Grant for cannery buyer questioned
Officials in Prospect Harbor are questioning a grant that would help a Massachusetts company establish a lobster processing facility at a former sardine cannery.
Chelsea-based Live Lobster Co. Inc. announced Aug. 4 it was purchasing the former Stinson Seafood cannery from Bumble Bee Foods LLC, with plans to buy lobster and eventually process it, as well as sell bait to local fishermen. Selectmen, however, voted 4-0 last week against supporting a $400,000 Community Development Block Grant application, after expressing concern that the federal grant would end up subsidizing competition for lobster distributors already operating on Schoodic Peninsula, the Bangor Daily News reported. The selectmen said they wanted more information about Live Lobster's business plan and financial resources to find out how the grant would be spent before supporting it, according to the paper.
Voters in Gouldsboro, in which the village of Prospect Harbor is located, in June gave selectmen the authority to support a CDBG to renovate the cannery. The selectmen plan to meet with Gov. John Baldacci in the coming weeks to discuss the grant, which the governor hopes will move forward, spokesman and Deputy Chief of Staff David Farmer told the paper.
Go to the article from the Bangor Daily News >>
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