SOUTH PARIS, Maine — Home builders around Maine routinely turn clients away or add them to yearslong wait lists. This one is begging for more business.

KBS Builders, a manufactured home company, can churn out up to four homes a week in their hulking western Maine headquarters. Their customizable modular homes are built to the same standard as a stick-built home and leave the factory within months to be shipped — 90 percent finished with utilities already installed — to sites all across New England.

But KBS is only operating at 60 percent of that building’s capacity. Five years ago, the company bought a second factory out of bankruptcy that sits empty. While their business is growing, a web of arcane regulatory barriers unique to Maine is holding it back from doing more here.

The state treats manufactured homes as singular products, so they are taxed once on materials and again on installation. They also cannot be sold directly to consumers, so KBS requires middlemen to put them up. Neither the installers nor contractors working on stick-built homes need licenses, but Maine requires licenses to do modular work.

“I’ve taken all the complexity out of assembling this building, and you’re still requiring someone to have licensure to install this on site. But somebody can go get all the raw parts and build it themselves on site with zero license?” KBS President Thatcher Butcher said. “You tell me where that makes sense.”

New Hampshire and Vermont regulate the industry the same way, although New Hampshire has no sales tax. Licenses are administered by the Maine Manufactured Housing Board, which was established in 1986 to control the quality of mobile homes, which were synonymous with poorly built trailers. Today, a modular home is often more energy efficient than a stick-built home.

Butcher has repeatedly lobbied legislators to provide parity between modular and traditional site-based construction. Lawmakers have been more interested in licensing all contractors like 35 other states do, although a bill on the subject failed last year. Rep. Tiffany Roberts, D-South Berwick, plans to submit a similar measure again this session, she said.

There are only a dozen licensed modular home installers in Maine, Sarah Sturtevant, a research consultant at the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition, found by calling through a list on the Manufactured Housing Board’s website. Those installers are able to charge a premium, edging consumers away from modular construction, Butcher said.

“Our growth in Maine has very much been more limited than in other states, which is unfortunate, because out of all the areas that we service, I think Maine has the most need for housing,” Thatcher said.

KBS’ expansion would also bring more dependable construction jobs to western Maine, a region that was once home to several manufactured housing builders before the 2008 recession. KBS currently employs 120 people, many of whom said they preferred working for a modular builder to doing site-based work.

“The big advantage for these guys is the inside environment. Working inside, they’re not shivering to death when they’re doing their job, and it makes a big difference,” Gary Cossar, a receiver at KBS’ warehouse, said.

Being able to build homes year round is another perk of building modular in Maine. Sam Hight, who runs the Hight family of car dealerships in Skowhegan and is a developer who has built three rural affordable rental projects with KBS, broke ground on an 18-unit project in Madison in November and had it finished by April.

Unlike with stick-built projects he’s done in the past, Hight didn’t have to wait for laborers or subcontractors to become available and travel to his remote site. KBS has a full team including electricians, plumbers and finishers working together in South Paris.

Lawmakers will soon consider promoting modular construction to meet lofty housing goals this upcoming year. Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, said he is submitting one bill that would remove the double tax and another that will focus on rebuilding the industry in Oxford County with startup capital and incentives. Other lawmakers are interested in focusing on it as well.

“[This] industry presents an opportunity for future growth and innovation in how we get housing built and how we address the underproduction issues that we face, not only here in Maine, but certainly across the country,” House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, said.

Plymouth, Massachusetts, officials alerted the public on Sunday that more than 60 birds found dead at Billington Sea are suspected to have died of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu.

On Sunday morning, members of the Clean Harbor waste management who were contracted by the state Department of Environmental Protection, as well as state officials, responded to Billington Sea to remove numerous geese, swans and other dead wildlife from the pond.

The day before, the state ornithologist told town officials that a dead goose removed from Plymouth was “highly suspected” of having avian influenza, or bird flu.

Since there is only one lab in the U.S. that can officially confirm a positive bird flu case, it could take up to a week for a definitive answer, officials said.

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Still, state officials say they will begin testing the removed birds from Billington Sea to determine their official cause of death.

State and local officials advised the public to avoid contact with sick or dead wild birds and other animals that could be infected with avian influenza viruses, and to wear protective equipment if handling wild animals cannot be avoided.

Those who raise poultry should also take precautions as bird flu can spread through direct contact between birds.

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A pair of influenza A (H5N1) virions, a type of bird flu virus (Cynthia Goldsmith, Jackie Katz/CDC via AP/File)

“Poultry owners should keep their birds away from wild waterfowl, limit the number of people that have access to your flock, and if you share equipment with other bird owners, clean and disinfect between locations,” Plymouth Public Health Director Karen Keane said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says handling infected birds is unlikely to lead to illness in people. However, there have been 67 human cases of bird flu since 2022, with 66 of those cases happening in 2024.

ONE STATE LEADS COUNTRY IN HUMAN BIRD FLU WITH NEARLY 40 CONFIRMED CASES

In fact, safety precautions continue to ramp up as cases of bird flu continue to surface across the U.S.

On Thursday, the CDC announced its recommendation to test hospitalized influenza A patients more quickly and thoroughly to distinguish between seasonal flu and bird flu.

The accelerated “subtyping” of flu A in hospitalized patients is in response to “sporadic human infections” of avian flu, the CDC wrote in a press release.

The goal is to prevent delays in identifying bird flu infections and promote better patient care, “timely infection control” and case investigation, the agency stated.

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These delays are more likely to happen during the flu season due to high patient volumes, according to the CDC.

Fox News Digital’s Angelica Stabile contributed to this report.

The New Hampshire Fish and Game said it is considering charging two hikers for their rescue in the White Mountains Saturday. One of them said he is OK with that.

“My answer was whatever you guys have to do,” said Bart Zienkiewicz, 34, of Naugatuck, Connecticut. “If I see a fine or a bill or whatever you need to call it, I’m happy to be able to pay that bill versus not paying it, of course, if things had gotten really bad and they couldn’t find us.”

Zienkiewicz had never before hiked in the winter when he and a friend, Louis Scotti, embarked on a nine-mile hike along the Franconia Ridge early Saturday morning. They reached the summit but couldn’t find their way down because blizzard-like conditions had obscured the trail.

Zienkiewicz said he and Scotti, 33, of Cranston, Rhode Island, realized they were unprepared when they strayed into the woods and couldn’t find their way. They hadn’t packed dry clothes or socks and had only water and protein bars.

“It was kind of a slow realization that, you know, don’t just think that everything’s going to work out,” Zienkiewicz said from his home Sunday. “There is a chance that we may have to not only stay a few hours, maybe overnight, maybe not get out of here.”

Two Fish and Game conservation officers reached the pair around 4:30 p.m. and escorted them to the trail head. Neither had Fish and Game’s $25 Hike Safe card, which would absolve them of rescue costs. It also comes with recommendations for safe hiking.

Scotti could not be reached for comment Sunday. Zienkiewicz said he was so grateful to Fish and Game that he’ll make a donation if he doesn’t get a bill.

“I have my life to thank for doing this,” he said.

Fish and Game is urging people to prepare for any weather conditions, which can change quickly in the White Mountains.