Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills.

From increased costs to nationwide and worldwide supply chain disruptions and workforce issues across the country, many small businesses are facing unexpected hurtles and we need to help them.

To ensure that our small businesses here in Maine can continue to recover from the pandemic despite worldwide economic disruptions, I recently announced I am dedicating $58 million through my Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan to provide forgivable loans to small businesses in Maine.

This new “Thrive Maine” program, administered by the Finance Authority of Maine, will offer forgivable loans to eligible Maine small businesses who experienced losses, increased costs, or market interruptions related to the pandemic.

Small businesses may apply for loans of up to $2 million. And if businesses are approved and continue to meet program terms, these loans may be fully forgiven over a four-year period.

Full eligibility details and other information can be found at www.famemaine.com/thrive. The program is expected to start accepting applications in early September.

These grant funds are in addition to the $62 million “Grow Maine” initiative which I announced earlier this summer. All together we’ve provided $120 million to help Maine small businesses succeed here in Maine.

I encourage all small businesses who might be struggling with worldwide economic disruptions and with the effects of the pandemic to visit FAME’s website – famemaine.com/thrive – to see if they might be eligible for this relief.

My Administration will continue to do everything we can to support the long-term success of our small businesses across the state.

This is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening. 

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills.

I was proud recently to proclaim this weekend — August 6-7, 2022 — as Maine’s second annual Wild Blueberry Weekend in celebration of our wild blueberries and in honor of the hardworking people who grow and bring Maine blueberries to markets near and far.

Maine produces nearly 100 percent of all wild blueberries in the United States. Last year alone, Maine farmers harvested 105 million pounds of wild blueberries. And we know that these are healthy, that they have more antioxidants, and they are more tasty than any other kind of blueberry in the world.

Well to honor our wild blueberry growers and businesses and their significant contributions to the Maine economy, I declared our first ever wild blueberry weekend ever last year.

Wild blueberry growers opened their doors for free for the first time and made available fresh wild blueberries, and jams, and pies, and other products available for guests to purchase.

The Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine reports that there were thousands of dollars in direct farm sales last year and thousands of visitors who enjoyed touring the places where wild blueberries grow, maybe picking a few of their own.

This year, the second annual wild blueberry weekend will feature farm tours and other family-friendly activities at 14 different wild blueberry farms in Franklin, Kennebec, Knox, Lincoln, Penobscot, Waldo and of course Washington counties.

And, wild blueberry-themed menu items and products will be available throughout the weekend at nearly 50 restaurants, ice cream shops, breweries, wineries, and distilleries across the state. To see the full list of participants, visit www.wildblueberryweekend.com and the state’s official agriculture website, www.realmaine.com, for year-round ideas on ways you can support Maine’s agricultural community.

I encourage everyone to visit one of the participating wild blueberry farms or to sample Maine-grown wild blueberry products at the many places selling them during Wild Blueberry Weekend, this weekend!

This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills.

You know maintaining our water and sewer infrastructure across the state of Maine is so critical to preserving clean water, protecting public health, and reducing costs for taxpayers and ratepayers.

Untreated water can pollute our waterways, threatening the health of wildlife and the health of residents and visitors to our inland and marine waters.

Cleaning the water we use in our homes and businesses before it is sent back into the environment could not be more important, but it is costly.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, wastewater operations are typically the greatest energy expense in any community, costing more than $2 billion a year nationally. Upgrading the equipment we use will reduce those energy costs substantially. 

Recently, I was proud to announce that I am dedicating more than $22 million from my Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan, that’s federal money, to 20 wastewater treatment facilities serving 27 communities across the State of Maine. These funds will speed up these communities’ wastewater infrastructure improvement projects.

Over the next four years, these facilities — from Rockport and Rumford to Anson and Augusta and everywhere in between — will use these grants to repair and replace wastewater infrastructure, improving their operations, and their reliability, their resiliency, and their longevity.

By speeding up these wastewater projects, we will create jobs, we’ll cut costs, and we’ll preserve service for the communities that rely on them.

These funds are in addition to another $20 million in grant funding I’ve already awarded to 13 communities across Maine to invest in a variety of local infrastructure projects and to make them more resilient to the effects of climate change, like flooding, rising sea levels, and more extreme storms.

And, with more than $2.4 billion allocated to the State of Maine from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for drinking and wastewater systems and other projects, these investments are just the start. And they could not be more appropriate as we celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act, drafted, supported, enacted under the tutelage of our own senator, Senator Edmund S. Muskie.

This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.