Two beautiful communities: Port Clyde and Greenville

My travels this week took me to many parts of our state, including two beautiful communities: Port Clyde and Greenville. A fishing community, Port Clyde is also the home of the Herring Gut Learning Center which educates at-risk middle school and high school students. Jamie and Phyllis Wyeth were the ones who encouraged me to visit the Center, and I am so glad that they did. I saw a group of middle-school boys working to spawn and raise oysters, learning marine biology, math, business skills and teamwork as they did. One boy told me that he could hardly wait for the days when he comes to the Center each week. The students were so excited about what they were learning.

In Greenville, I saw another marvelous sight: an innovative, high-tech small business that has developed a discontinuous carbon textile that has aerospace applications.

Its owner, a brilliant engineer named John Pepin, is working with Boeing and the Air Force on the development of this fabric. I was able to secure $2 million to support this research in the Senate version of the Defense Appropriations bill. Although that amount was reduced to $1.6 million in the negotiations with the House, the funding will still help boost this firm, which has the potential to create a significant number of much-needed jobs for Greenville. Visiting the firm also reminded me of how much innovation originates in small businesses.