R.I.P Growth Council: 1994-2007

OXFORD HILLS — The Growth Council of Oxford Hills is no more.

On Monday, November 26, it will be replaced by the Western Maine Economic Development Council.  The WMEDC will be a new department within Community Concepts, Inc. (CCI), the social services nonprofit headquartered in Paris' Market Square.

The Growth Council’s board of directors agreed to dissolve on Tuesday, November 14, while the CCI board voted to create the WMEDC later that same day.

“The Growth Council is no longer, but its mission survives,” said Growth Council Director John Shattuck, Friday.

Shattuck has been hired to head up the WMEDC.  Joining him will be the Growth Council’s last remaining employee, Marcy Boughter.  In addition, as many as 10 Growth Council directors are expected to take seats on the 15-member WMEDC policy board. 

The Growth Council reportedly had 15 active directors when the group disbanded.

“The policy board will oversee some of the activities of the economic development council and set its direction,” explained CCI spokesman Mary Ellen Therriault, Friday.

According to Shattuck, CCI is recruiting members to fill out the policy board.  Reflecting its previously announced goal to extend economic development countywide, CCI already has tapped its first new member, Dr. Harry “Dutch” Dresser, of Bethel, for a seat on the board. 

Still, while many of the faces will remain the same, Therriault said CCI is “absolutely not” absorbing any of the Growth Council’s existing properties, liabilities, or debt.  Shattuck agreed that the WMEDC will be a beast of an entirely new color.

“This is not, N – O – T, underscore, bold text, not a ‘merger,’” said Shattuck.  “A merger means two companies are genuinely folding their organizations together, and that’s not what’s happening here. 

“The Growth Council has been in dissolution mode since this spring,” explained Shattuck.  “The folks of CCI are simply hiring two people who were previously employed at the Growth Council to head up a new economic development department that will undertake what the Growth Council traditionally did, going back to its roots, but on a more regional basis.”

Shattuck said that for the “next 30 days, or so,” he and Boughter will work to “officially and appropriately” dissolve the Growth Council, while unloading the last of its property holdings.  As the WMEDC, they will continue to work out of the current Growth Council offices inside Key Bank’s Norway branch.

“We’ll be wearing two hats for awhile because we will be doing work that is clearly aligned with the shutting down of the Growth Council at the same time we are working for Community Concepts on productive, economic development actions in the community.”

For example, Shattuck said, Boughter is working to sell the Oddfellows Hall, in Norway, while continuing to manage the town’s Main Street façade program.  The former is “clearly” Growth Council work, he said, while the latter is something Boughter will now do for WMEDC. 

On Friday, Boughter said she expects a report of the structural integrity of the Oddfellows Hall “any day now” from engineer Al Hodsdon III, from Resurgence Engineering & Preservation of Portland.

“That will determine what direction we go in,” she said.  “There are a lot of people patiently waiting for my reply.”

Depending on what Hodson has to say, Shattuck says the Oddfellows building might be sold to any one of several interested buyers.  In that case, about $70,000 in state grant money still available to the Growth Council could be spent on repairs and maintenance.  However, if the report indicates the building is not worth the investment, or if a sale cannot be put together in short order, Shattuck says he may be forced to “surrender” the building to the mortgage holder, Northeast Bank.

That’s the avenue the Growth Council took this past week with its other great albatross, the Bridgton Commerce Center.

Between the Growth Council and CCI votes on Tuesday, Key Bank conducted a foreclosure auction of the one-time woolen mill.  A buyer’s name has not yet been released.

“They found their buyer at that auction, but they did not close that night,” said Shattuck.  “However the bank has informed me that they believe they have now negotiated a deal.”

DEVELOPMENT DOLDRUMS

Problems began in earnest for the Growth Council in late January, 2006 at the Bridgton Commerce Center.  After announcing nearly a year before that it would not renew its lease, Acorn Products vacated its two-thirds of the 115,000-square-foot building.  Without a replacement on hand, that left Dielectric Communications as the only tenant and the Growth Council out $150,000 in annual rent. 

