On Thursday morning we heard from the Maine Forest Products Council about management of private forest land and toured the UPM Madison Paper facility which manufactures supercalendered magazine paper using only certified wood fiber. With an ISO 14001 certification for environmental management, Madison Paper has significantly improved energy efficiency and profitability through recent grants from Efficiency Maine.
Thursday afternoon, we visited the Bingham Area Health Center which has a new dental clinic which is the sole provider of dental services in this rural region and which accepts MaineCare and sliding scale payments.
From Bingham, we went to Kingfield and toured Poland Spring’s new LEED certified bottling plant
Thursday evening, we toured Thomas College in Waterville and heard presentations from Thomas College president Laurie Lachance and the private businesses behind the Maine Early Learning Investment Group which is committed to private support of preschool education, understanding such investment and education to be critical to Maine’s economic future.