Federal funds awarded for the steamboat Katahdin, Maine Public antenna expansion

GREENVILLE — Congressionally directed spending requests for rehabilitating the steamboat Katahdin and constructing new Maine Public Broadcasting Corporation antennas have been granted at $500,000 and $3,342,000 respectively. Greenville Town Manager Mike Roy told the select board about both during a March 20 meeting.

Roy said he was asked to write letters of support for rehabilitation on the over 100-year-old Katahdin and for antennas to be erected in the area to increase the signal of the Maine Public Broadcasting Corporation’s rural Maine emergency alert system.

“So that has gone through the appropriations bill and is headed to the president’s desk for his signature,” Roy said. “So that’s great news, the local area is being well supported by our senators” 

Earlier in the week the Moosehead Marine Museum received notification that the $500,000 request for Congressionally Directed Spending was approved. This request was submitted by U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine and Angus King, I-Maine as one of their funding priorities in the FY2024 federal budget for Historic Rehabilitation Projects in the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies appropriations bill.

Funds will go toward “Keep Kate Cruising”, a campaign to restore the 109-year-old historic Katahdin. With this funding, the campaign has raised 78 percent of the $2 million goal. 

With early fundraising success and generous gifts from individuals, businesses, and foundations, the restoration project is underway. The Shipyard in Boothbay Harbor has been hired for upper deck replacement. Restoration of the upper aft “fantail” deck was completed last June. 

Work on the upper port deck started in October and will be completed before the 2024 season. The next phase will involve replacement of the “green rail”  and side decking. 

Maine Public Broadcasting Corporation has been working for more than a year and a half to expand the emergency alert system into more rural areas. The signal has been used by the National Weather Service to let people know about potential tornadoes, blizzards, and severe thunderstorms. The emergency system also is used for Amber alerts.

It has been a decade and a half since the communications commission has allowed non-commercial groups such as public broadcasters, churches, or schools to apply for FM emergency alert signal licenses to expand reach across Maine, Jeff Mahaney, chief technology officer at Maine Public, said last summer. Maine Public is the only non-commercial broadcaster that covers the entire state.

The project to expand the network with will benefit more than 71,000 people in five underserved rural northern, central, and eastern Maine counties. It is part of the $3.4 million emergency broadcast signal expansion funding that Collins helped secure as vice chairperson of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The expansion will allow Maine Public to localize certain emergency signals that only affect a specific area, while at the same time expand statewide coverage.

“Part of our goal is to cover the entire state of Maine, and we had some places like Millinocket, Greenville and Bethel where we had no service,” Mahaney said.

In addition to two in Greenville, new antennas will be installed in Fort Kent and Mars Hill, Meddybemps, Millinocket, and Bethel.

Construction permits for the new facilities and towers at the southern sites in Millinocket, Greenville, and Bethel were issued in 2022. Those towers should be functional by April 2025.

Another part of the expansion in Greenville will make two radio stations for Maine Public Radio and Maine Public Classical. Mahaney said. It will also carry the emergency broadcast signal.

A long-term goal of Maine Public is to localize emergency alert signal messages so warnings specific to an area only go to that region instead of the entire state. More transmitters across the state will allow for more localized alerts. Communications could include amber alerts, civil warnings for events like shootings and civil emergencies from natural disasters that require evacuations.

Maine Public is a member of the State Emergency Communication Committee, along with the Maine State Police, Maine Emergency Management Agency, and the National Weather Service. The state of Maine is the public messaging distributor that sends the emergency alert signals. Radio and cable stations monitor those signals to check for alerts in their areas.

Originally the emergency alert signal system was built so the president could send direct messages to the entire nation, and was later built out with state and local emergency alert signal messages.

In other business, Roy said an application for a bond through the Maine Municipal Bond Bank for the new public safety building has been approved. 

He said he was unsure of what the interest rate on a 20-year bond anticipated note would be, but “I suspect it’s going to be much less than what we’re paying right now.”

In the future town officials will discuss where various town departments will be located between the current space and across Minden Street at the public safety building. 

“We should probably make sure we make it through the budget and all the other things we’ve got going right now,” Select Chairperson Geno Murray said.

Roy said area public safety agencies have an April 2 meeting, less than a week before the  total solar eclipse around 3:30 p.m. on the afternoon of Monday, April 8 when the moon will be fully in front of the sun after leading up to the event starting at around 2 o’clock that day. Among the best viewing spaces in the country will be Piscataquis County and other parts of Maine to the north.

“It’ll be the final meeting before the eclipse, the event; basically we’ll have everybody back in to make sure that every public safety partner really is all set to go,” he said. The town manager said topics may include ice conditions, helicopter coverage, and more.

The number of visitors won’t be known for sure until the day of the event as those coming to the Moosehead Lake Region on April 8 could total in the thousands or tens of thousands. Municipal, county, and state officials have been preparing for the high end of estimates.

Roy said questions about the town office schedule for April 8 have been posed. “I don’t think the office can close all day,” he said, as schools in Greenville and other county districts will not be in session that day.

The idea of closing for a portion of the afternoon was mentioned, and this could be discussed more during the next select meeting on Wednesday, April 3.

Paul Bagnell of The Star-Herald contributed to this story.