In less than two months, two Growth Council VPs, Barb Deschenes and Bob Shinners, were gone from the company directory.  Soon after, staffers and interns began to disappear from the front office and development director Len Bartel was let go as well.  Even Shattuck, who had been signed on as part of a management deal with the Lake Region Development Council, was sent packing.

By August, Growth Council CEO Brett Doney resigned.  On November 13, 2006, the group’s board of directors picked Shattuck from among 20 applicants to salvage what he could.

The Growth Council was widely criticized for investing outside the Oxford Hills when it bought the former Bridgton Woolen Mill in 1999.  After a month-long review of Growth Council finances, Shattuck concluded that it never should have been in the business of property development at all.

“Some of these places were completely untenable,” says Shattuck, adding that many technology parks in Maine, like the one Doney hoped to build on Pikes Hill, in Norway, have underperformed.

Meanwhile, the Growth Council found itself without enough money to both renovate the Oddfellows Hall and make six-figure loans to area companies, such as Paricon and Maine Machine Products.  At a May, 2006, hearing in Paris, presidents from both companies said they might have gone under without Growth Council help.

That, said Shattuck, is why the Growth Council was founded.   In its last year of life, and with support form his board, Shattuck worked the get the Growth Council out of the property development business.  Along the way, he killed all of the subsidy corporations it had run under the banner of EnterpriseMaine.

Two lots in the still undeveloped Oxford Hills Business Park on Route 26 were sold to Oxford Plains Speedway owner Bill Ryan.  The old J. J. Newberry building — once the shopping anchor of downtown Norway — was sold to Norway Savings Bank for use as an operations and training center.  Finally, in October, the Growth Council completed the sale of 150 acres on Norway’s Pikes Hill, where the Western Maine Technology Park was to have been located. 

“All of these properties were simply beyond our ability to sustain,” says Shattuck. 

In addition to the Oddfellows hall, the Growth Council still owns 11 acres at the top of Pikes Hill.  That lot was split off from property sold to the Western Foothills Land Trust and retained.  The hope is that proceeds from its eventual sale will pay back, to the extent possible, six area towns that invested in the tech park.

BACK TO BASICS

Earlier this year, when plans to join with CCI were unveiled, the Growth Council said it planned to extend its services to the entire CCI service area, including Franklin County and parts of Androscoggin County.  However, Shattuck and Therriault both say the current plan is for the WMEDC to focus its efforts on Oxford County.

“In an overall way, we are looking at what we can do to improve the economic health of Western Maine,” said Therriault. 

Those efforts, said Shattuck, are more likely to involve lending to existing businesses than trying to bring in new ones, and he’ll steer a wide berth away from property development.

“Our first-line commitment will be helping the businesses that are here to retain jobs,” he said.  “Hats off to Bob Bahre, but there is not going to be a Lowe's coming here every week.  What we need to do is help the people who have already made a commitment to be here. 

“You have to work with the folks who are on the ground before you can lure anyone else here,” said Shattuck.  “If we can grow existing businesses, that’s when it becomes more attractive for other businesses to come into the area.”

Apart from business lending, Shattuck listed workforce development — helping businesses find skilled workers, and helping workers learn new skills — as a priority for the WMEDC.  Also on the radar, Shattuck expects to work as an advocate for Oxford County under the capital dome.

“We want to make sure Oxford County is well represented in Augusta when it comes time to hand out money for infrastructure projects,” he said.

However, before that time comes, the WMEDC plans a heavy dose of data collection.

“The very first task will be to reach out to businesses to find what their needs are,” said Therriault.

But will that step on toes within the Chamber of Commerce?  Shattuck sits on the Chamber board and promises no conflict between it and his new employer.  The WMEDC will compliment the Chamber’s work, he said, and not duplicate services.

“The Chamber is primarily about marketing and promoting its member businesses within the Oxford Hills,” said Shattuck.  “We will be working to retain businesses and develop a strong workforce across the region.”

“We anticipate working with some of the people who are already doing work in these areas, and building productive partnerships with them,” said Therriault.  “There is not too much of this that can be done.

“Stay tuned,” she added.  “I think there will be a lot more exciting news coming out in the future.”

