Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — A Discovery Forum was held at the Edmunds Conference Center at Northern Maine Community College Sept. 17, bringing community leaders from throughout Aroostook County together to continue discussions on ways to improve the local economy while maintaining “quality of place” in the process. This marked the second meeting in the Mobilize Maine strategic planning process.
“This forum, which is called the ‘Discovery’ phase, is a follow-on to the meeting held in mid-June that introduced the Mobilize Maine initiative to regional leaders as a process to enable Aroostook residents to develop our economic future by leveraging the region’s assets to speed economic growth. Participants, in this grassroots approach to economic development will set benchmarks, create an economic vision for 2015 and recommend a recruitment plan to achieve results,” said Walt Elish, president and CEO of Aroostook Partnership for Progress.
APP and Northern Maine Development Commission (NMDC) have teamed up on the project, looking for ways to boost the local economy based on community resources.
In the intervening weeks since the June event, Elish said there’ve been many smaller group meetings to develop both regional goals and descriptors of “our unique ‘quality of place’ in northern Maine.”
Regional goals established and presented at the Discovery meeting include looking for ways to increase population, employment, wages, income, education and other factors by 2015, starting with baseline figures from 2007. While officials set a modest figure of a 4 percent increase in population, they set higher goals for education, hoping to see nearly a 39 percent increase in individuals age 25 and over acquiring a bachelor’s degree. Officials also hoped to see nearly a 74 percent increase in Internet subscribers by 2015, citing the role such service plays in today’s economy.
Mark Madsen, of ViTAL Economy, spoke to those in attendance, stressing the importance of using “innovation across industries,” in a “knowledge-based economy.”
“Innovation comes from all sectors and is based in necessity,” said Madsen. “The world is changing and we need to change with it. It’s not about scale and huge size, it’s about being the right size. It’s about how we collaborate as a community.”
Following a brief break, a second group met to consider the region’s unique attributes and then came to agreement on a statement that would reflect them, said Elish.
The statement describes northern Maine’s quality of place and reads as follows:
“People in northern Maine recognize and value the deep sense of community that permeates all aspects of their daily lives. Residents have a welcoming, friendly attitude toward each other that stems from recognizing that we are all neighbors and that we genuinely care about each other’s well-being. We experience the richness of both the socioeconomic and cultural diversity of our towns through this closeness with each other; that begins with strong and extended family ties, and that is further exhibited in the high degree of volunteerism for community projects and events.”
The statemenåt continued, reflecting on the lifestyle County residents have grown to appreciate.
“The pace of life is slower, quieter and less stressful. These qualities, coupled with the sense of strong community and connectedness, create a general feeling of safety and comfort. There is a flow to living here that reflects the physical beauty of the landscape and the reality of having four distinct seasons. Getting from one place to another is relatively easy, with light traffic and decent, well-maintained roads.”
Courtesy and respect also factored in.
“People have a clear sense of responsibility — for themselves, their family and their community — that reveals itself in the degree of courtesy and respect with which we treat each other. There is also a noticeable positive work ethic, in good part because hard work is valued and esteemed, without regard to what the type of work is being done.”
The statement concluded by reflecting on the daily cost of living for those who call Aroostook home.
“Finally, the routine costs of living, such as housing, food, services, etc., are more affordable, which means that it is easier to live comfortably with less income.”
Seventy regional leaders attended the meeting to review the goals and quality of place statement and to get more information on the asset mapping and value chain mapping work that will continue over the next three months.
“Chris Anderson, of F.A. Peabody, and current chairman of APP, led the first part of the meeting that talked about the goals and our quality of place. Steven Buck, Caribou city manager, handled the more detailed explanation of the logic and numbers behind the goals statements. Jim Haguewood and Mark Madsen from the ViTAL Economy alliance provided an informational background on the significance of knowledge-based economy jobs and had participants actually work through asset and value chain mapping exercises,” said Elish.
“We are very pleased with the turnout,” said Anderson. “Almost every key segment of our regional economy was represented by the attendees, and they were interested and engaged in the process.”
Mobilize Maine’s focus on Aroostook County will now shift back to the local Mobilize Maine Leadership Team, which consists of: Dave Peterson, The Aroostook Medical Center; Kris Doody, Cary Medical Center; Jon Prescott, Katahdin Trust Company; Larry Shaw, MMG Insurance; Virginia Joles, Maine Public Service; Robert Clark, Northern Maine Development Commission; Alan Landeen, Dead River Company; Chris Anderson, F.A. Peabody; Scot Kent, United Insurance; Richard Daigle, Daigle Oil Company; Steve Gagnon, KeyBank NA; Dave Gordon, Katahdin Cedar Log Homes; Nathan Berry, Baressi Financial Inc.; Town Manager Ryan Pelletier, St. Agatha; Town Manager Ray Mersereau, Mars Hill; Dr. Don Zillman, University of Maine at Presque Isle; Dr. Richard Cost, University of Maine at Fort Kent; and Tim Crowley, Northern Maine Community College.
“This group will be involved with deciding which two industry sectors will receive the asset mapping and value stream mapping analysis,” said Elish.
A follow-up meeting is to be scheduled for December to report on this work. For more information, contact 498-8736.
