Retired Town Clerk Connie Loughran at the February Town Council meeting administers the oath of office to members of the Police Department. Pictured are, from left, Officer Alisha Smith, Officer Paul Dubay, Officer Todd Meslin, Sgt. Ted Hatch, Lt. Mike Nault, Deputy Chief Chris Sanborn, and The Rev. Timothy Higgins, chaplain. Hatch, Nault and Sanborn were promoted; Dubay returns to the force; Smith and Meslin are new hires; and Higgins fills a recently created volunteer position.

Mega growing

Mega Industries, a Gorham manufacturer of high-power microwave components, has reported record revenues for 2016, up more than 32 percent.

Mega’s “bookings” reached a record high of about $12 million for 2016 due to new contracts worldwide, the company said in a press release.

Record revenues are expected in 2017 and to continue at a record pace for another three to five years, the company said, also adding that it is hiring. 

Recently Mega increased its workforce by 20 percent with “many high-paying jobs,”  Peter V. Anania, CEO of Mega, said in the release.“We continue to add to our workforce with additional high- paying careers like experienced, manual and CNC machinists; experienced and/or entry level brazing craftsmen; quality control inspectors; a mechanical designer; a mechanical and/or electrical engineer; electrical technicians to work in our world-class test lab; and a production control person.  These positions will either add to our first shift or our newly created second shift.”

Most of Mega’s products, the company said, are used by scientists at research laboratories.  This research is related to finding new ways of generating “energy using cold fusion; figuring out how and why certain chemical reactions happen; developing new types of radiation treatments to help cure cancer; and proving out various hypothesis around the “Big Bang” theory.”

“The Mega team is committed to the good work it is doing to improve the world’s standard of living while continually improving our engineering and manufacturing processes,” the company said.

The company is at Sanford Drive in the Gorham Industrial Park. For more information, visit www.megaind.com.

Agricultural reminder

An information session for farmers in Southern Maine will be held 1-4:15 p.m. Monday, Feb. 27, at Shaw Brothers Construction in Gorham.

Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, Maine Farmland Trust, and University of Maine Cooperative Extension will host the meeting.

The session will cover several topics relating to agriculture.

The session is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Stephanie Gilbert at 287-7520 or Stephanie.gilbert@maine.gov.

U.S. taxpayer debt

The Bureau of the Fiscal Service reported on Feb. 16 that the U.S. public debt was $19,926,581,166,878.36.