North County

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Economic Development awarded $164 million through 338 grants for economic development projects around the state, including 55 in Central Mass.

Garlock Printing and Converting has rebranded itself as Garlock Flexibles and sold its 77 Industrial Rowe location in Gardner for $9.6 million to a Pennsylvania investment firm in a sale-leaseback deal.

Chiller Technology, a Woburn-based HVAC company, is suing Milkmen Cultivation, a Clinton-based cannabis company, over a lack of payments.

The unemployment rate across Central Massachusetts remained low through September, continuing a downward trend carried over from the summer months.

Goguen Transportation, a shipping and trucking company based in Gardner, has been fined $116,459 by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection for an oil spill that damaged protected wetlands.

Sterling Street Brewery, a microbrewery based in Clinton, is planning on opening a second location in Devens next year. The new location will occupy a 8,300-square-foot building in Pathway Devens.

Lancaster-based Deershorn Farm and Taxidermy has received a $45,000 working capital loan from the North Central Massachusetts Development Corp. in Fitchburg. 

Fitchburg State University President Richard Lapidus will retire at the end of the 2023-24 academic year.

Precision Optics Corp. in Gardner, an optical instrument manufacturer for the medical and aerospace industries, has received a third large production order from an aerospace defense company. The new order totals $680,000, and the products are intended to be produced in fiscal year 2024.

The Moderna Charitable Foundation has granted $54,000 to Fitchburg State University to fund a research fellowship program aimed at increasing the retention and graduation rates of traditionally underserved populations.