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Town of New Gloucester
385 Intervale Road, New Gloucester, ME 04260
(207) 926-4126 (phone) / (207) 926-4136 (fax)
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Town of Poland
1231 Maine Street, Poland, ME 04274
(207) 998-4601 (phone) / (207) 998-2002 (fax)
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Request Your Absentee Ballot Online
You can request an absentee ballot online. The deadline to request ballots using this service is 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 29, 2020.
Voting is one of the fundamental rights we have as citizens of this state and country. Everyone should make an effort to cast a ballot at each election. Maine law makes it easy to cast an absentee ballot. You do not have to be out of town or have any other reason to take advantage of this easy way to vote at a time that is most convenient for you. If you would like to vote by absentee ballot, please take a few moments to review the information found online here. Contact your local municipal clerk or the Elections Division if you have additional questions.
Make sure you have a voice in your future - cast a ballot.
COVID-19 Micro-Enterprise Grant Program
Maine’s Department of Economic & Community Development, in partnership with the Maine Small Business Development Centers (SBDC), will provide grants of up to $5,000 for businesses with five or fewer employees, with an owner whose income is in the low to moderate range as defined by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Eligibility Criteria
- Must be a Maine business
- Must demonstrate a revenue loss as a direct consequence of COVID-19. Funds cannot duplicate those received from other federal, State, or local programs, including other Community Development Block Grant funds.
- Must have five or fewer employees including the owner(s)
- Must have a Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number, which can be obtained here.
- Owner's household income must be low/moderate as defined by HUD as verified by 2019 tax return. More details can be found online here.
How to Apply?
Funds are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Business owners must meet with a Maine SBDC business advisor to determine eligibility and submit an application. To learn more, click here.
Five New "Swab and Send" COVID-19 Testing Sites Opening
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and MaineHealth recently announced the launch of five new "swab and send" COVID-19 testing sites, further expanding access to reliable and timely testing for Maine people and visitors.
The new MaineHealth sites include Damariscotta, Rockport, Brunswick, Norway, and Farmington. These sites, in addition to the 22 previously announced, bring the statewide total of swab and send locations to 27, ensuring that approximately 90 percent of residents can now be tested within 30 minutes of their home.
The sites will send samples to the Maine CDC's Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory (HETL) for testing and offer specimen collection free of charge to individuals who believe they may have COVID-19 or could have been exposed to the virus, with or without symptoms, as defined under the DHHS Standing Order.
The MaineHealth sites will operate as drive-through testing facilities. Appointments are required and may be made by phone. More information is available on MaineHealth's Web site.
DHHS also announced that a mobile testing site operated by Promerica Health, first announced on July 14, will initially launch at the Maine Visitor Information Center, in Kittery. Promerica is accepting appointments at covidtestforme.com and will operate from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, and from noon to 7 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays through the end of August, with similar hours in September.
These 27 sites complement the roughly 40 current testing sites already available to the public. For a list of sites providing tests under the DHHS Standing Order, which includes all swab and send sites, visit the Keep Maine Healthy Web site.
Some of the organizations operating swab and send sites, as well as other organizations, are offering testing to their patients at additional sites as well. For a complete and frequently updated list of COVID-19 testing sites in Maine, visit Get-Tested-COVID19.org.
The Department is also separately supporting York Hospital in its drive-through point-of-care testing site, which has been open since July 1, 2020.
Energy Transmission Project Question Will Not Go To Voters, Per Court Ruling
The citizens'-initiated Resolve "To Reject the New England Clean Energy Connect Transmission Project" will not appear on the November 3 ballot.
The Maine Superior Court has issued its declaratory judgment that this citizens’ initiative “fails to meet the constitutional requirements for inclusion on the ballot, because it exceeds the scope of the legislative powers conferred by ... the Constitution.”
The declaratory judgment follows the Maine Supreme Judicial Court’s decision of August 13, 2020, finding that the transmission project initiative is unconstitutional and cannot be submitted to the electors for popular vote.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the NECEC initiative exceeds the scope of legislative powers granted to the people in the Maine Constitution, as the initiative does not propose legislative action, but rather a reversal of an administrative decision made by a State commission and upheld by the Court on appeal. Therefore, the initiative does not meet the constitutional prerequisite that an initiative be legislative in nature, the court ruled.
Based on this decision, and the final declaratory judgment, the Secretary of State will not be including the initiative question on the November 3 ballot, as the court decision supersedes the Department’s previous finding that petitioners had gathered enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.
Maine CDC Offers Tips to Avoid Rabies Exposure from Bats
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC) urges Maine people to take steps to limit exposure to rabies during the time of year when bats are most active, which extends from August into early September. The Maine CDC encourages people to be cautious around bats, enjoy them from a distance, and know what to do following an exposure to a bat.
Bats play an important role in local ecosystems, but they can spread viruses, such as rabies, which can be fatal to humans, pets, and livestock. Timely treatment following a rabies exposure is effective in preventing disease in humans. Human rabies cases are rare in the United States, and Maine last reported a human rabies case in 1937. However, the rabies virus is naturally found in Maine wildlife, including bats, foxes, raccoons, and skunks. In 2019, bats accounted for 40 percent of the 644 animals submitted to the State lab for rabies testing, with nine bats testing positive for rabies.
The rabies virus spreads when infected mammals bite, and in some cases scratch, other mammals. Contact with an infected mammal's brain tissue or spinal cord can also transmit the virus to humans and pets. The virus is not transmitted in blood, urine, feces, skunk spray, or dried saliva. A rabid animal may show a variety of symptoms or no symptoms at all, so always be cautious around wildlife, including bats, or any animals you do not know.
Additional Information
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