—FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—
June 21, 2010
Contact: Tatiana Brailovskaya, Director of Communications, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, www.bigelow.org (207) 633-9633 brlvsk@bigelow.org
BOOTHBAY PLANNING BOARD APPROVES BIGELOW LABORATORY’S OCEAN CAMPUS SITE PLAN
WEST BOOTHBAY HARBOR, ME — By a unanimous vote at its regular meeting on June 16, 2010, the Planning Board of the Town of Boothbay granted Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences full approval of the site master plan for its new Ocean Science and Education campus in East Boothbay.
“All of us at the Laboratory are gratified and extremely encouraged by the Planning Board’s action,” said Laboratory Executive Director Dr. Graham Shimmield. “This is a major step in what has been a decade-long endeavor to create a leading-edge, twenty-first century ocean science facility. The Planning Board has given us the green light to make this a reality and cross the threshold into a new era in our history.”
Besides goals for the campus development that include expression of world class science and support of a strong, interconnected scientific community, the Laboratory will also preserve over 50% of the site as wildlife habitat, wetlands, and open space. Site design is based on optimal land use, stewardship, and sustainability. Explicit among these objectives is the effective integration of the new facilities with the natural environment and local community, including over a mile of public walking trails.
“The move to our own property in East Boothbay allows the Laboratory to strengthen its relationship within the community and create new economic opportunities by attracting world class researchers to our area,” said Trustee and Building Committee Chair Steve Malcom. “This is going to result in a direct economic boost for the region, as well as bringing far-reaching economic benefits to the state as a whole.”
Design and construction planning for the first building on the site, the Bigelow Center for Blue Biotechnology (BCBB) is fully underway, with groundbreaking in East Boothbay expected in late August of this year. The BCBB is being funded by a $4.45 million grant from the Maine Technology Asset Fund and major contributions from private donors.
Established in 1974, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences is a center for global ocean research. An independent, nonprofit research institution, the Laboratory is supported by federal research grants and private funds. The laboratory’s research focus ranges from microbial oceanography -- examining biological productivity in the world’s oceans at the molecular level -- to the large-scale biogeochemical processes that drive interactions between ocean ecosystems and global environmental conditions. These programs have taken Bigelow scientists around the world to every ocean and the polar seas. ###
Artist’s rendering of first phase of building construction, based on design concepts developed to date.