside an old vent from the jail, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. But this was a problem deputies, corrections officers and maintenance staff couldn’t handle on their own. | Bangor Daily News |
