Biomass, Jobs Projection Program could mean good things for workforce

By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
    CARIBOU — One thing was made very clear during Bob Dorsey’s brief message to board members: Aroostook County’s teeming with job potential.
    Dorsey, the president of the Aroostook Partnership for Progress, shared that message with Northern Maine Development Commission executive board members on April 12 during their monthly meeting and asked them to pass the word along, and the majority of that word centered on the multifaceted economic boon biomass offers.
    “Remember, this whole thrust of biomass is not about biomass — it’s about job retention, it’s about business retention,” Dorsey emphasized. “It’s about how many businesses are going to be able to remain open if 40 to 50 percent of their operating expenses are just to sustain the heat when fuel oil hits five and six dollars a gallon.”
    APP and the biomass working group have been making strides toward availability and feasibility of biomass heating by working closely with educational institutions and local providers. Dorsey informed board members that Daigle Oil Company has recently purchased a truck to make bulk deliveries of wood pellets.
    Daniel Vaillancourt, co-owner of Daigle Oil Company, said that the company hopes fuel pellet delivery will be up and running in 30 days, delivering the Aroostook-grown fuel of Northeast Pellets, owned by Matt Bell and operated out of Ashland.
    DOC’s currently sells, installs and services pellet heating equipment, but the addition of pellet delivery came about in response to both customer and industry inquiries.
    “We thought that this was the right time to give it a try,” Vaillancourt said, mentioning that DOC’s did use the Mobilize Maine created model of partnering with a local vendor to keep all of the business in Aroostook and northern Penobscot County.
    The biomass working group was one of many such specialized circles focusing on renewable energy through the Mobilize Maine effort spearheaded in 2009 through APP. The industry has grown so extensively that there’s even a Biomass Fair coming to the University of Maine at Presque Isle on Saturday, May 19.
    Covering all the biomass bases, Dorsey informed the board that he and an associate have already met with Countryway Insurance to discuss the nature of the technology and APP has been working with financial institutions like the County Federal Credit Union to implement residential loans helping homeowners access the renewable technology.
    Biomass isn’t the only APP effort turning heads; Dorsey also informed the board that Aroostook County Jobs Projection Program is under way and is becoming increasingly popular.
    The Aroostook County Jobs Projection Program was created to help combat the current societal mindset that youths need to leave the county and state in order to get a good job. Dorsey said that APP is currently canvassing the county trying to establish business owners’ projected employment needs over the next five years, as Aroostook County has an aging workforce.
    “We’re going to get that data base posted on the web, we’re going to get the data into the middle schools and high schools and we’re going to try to fight this darn perception that you have to leave the county or the state to get a good job,” Dorsey told the board. “We have got to at least get the kids informed that jobs are available, but they have to get the skills and the training necessary to qualify for those jobs.”
    Additional information about the Aroostook Partnership for Progress can be obtained by visiting www.appme.org/.