Weekly Review: Portland delays vote on pottery moratorium; State says CMP acted "reasonably"

LEGAL CANNABIS

In the middle of the protests, the Portland board delays the vote on a moratorium for companies related to the pot

A Washington-based cannabis company has invested half a million dollars in the construction of a new test and treatment laboratory in Portland. The owners of Xtracted New England say they are about to open a high-end, engineer-certified, explosion-proof operation that will create 20 new jobs, the smallest of which will bring in $ 15 an hour. They are just waiting for the last permit of the city.

Xtracted's plans could fly away – or at least severely – if city council passes a six-month moratorium on new medical marijuana grow operations, retail stores, testing labs and labs extraction. The council plans to apply it retroactively to all proposals submitted since state legislators passed a new medical marijuana law in June.

Xtracted was one of half a dozen cannabis companies who denounced the moratorium on Monday, saying it was unfair to those who had already spent a lot of money on lawyers, architects, engineers, consultants and land use and construction codes, which do not distinguish marijuana for special consideration.

The board decided unanimously to postpone its decision until at least October 1st. Read the story.

UTILITIES

Regulators find CMP, Emera responded "reasonably" to a storm

The Maine Public Utilities Commission concluded that Central Maine Power Co. and Emera Maine reacted "sensibly" to an intense rain and windstorm last October that led to power outages in much of the state. . . The decision, unanimously adopted Tuesday by the three commissioners, puts an end to an investigation to determine if the public services of the State had taken the good measures to plan the storm of October 29 and restore the service after its passage. Approximately 467,000 CMP customers and 90,000 Emera customers lost electricity; small numbers were out for more than a week. Tuesday's action followed an investigation that included the study of storm reports and questions to CMP and Emera. Read the story.

INDUSTRY OF THE SEA

Maine Dealers Say China Boosts US Lobster Prices in Tariff War

Maine lobster traders claim that China is unduly inflating the lobster market price to increase its punitive tariff on lobster imports living in the United States. Chinese customs officials calculate the 25 percent duty on American lobsters based on the market value of the most expensive Canadian hard-shelled lobsters, according to the dealers. Firm-shelled American lobsters typically cost $ 3 to $ 4 per pound less than Canadian shellfish. China's tariff on American lobster is already giving Canadian lobster dealers a competitive advantage that Maine dealers have found almost impossible to overcome in the lucrative lobster export market. They fear that the additional cost of a higher-priced Canadian lobster fare will scare the few Chinese customers who still want to buy American lobsters. Read the story.

The problems of the lobster industry abroad add to the urgency of driving up demand in the United States.

Overseas markets at best fragile, leaders of the Maine lobster industry ($ 1.4 billion) gathered Wednesday to discuss how to increase demand and get the best price on a single market: the United States. It's a conversation that began long before China imposed a 25% tariff on American lobsters, closing the door on a $ 128.5 million a year market, or the European Union signing its trade deal with Canada, reducing European exports by 27%. But industry leaders say these international trade challenges make it more important than ever to adopt a strategy on how to use the industry's limited marketing dollars to sell more Maine lobsters to consumers. US. Read the story.

Ready Seafood Receives Definitive License for Largest Maine Lobster Transformation

Ready Seafood has obtained the last local permit it needs to build a $ 10 million lobster processing, storage and research center in Saco. On Monday, the city's planning board unanimously approved Ready Seafood's plan to build a 64,000 square foot facility on a 40-acre lot at 1016 Highway 1. When the building is completed in 12 to 14 months, Ready Seafood A half-dozen Maine lobster processors that handle 100,000 pounds of Maine crustaceans every day. Ready plans to hire 40 to 50 people to staff this new operation, bringing the payroll to about 250 jobs, most of them full-time. Read the story.

The owner of the lobster book says he has a softer "exit strategy" for his lobsters: get them fucked

A local owner of the lobster book thinks she may have found a new marijuana-based method to kill Maine's iconic seafood species. A lobster named Roscoe was Charlotte Gill's first test subject. In his experience, Gill placed Roscoe in a covered box with about two inches of water at the bottom. The marijuana smoke was then blown into the water. Gill's hypothesis is that the pot seduces lobsters, making their deaths less traumatic. Read the story.

The discovery of immature lobsters in the deep waters of the east could be good news for the industry

The discovery of baby lobsters in the deep waters of eastern Maine could be good news for the future of the most valuable fishery in the United States. Since 1989, scientists led by University of Maine professor Richard Wahle have been looking for baby lobsters at 100 shallow test sites in Rhode Island, New Brunswick to monitor the health of this fishery. The number of babies found in the samples began to decline about ten years ago, which has led scientists to fear a collapse of the population. Read the story.

IMMOVABLE

August continued "record year" for Maine home sales

August sales remained strong for Maine's existing single-family homes, with sales volume up nearly 6% and home values ​​up nearly 7% from a year earlier. former. According to Maine's listings, 2,072 existing Maine homes were sold in August, up 5.9% from August 2017. The median selling price of these homes increased 6.8% over the previous month. median price indicates that half of the homes were sold for more money and half for less. Read the story.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Officials aim to strengthen Portland's finances by developing tax shelter programs

Portland authorities plan to add more than a dozen properties to the city's tax shelter system, a measure that could protect hundreds of millions of new state assessment taxes and protect the city public aid. The city also wants to expand the use of tax revenues resulting from new developments in the districts to include a wider range of infrastructure projects and job creation. Portland Economic Council's Economic Development Committee voted Tuesday to recommend a set of changes to the three largest funding districts for Portland's tax increase covering the waterfront, downtown and Bayside. Read the story.

Portland panel approves sale of city-owned land to local biotech firm

A city-owned business district in Portland can get its second tenant – five years after opening the property. City Council Economic Development Committee approved Tuesday night an option to purchase a 3½-acre parcel of land in Portland Technology Park at Capricorn Products LLC, a biotech company in the city. Under the agreement, Capricorn would have 12 months to buy the package, off Rand Road, to the city for $ 420,000. The proposal must still be approved by the full City Council. Read the story.

RETAIL BUSINESS

Westbrook approves first phase of project which includes market basket

On Tuesday night, the Westbrook Planning Board unanimously approved plans for the first phase of what could eventually become a 100-acre mixed-use development near the Westbrook border with Portland. Approval is the last major hurdle to start Rock Row development on an old quarry near Main Street and Larrabee Road. Plans for drainage and traffic management around the development are pending with state officials, said an engineer representing the developer. The initial phase includes a Market Basket grocery store, scheduled to open in November 2019, and another eight buildings at the northwest corner of the site. A bank, a coffee shop, a restaurant and a handful of other retail businesses will also increase over the next year, the developer said. Read the story.

Rosemont Market Plans New Store on Highway 1 in Falmouth

The Rosemont market and bakery are once again developing, this time to reach a 2,000 square foot site in Falmouth. The new store, which is scheduled to open early in the winter at 231 Route 1, will be the seventh Rosemont market to be open since 2005 and the second largest. Co-owners John Naylor and Scott Anderson already have four stores in Portland, one in Yarmouth and one in Cape Elizabeth. The last one opened less than a year ago. Read the story.

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