West Paris to take pro-pot article to voters

WEST PARIS — Breaking with their peers from nearby larger towns, West Paris selectmen voted Thursday, December 28, to let a pro-marijuana ordinance appear on the warrant at town meeting.

If adopted by voters at the March 3 gathering, the ordinance would make possession of the drug the “lowest law enforcement priority” in West Paris.  

The proposal was submitted by the eight-month-old Maine Marijuana Policy Initiative.  Based in Lewiston, the loose-kit group of about 700 activists across the state hopes to end pot prohibition in Maine.

The refusal to block the ordinance from public debate prompted an impassioned response from Roland Delamater.  A presence at all selectmen’s meetings, Delamater tapes the sessions for broadcast on the local public-access tv channel. He rarely speaks, but appeared unusually moved by the ruling.

“Thank you for doing that,” he said, stepping forward for a rare appearance in front of the camera.  “I know it’s an unenforceable ordinance, but you guys kept the town’s finances in mind.”

Jonathan Leavitt, executive director of the Marijuana Initiative, called the decision "a victory for local democracy.”

Leavitt has threatened lawsuits against South Paris and Farmington, where selectmen reached different conclusions.  In those towns, town fathers refused to let the ordinance appear on town meeting warrants, despite the fact that it was submitted with enough signatures to normally bypass their authority.

State law says that when a petition is turned in with valid signatures equal to at least 10 percent of the people who voted in the most recent gubernatorial election, the question must be put on the next town meeting warrant, or a special town meeting must be called within 60 days.

“If they turn their backs on their obligation as elected officials, a lawsuit is an option for us,” said Leavitt, following the South Paris decision.

West Paris selectmen say they have little personal enthusiasm for the pro-pot ordinance, and have openly questioned how their small town, without a police force of its own, could possibly direct which laws county and state officers will uphold. 

Still, they said that once citizens spoke, however figuratively by signing Leavitt’s petition, they felt compelled to obey. 

“It’s got nothing to do with whether we want it or not, it’s got to do with whether they have enough signatures,” said Selectman Wade Rainey.

“We’ll just have to let it go forward and see how it goes,” agreed selectman Dennis Henderson.

Leavitt says the ordinance is designed to officially record the stance of West Paris citizens regarding marijuana use.  By de-emphasizing enforcement at the grassroots level, the Marijuana Initiative hopes to put pressure on state and federal officials to eventually relax all laws prohibiting the use of marijuana. 

“If policy change is going to happen it's vital that local towns and cities make their views known publicly,” says Leavitt.  “We simply cannot wait for the federal government to see the wisdom in changing arcane, destructive, costly, and failed policies."

Toward that end, volunteers fanned out across Western Maine on election day, November 7, to gather petition signatures for their proposal. 

In a two-pronged approach, Marijuana Initiative members also supported a second signature drive, intended to beef up Maine’s seven-year-old Medical Marijuana Law.  If that ballot initiative makes it to a statewide referendum next year, and gets the nod from voters, it would create marijuana dispensaries and force Augusta to launch education campaigns about the service.

Although Leavitt claims enough signatures were gathered to bring the “lowest law enforcement” ordinance to a head in many towns, he says his group decided to test the waters in only four “target communities” — West Paris, South Paris, Sumner, and Farmington.

Leavitt lives in Sumner.  The other towns all displayed a groundswell of support for the ordinance, he says.

That support, however, did not extend to selectmen in South Paris.  They turned the idea down cold. 

Acting on advice from Richard P. Flewelling, an attorney with the Maine Municipal Authority, they deemed the ordinance “illegal.”  South Paris Town Manager Sharon Jackson said this negated the board’s obligation to present it to voters. 

In a letter to Jackson, Flewelling stressed that it is state laws that govern the manufacture, possession, sale and use of marijuana.

“It is beyond the legal authority of any municipality to repeal them, or to prohibit or impede their enforcement,” he wrote. 

Although Leavitt submitted almost twice the valid signatures needed, South Paris selectmen refused to place the ordinance on the town meeting warrant.  Selectmen in Farmington took a similar stance.

In West Paris however, selectmen broke form.

