County business not so bleak, say merchants> New enterprises blooming in wake of large-store exodus, border tax

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For many people, the economy of Aroostook County in recent months could be compared to the dark gray clouds that gather on the horizon ahead of a cataclysmic thunderstorm — doom and gloom.

All the big names are going: Grossman’s, Marianne’s, Ames. And the Canadian shoppers are staying home.

But not every business is leaving. Most are staying and many others are starting up. According to officials at the various chambers of commerce in the County, in 1995 more than 100 new businesses opened up in the region. About 40 others expanded or underwent major renovations. Most of those were small businesses.

“There’s a lot of local investment that people are making back into their own businesses,” said Phil Bosse, executive director of the Caribou Chamber of Commerce. “There are a lot of them that are moving [to bigger facilities] and renovating.”

“So many people are talking doom and gloom, yet what’s going on at the cash register doesn’t justify that,” said Robert Reece, president of the Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce.

He pointed out that, according to figures provided by the State Planning Office for 1995, taxable consumer retail sales in the region were down only 3 percent.

During the period from 1991 through 1995, consumer retail sales in the region were actually up 1 percent, according to the planning office.

Reece added that while the loss of any business in a community is bad, there are many other people waiting in the wings with an idea for a business.

“[When] larger retailers close, that can create opportunities for these folks,” he said.

Reece said that too much negative talk about business, on the other hand, can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, because people who want to start a business might decide not to, and consumers can become overly cautious about spending.

“We have to have a positive [attitude] infection somewhere,” echoed David I. Dorsey, president and chief executive officer of First Citizens Bank, an Aroostook County-based bank that just opened its fifth branch in Houlton. “If we don’t express a positive image, how can we expect our customers to be positive?”

The aim of MacDonald Enterprises is to have a positive impact on the economic vitality of Aroostook County. Danny R. MacDonald of Caribou wants to create jobs in the region as much as he wants to manufacture quality wood furniture.

This summer, MacDonald plans to move his small business from the basement of his home to larger quarters at the former civilian engineering maintenance building at Loring Commerce Center.

The former teacher started his company a few years ago and has been working to develop markets for his products. Within five years, MacDonald hopes to employ up to 40 people.

“I’m from Aroostook County and I want to see Aroostook County survive,” MacDonald said. “I want to try to make it work.”

That relationship with a community can carry a business a long way.

“We’ve been here since 1939 and we’ll be here till 2039,” said Brian Cole about his shoe store in Houlton.

Cole and his brother James run the shop, which first began as a harness shop four generations ago. Brian is the salesman while James works in the back as a cobbler.

“I can’t complain about business,” said Brian. “People have been very, very good to us. We try our very best to keep everybody happy, my customers and sometimes everybody else’s.”

A good Christmas season helped convince Jean Sloat of Houlton to open another shop at the Aroostook Centre Mall in Presque Isle. Jean’s Serendipity Shop, originally of Houlton, opened a second store in the mall and recently celebrated its grand opening there.

The stores specialize in gift items such as pottery, candles and collectibles.

Sloat said that after a good Christmas season, she signed a one-year lease with the mall owners. While she can’t claim high financial success, with all the profits going back into the business to build inventory, she said the store is holding its own.

Carving out a product or service niche has helped other businesses in the region succeed.

“We came up and looked to see what Houlton needed for business,” said Jill Hurd, who opened the Houlton Photo Lab in 1993 with her husband, Greg. She said they had initially considered opening a hardware store or a small country store before deciding on a full-service photo processing center.

She said that since opening, they have expanded and changed their services based on what they heard from their customers.

“We have never seen a decline in a month’s business,” said Greg, who added that they also don’t try to compete with chain stores.

“[We] don’t try to compete with the big boys.”

Dan Emerson also was looking for something that the area didn’t have. He settled on a fresh seafood store, which he opened in a vacant sporting goods shop last summer.

“I like the Houlton area,” said the 29-year-old former farmer. “I’ve lived here all my life. I [wanted] to be able to stay here.

“Public response has been good,” he said recently, adding that over the Labor Day weekend he sold 2,000 pounds of lobster. “We’ve had a real good winter. I thought the area would support it and it has. We’re looking at a real big summer season.”

Business has been so good, in fact, that Emerson is considering sending a truck to the Presque Isle-Caribou area to sell seafood a couple of times a week.

Lance Plissey and Martin Towle, of North American Billiards of Caribou, also have a niche. They build custom solid-wood pool tables to ship to customers across New England and the neighboring Canadian provinces. With two part-time helpers they’ve been working for about a year and have achieved a degree of success.

The tables are constructed of solid wood, including rock maple and oak, feature carved ball-and-claw feet, and sport leather pockets. The tables come complete with balls and cues.

The company constructs between three and six pool tables a week and utilizes about 600 board feet of wood a week.

Both men say they want to work in Aroostook County because the labor and lumber needed for the tables are available in abundance.

Brian Raynes, 23, opened the Shiretown Bakery and Coffee Shop in a vacant shoe store on Main Street in Houlton early in 1992 for a different reason.

“It’s what southern Maine isn’t anymore,” he said. “It was friendly. That’s a good sign when you’re first looking into an area.”

In 1994, he moved across the street into larger quarters to keep up with the needs of his customers.

At the bakery, customers can get just about anything from a bagel or a lemon danish right up to a homemade sandwich made with a variety of freshly baked breads.

“We have a full retail bakery,” said Raynes, who runs the business with his wife, Roxanne. “[And] you actually get what you pay for.”

“I think we’ve been through the worst part of the Loring leaving and the Canadian shoppers [not coming],” said Bosse, who expressed renewed optimism about the region’s business climate. “People are at a point where they’ve come to accept that as the way it’s going to be and they’re moving on [with their lives].

“We think people are saying, `We want to support something that has [local] roots and a relationship [with the area] and not someone that’s goin and run the first time we get a down cycle,”‘ said Dorsey.

NEWS staffer Debra Sund contributed to this story.