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.”
