News Releases

Senator Collins To Help Mark Start of USM Abromson Center Construction

March 18, 2004

U.S. Senator Susan M. Collins and members of the Abromson family will celebrate the start of construction on USM's Joel and Linda Abromson Community Education Center with a brief ground breaking ceremony, scheduled for this Saturday, March 20.

TIME:
9 a.m., this Saturday, March 20.

PLACE:
Construction site on lower Bedford St., Portland, adjacent to USM's new parking garage. In the event of inclement weather, the event will be held in the Woodbury Campus Center, Bedford St., Portland.

NOTES:
USM President Rich Pattenaude will announce the award of $725,000 in federal funds to build a skywalk leading from the Abromson Center, over Bedford Street, to Luther Bonney and Masterton Halls. He also will announce that the complex, which features a geoexchange system using ground water for heating and cooling, has been LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified.

MORE INFO:
Bob Caswell or Judie O'Malley in USM Public Affairs, 780-4200 or at home, 839-2026 (Caswell), 839-6402 (O'Malley), e-mail caswell@usm.maine.edu, omalley@usm.maine.edu. More info, including a drawing of the completed complex, is available at www.usm.maine.edu/ua/cec/ If youÕd like a high resolution drawing e-mailed to you, contact one of us.

BACKGROUND:
The Joel and Linda Abromson Community Education Center includes the 500-seat Hannaford Lecture Hall; a 15,000-square-foot classroom building; the covered pedestrian skywalk over Bedford St.; and the recently completed 1,200-car parking garage. Construction just started on the lecture hall and classroom building, and will be completed in early 2005. The cost of the entire complex --approximately $25 million-- will be paid through a combination of a 2001 state bond; campus fees; private and federal funds.

USM's Division of Community and Professional Education, Maine's largest educational outreach program, will be housed in the center. The division offers noncredit, continuing education courses, workshops and special programs to 84,000 people each year.

The center is named for Linda Abromson and her late husband, Joel. Linda is a former Portland city councilor; mayor; faculty member in USM's Center for Continuing Education, and former candidate for Congress. Joel Abromson, who was elected four times to the Maine Senate, fought for affordable health care and to prevent discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

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