Live and Work in Northern Maine
by Dennis McCartney Economic Development Coordinator for Limestone , Maine
My wife Susan and I moved here in June to be closer to our son and his family . He ’ s been a teacher at MSSM for about 12 years and recently added a baby daughter to his fold . That was the final straw that convinced us to move here . We would have missed seeing our only grandchildren grow up if we hadn ’ t moved to the area . We ’ ve been coming up in the winters for holidays like Thanksgiving , Christmas and Easter so we ’ ve become quite accustomed to winter life in Northern Maine . However , nothing had prepared us for the beauty of the region in the summer . We talk everyday about how wonderful the cooler less humid weather is here and what a nice quiet , slower pace of life we have discovered here .
I really hadn ’ t planned on working outside of my home office where I develop and manage web sites for businesses . We moved into a great apartment overlooking Limestone Pond and while I was doing a bit of research on the town came across an ad for a person to work for the town Chamber of Commerce and the Limestone Development Foundation . It was listed as a part time job requiring 20-24 hrs per week . After a lifetime starting , owning and managing my own companies I thought that I might be able to help the town so I met with the powers that be and became the part time Economic Development Coordinator . I ’ m tasked with encouraging people to come and live in Limestone and getting businesses to locate here and helping new businesses get started .
What I have found is a region full of friendly hard working honest people that would like to see the area grow so that their kids don ’ t have to leave the area after high school to find good jobs .
I ’ ve studied the history of Limestone and found that following the closure of the Air Force Base at Loring some valiant , genuine efforts were made to help the town in 1997 , 2007 and again in 2012 but little progress has been made and the number of businesses in town continued to decline . My analysis of the situation led me to the inescapable conclusion that what the town and region needed was jobs . Jobs will generate all kinds of good things for the town . Jobs will lead to an increase of consumer oriented businesses locating here and an increase in residential property values . In order to generate jobs and cause companies to come here however , companies need skilled workers . We have a wealth of educational institutions in place now with the Loring Job Corps , Northern Maine Community College and the campuses of University of Maine in Presque Isle and Fort Kent . Next step was to learn how to pay for it . Maine has a plethora of resources both public and private that can help . The USDA / Rural Development ( RD ) is a place to help residents repair and improve their homes and even has a program that allows people that are receiving Section 8 housing support to use that support to pay the mortgage on a home . This is one answer to the challenging question of “ how do we get people out of Section 8 Housing ” and into a normal home . RD also has funding for businesses to expand and grow . For companies , organizations like Finance Authority of Maine ( FAME ) and Coastal Enterprises Inc ( CEI ) are standing by waiting to help start up or expand businesses and the Fed is here in the form of a very active and effective Small Business Administration ( SBA ) office in the area .
Then there are the private foundations that offer funding for a long list of worthy causes from education to civic improvements . These are foundations that support only Maine .
That brings us to the next piece . Jobs and job creation .
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