A Year in Review: Community Initiatives

As we make our way into 2024, the Town of Millinocket would like to highlight a few projects that will come to fruition this year.

In 2023, the Town of Millinocket, in partnership with Katahdin Area Trails has secured all funding for the Millinocket Ski Tow Project. With funding from the Northern Penobscot Activities Council, Penobscot County and the Winterkids Downhill Fund, the Town will be able to purchase a rope tow, warming hut and a groomer for KAT to maintain the trails. The free community asset will be available starting in the winter of 2024/2025!

The Town of Millinocket received $500,000 in EPA Brownfields Funds for Community Wide Assessments in 2023. The Town will be working with Sevee and Maher on identifying potential Brownfields sites throughout 2024. The Brownfield program is vital for Millinocket to conduct subsurface investigations and Hazardous Building Materials Inventories (HBMIs) to properly assess and evaluate the priority Brownfield Sites in Millinocket. Brownfields Assessment funding is vital to promote prosperity and jump-start the commercial and residential revitalization of Millinocket.

Thanks to the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation, the Town received $30,000 for the concept design of a community center. In 2024, a firm will be awarded the bid to begin the work. This first phase will focus on community input on design, programming, location etc. Please join us throughout this phase, we want to hear input from the community.

In 2024, the Town of Millinocket will be adding additional Wayfinding signage. This project originally initiated by the Northern Forest Center has made navigating our community easier for all. This will help Millinocket continue to become more attractive to visitors from all over.

Some of you may have already noticed two Electric Vehicle Chargers that have recently popped up in our Downtown. One unit is located in the Downtown Parking Lot and the other in Veterans Memorial Park's lot. Both are equipped with two plugs and are level 2 chargers. These will be running within the next few weeks.

We saw the grand opening of the Millinocket Dog Park in 2023! Please keep your eyes out this spring for a new addition to the park, a water source!

There are many gears in motion to improve our community. Here is to making Millinocket a better place to live, work, and play in 2024.

Town Clerks Office

Reminder that the second half of your FY23/24 Real Estate & Personal Property is dye by January 25th, 2024.

January Sewer Billing – 2024 1^st Quarter:

Bill Date 1/30/24;

Due Date 2/28/24;

Interest Date 2/29/24 (8%)

Dog tags became available on October 15, 2023; Courtesy reminder phone calls began; Fees: $6 spayed/neutered; $11 intact. Mandatory $25 Late Fee effective Feb. 1, 2024. Please remember that all dogs must be vaccinated and licensed in their residing towns by State Statute and to utilize the Town’s Dog Park.

Town Board/Committee Expirations:

Board of Appeals:

• Krystle Garand 12/2023

Personnel Appeals Board:

• James Lawrence 12/2023

Recreation Advisory Committee:

• Brennan Turner 12/2023
• Stephanie Jamieson 12/2023

Board Committee Members: if interested to continue - kindly fill out the attached application and submit to the Town Clerk. You can get an application here.

Diana Lakeman, Town Clerk

Wastewater Department

We would like to remind the residents of Millinocket to please NOT flush wipes, paper towels, grease, plastics, Q-tips or anything other than toilet paper into the sewer system. Even the "flushable" wipes will clog the sewer system. These items are causing extreme plugs to the sewer system and costly maintenance to our pumping stations. We would like to thank the residents for this consideration.

Jason Ingalls,

Wastewater Treatment Facility Superintendent

East Millinocket Police Department



2023 was another record-breaking year in relation to calls for service. Our calls for service increased again in 2023 totaling 10,844 calls with 5,745 of those calls being in the Town of Millinocket. We are still working to complete our end of year complete statistics to include total arrest, traffic stops, types of offenses, etc.

Although this hasn't been a typical Maine winter with very little snow conditions thus far, we are starting to see an increase in snowmobile visitors to our region as we have received a little snow over the last few weeks. We want to remind everyone to drive with extra caution as our region is a very large attraction to snowmobile traffic to include our downtown restaurants and area hotels. Please be mindful of snowmobile trail crossings and THINK SNOW!

Last year we were awarded a grant by the Penobscot County Commissioners to upgrade the radio infrastructure in the Katahdin Region. This work will include adding two repeated channels for local public safety use of not only our agency, but all Fire and EMS agencies in the Katahdin Region. That project is now moving to the next phase with hopes of completion by Spring 2024.

Working in conjunction with the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office we are planning an active shooter exercise that will take place at Stearns and Granite Street schools in February. This exercise will include a several-hour training block for Fire/EMS and Law Enforcement and then a couple weeks later they will put their training to place with a full-scale exercise. The purpose of this training is geared toward a response to these incidents with minimal resources as the Katahdin Region is unique and we don't have as many resources as the larger, non-rural communities. This training and exercise will be very beneficial because it involves working with all public safety resources in our region due to the fact we typically don't get to train together.

Police Chief Cameron McDunnah & Corporal Bradley Fitzgerald

Public Works Department

Plowing and ice control continues as the weather dictates. We are on call 24/7 to respond.

We have had two overnight cleanups so far that included the help of two hired contractors.

The Trackless sidewalk machine with the mounted snow blower has suffered a breakdown that has taken it out of service. We are working on a repair to keep the sidewalks open as the snow builds beyond what the plow can handle. This machine is needed to open the sidewalks that are blocked by private plowing after we have opened them with the plow.

We have had a few truck breakdowns during storms this year. Without any spare trucks, we must rearrange the plowing routes when this happens, and this lengthens every driver’s route. We appreciate your patience in these situations.

With winter upon us I want to remind everyone that our trucks need lots of room to maneuver and have many inherent blind spots. Please give us room to clear your streets.

The 2024 Transfer Station use stickers are currently available at the town office. Your 2023 sticker expired on December 31^st.

The brush pile has been ground into mulch and is being hauled away by Northland Bark Mulch. We encountered a few problems with the size of some of the material in the pile. Going forward, nothing longer than 8 feet can be dropped off at the brush pile.

The brush and compost area are left open during times the transfer site is closed as a convenience to the public. Please do not abuse it.

Bryan Duprey, Public Works Director