“I think that where the petitioners submitted enough signatures, and where they’ve all been verified, basically, the townspeople said they want it on the warrant,” said Rainey.

“I don’t know if it’s an ‘illegal’ ordinance, but it’s certainly not anything we could enforce,” he reasoned.  “It would be an ordinance that would just be sitting there on the books, but it’s up to the townspeople to decide if they want that sitting there or not.”

In reaching their decision, West Paris selectmen not only bucked the advice of MMA, and precedent set by their more populous neighbors, they also appear to have turned on the advice of the town’s attorney Geoffrey Hole.

During a 20-minute executive session, December 14, selectmen reviewed a letter from Hole which reportedly backed Flewelling’s opinion.  An idea said to have been floated was to have all of the town’s petitioned by the Marijuana Initiative band together in any resulting legal fight.

Instead, West Paris selectmen said the people’s right to speak, right or wrong, trumped the offer of group  discount from their attorney.  Still, they also made it clear that by moving the ordinance proposal forward, they hope to stave off all potential legal action.

However, in doing so, West Paris charts a different course than the one taken by neighboring Sumner, where selectmen also decided to honor petition signatures and let the pro-pot ordinance go to town meeting.

In Sumner, Leavitt met with town clerk Susan Runes to comb over the model ordinance that was attached to the petition signed by voters.

“I went over things that I found very unacceptable,” said Runes, on Friday.  “I just felt we needed to do something because if it passes the way it is, it’s unworkable.”

Runes said some of those changes may by voted in at a public hearing to be held sometime between now and Sumner’s August town meeting.

Although West Paris also plans to hold a public hearing on the proposed ordinance, selectboard chairman Bill Birney says there can be no changes in his town.

“The folks that signed that petition signed for that particular document and that’s the document that’s going to go on the warrant,” he said.

Still, even though Leavitt says he’s glad his issue will get a public airing in West Paris, he is not all smiles about his dealings with Town Manager Don Woodbury, whom he says “seems to be doing his best to keep us out of the loop.”

In a recent letter to the town, Leavitt praised selectmen for acting “in the interest of local democracy,” despite any personal misgivings they may have about the pro-marijuana stance of the proposed ordinance.  However, he had few kind words for Woodbury.

“He has shown his lack of enthusiasm for his role by providing us with only a hard copy of the town voter list, despite the list being available electronically.  Farmington, Sumner and [South] Paris all readily provided electronic voting lists to us,” wrote Leavitt.

“Mr. Woodbury has also refused to provide us with a copy of the rulings that came his way from lawyers who were asked to provide their opinion on the issue, in stark contrast to the Sumner town clerk, the Paris town manager and the Farmington town manager, who maintained open

communication with us, in at least one case despite their lack of support for the issue.

“I would also point out that Mr. Woodbury has refused to keep us in the loop around when the public hearing will be held to review the proposed ordinance and get feedback. His response, when asked, was to inform us that it will be posted in a local newspaper and we should look there for the information sometime in February.”

Leavitt also complained about not getting “a simple phone call” to inform him that his proposed ordinance, tabled at an earlier meeting, would be ruled on at the December 28 meeting of the West Paris selectmen.

However, the matter was not on the agenda for that meeting, and was brought up as an additional item by Chairman Bill Birney, who expressed a desire to deal with the issue and not let it hang any longer in limbo. 

Hearings on the lowest law enforcement priority ordinance have yet to be scheduled in either West Paris or Sumner.  By press time, no lawsuits related to the petition drive had been filed against South Paris or Farmington.  

West Paris faces 38.8 percent budget hike

WEST PARIS — It’s that time of year again, when area towns which have stuck to a town meeting date in March begin to hammer out annual budgets for voter approval.

In West Paris, work gets under way in earnest this evening, with the first meeting of the budget committee. 

This seven-member citizen panel will review the 2007 budget proposal submitted by Town Manager Don Woodbury, starting at 5 p.m., Thursday, January 4, at the town office.

Woodbury’s initial spending plan, unveiled at the December 28 selectmen’s meeting, rang in at $961,665, or slightly less than the current $1,011,390 municipal budget.

