U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Planned upgrades include emote monitoring, automated processes and elimination of bacteria at a water pollution control facility.

The "value-added producer" grants were made in five Maine counties.

Larger modern fire trucks, ample space for training and equipment storage and quicker emergency response times are the focus of upgrades in three small, rural towns.

Maine Plywood USA LLC, set to receive $11.9 million in loan guarantees through the USDA Rural Development program, is expected to employ up to 110 people.

“The revisions … severely curtail program eligibility and make it more difficult for nonprofit partners to place rural families in homes," U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, and others said in a letter to the USDA.

Investments in timber stand improvements are “critical to future wood supply and value, but difficult for landowners to make when wood markets are challenging,” said the owner of a Washington County forestry company.

Of the total pledged, $1 million will come from the governor's contingency account, with the John T. Gorman Foundation contributing $250,000 to supplement food supplies for Maine households.

Current law excludes loggers from the kinds of disaster relief and assistance available to other industries, including fishermen and farmers, when natural disasters strike.  as a result of storms and other natural disasters.

Food support organizations are looking to fill a gap left by the loss of $1.25 million in USDA funding earlier this year.

John Butera, who most recently had been a VP and commercial loan officer at Skowhegan Savings Bank, has been selected to head rural development for the USDA in Maine.