CES: County staff serving local needs

    PRESQUE ISLE, Maine – Brewer-based CES, Inc., has expanded to Aroostook County, opening an office at 549 Main Street in the Star City.
CES, a multi-faceted consulting firm, specializes in comprehensive surveying and engineering services. The business, founded in Brewer, will be celebrating a business milestone next year.    “CES will mark its 30th anniversary in business next year,” said Denis St. Peter, one of the five co-owners of the company.
In addition to St. Peter, co-owners include: Shawn Small, Jim Parker, Jim Lacadie and Jeff Teunisen.
The decision to open a branch in Aroostook County was an easy one, according to St. Peter, since many of the staff have ties to the area.
“CES, Inc., has had a long history in northern Maine. We also feel a strong connection to northern Maine, since many of our employees have family ties in the County,” said St. Peter, noting that he himself is from Caribou and Randy Stephenson, a technician with the business, is a Presque Isle High School graduate. “We’ve done projects in the area from time to time. In 1978 we worked on the city’s landfill. We’re currently back working on the latest project there.”
St. Peter said the business has always had a small presence in the County, employing one or two people here. CES has a staff of 68 employees who provide services as far south as Auburn and all the way to Aroostook.
“We’ve had several projects down toward Auburn, as well as northwestern Maine, Downeast and Aroostook County,” St. Peter said.
The new office will be County people with expertise in engineering-related fields.
“We brought them together, combining their unique skills. All four CES employees in the Presque Isle office are from the County and understand the uniqueness of County clients and projects,” said St. Peter. “Our new Presque Isle office and staff allows us to better serve our northern Maine clients with a  full spectrum of consulting services.”
St. Peter said with the County continuing to grow daily, there was a definite need for the services CES offers.
“We have a whole host of things that we do – civil, environmental and construction engineering;  as well as environmental monitoring. We have a large staff, including surveyors, technicians and scientists, to handle the needs of our clients,” said St. Peter.
St. Peter said it was always the company’s goal to increase its presence in the County as needs increased. Based on that, it was determined now was the time to do just that.
“Our goal has always been to grow that office; with the number of clients in the County, we thought it was a good time to expand,” he said. “We’ve hired three new employees in the past couple months.”
St. Peter said while CES is capable of large projects like that at the city’s landfill, it is also capable of smaller projects.
“We’ve been involved in various projects over the years here in Aroostook. We were involved in the environmental cleanup at Loring and continue to have ties to the Loring Development Authority – are continuing talks on possible projects. We’ve done work in the Houlton are for the Maliseets – environmental work there,” said St. Peter.
Projects are usually handled through a bid process.
“We’re most often called to provide a proposal on what our services would cost. We’re happy to provide  responses to over-the-phone requests,” said St. Peter.
St. Peter said the company was interested in discussing the business with potential clients as well as potential employees.
“One thing we’re trying to accomplish is to not export work – keep work in the County. Anyone interested in discussing employment or potential projects in the County can call 764-8412,” said St. Peter.
Employees in the Presque Isle office include: Dave Hopkins, office manager; Laurie Hopkins, receptionist; George McLaughlin, technician; Andrew Buck, technician; and Randy Stephenson, technician. The staff looks forward to continuing to serve existing clients and meeting new ones.
“We are excited that we are in a position to help support good jobs in the County and to contribute to the retention of  highly-skilled individuals in northern Maine. These folks, like our company, are dedicated to the success of northern Maine businesses and communities,” said St. Peter.
For more information, visit www.ces-maine.com.