“I was just looking at what was spent [in 2006] and being more realistic,” Woodbury explained, on Friday.  “Rather than raising money that doesn’t get used, I’m only asking for money I think we really need.”

Roughly $82,000 was freed up with the completion of Main Street construction this year.  Everywhere else, it was simply a matter of tightening the belt, says Woodbury, as he budgeted fewer dollars wherever sizable amounts looked to be rolling back into the general fund, untouched.

However, Woodbury’s first draft did not include some large items expected to be in the budget voters will debate come March.

“We have three major, big ticket items that we really don’t have a good plan on, yet” explained selectboard Chairman Bill Birney at last Thursday’s meeting.

Later in that session, selectmen settled on their one of these items, the town’s one major road project scheduled for this summer.  At an estimated cost of $150,900, they hope to have the last gravel section of Tuelltown Road paved.

Also, selectmen plan to ask voters for money to buy a new fire truck.  After several back and forth rounds with Fire Chief Norm St. Pierre, the current request looks to be $178,171 for a 2008 Kenworth pumper from Southern Fire Services in Jasper, GA. 

That engine is about $30,000 less than a different Kenworth model St. Pierre asked for three months ago, when he first broached the topic of buying a new fire engine.  Despite haggling down the price since then, selectman continue to push for a better deal.

“I’ve asked Norm [St. Pierre] to check on different chassis,” said Dennis Henderson.  “There’s quite a difference in price.”

When St. Pierre went before selectmen in late September, he asked for nearly $200,000 to modernize the town’s two-vehicle fleet.  He wanted to buy a new fire engine to replace a 1979 pumper that was acting up, plus spend another $22,000 to put an automatic transmission in the town’s newer, six-year-old engine, making it easier for firefighters to drive.

Selectmen briefly considered calling a special town meeting to approve the purchase, but held off.  Instead, they spent a total of about $15,000 to install a less complicated manual transmission in the new truck and to make repairs to the old one.

“Bill [Birney] figured out that we could fix the old truck for about what we would have spent in interest charges [between November and town meeting], had we gone out for a loan on a new one,” said Woodbury.  “This way, if we do decide to buy a new fire engine at town meeting, we still have the old one to use as a back-up.”

Whatever selectmen finally okay for a fire engine, it will need about $13,000 in equipment before it can be put into service.

“I think as a board, we’ve agreed that we do need a new truck,” said Birney.  “As to how to pay for it, I think we have several different options. 

“I would prefer to pay for it all right off through [property] taxes, or financing a minimum part of it,” he said.  “I just can’t see financing it for five or six years like we did the last one.  We were paying $13,000 a year in interest charges.  That’s really just a waste of taxpayer money.”

Birney also is championing the purchase of a new bucket loader for the town highway department.  Bids are due at the town office tomorrow, Friday, January 5, and are expected to come in at “about $100,000,” says Woodbury.

If all three “big ticket” additions are approved, West Paris’ 2007 budget will run to $1,403,736.  This means that as budget committee members sits down to work, they face a potential 38.8 percent increase in municipal spending.

Woodbury says the budget committee will probably hold “two or three” meetings, including at least one joint session with selectmen.

“It’s helpful if we can get them to come to an agreement, but it varies,” he said.  “Sometimes they come to an easy agreement, other times the warrant will have two different recommendations [on certain articles].”

One budget committee meeting will be set aside to meet with representatives from various social service agencies, which routinely ask for public funding.  However, some of those groups could be turned away empty handed this year.

“It’s my understanding that there was a vote taken some time ago at town meeting not to include any new requests,” explained Selectman Wade Rainey.

The budget committee must wrap up its work by February 10, when the annual town meeting warrant is scheduled to go to the printers. 

“We’ve all got a lot of homework to do in the next two to three weeks,” quipped Birney.

West Paris’ annual town meeting is set for 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 3, at the Agnes Gray Elementary School.

The West Paris budget committee members are: Lisa Henderson, Betty Jones, Sylvia McCann, Dale Piirainen, Ken Poland, Diane Rainey and George Twine.  A committee chairman will be chosen at tonight’s meeting.