Piscataquis County youth moving away Job shortage fuels decline in population

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DOVER-FOXCROFT – It was not what Gov. Angus King had in mind when he coined his inaugural phrase, “Maine is on the move,” but Piscataquis County’s younger residents in fact are moving – to southern Maine, out of state, anywhere – for well-paying jobs.

The governor adopted the slogan in 1995 to indicate the state’s business climate would improve under his term, but it also succinctly described the mass exodus of young people that has occurred over the years in Piscataquis County.

Although the county is the size of Connecticut and part of Rhode Island combined, it has the smallest population of all counties in the state, a rank it also held in 1980.

While the majority of Maine counties experienced population growth in the last decade, Piscataquis County’s population declined from 18,653 in 1990 to 17,235 in 2000, a shift of 1,418, or 15 percent, according to newly released U.S. Census figures.

That loss represented a crucial element – young people of childbearing age – according to local officials, who cite declining school population as proof.

Ironically, these young people say they cannot afford to raise their families in Piscataquis County because of the lack of quality jobs, but in later years, they return to retire here, which has contributed to the county’s distinction of having the oldest population in the state.

“When the fastest-growing industry [in the county is] nursing homes, then that’s not healthy for the economy,” said Warren “Pete” Myrick, president of the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council.

In 1998, the latest figures available at the State Planning Office, the average age of Piscataquis County residents was 39.7 years, with a state average of 37.4, according to Richard Sherwood, policy development specialist.

In comparison, the average age in Aroostook County was 37.4 years; Somerset County, 37.1; Cumberland County, 36.9; and Penobscot County, 36.5 years.

In general, Maine is an aging state, Sherwood said Wednesday. An estimate by the U.S. Census for 1999 indicated that only West Virginia, Florida and Pennsylvania had older populations than Maine. The youngest populations were in Utah, with a median age of 26.7, and Alaska, with an average of 30.9 years, he said.

Of the population loss in Piscataquis County in the last decade, towns in SAD 4 lost a total of 366 people, according to 2000 Census figures. The losses in Guilford of 179, Abbot of 47, Sangerville of 128 and Wellington of 12 had been previously predicted by school officials. Districtwide, there are 157 fewer students than six years ago.

“The census figures just confirm what we’ve been saying all along,” SAD 4 Board Chairman William Hume said Tuesday. “What it really affects is our ability to offer top-quality education to the kids because we are so spread out, so we’re forced to look at consolidation or restructuring K through 12 [kindergarten through grade 12], which includes closing schools.”

Hume said the district is losing more young people to other regions in comparison with the district’s death rate. Simply put, more people are dying than are being born in SAD 4.

“Losing your young people is the most troubling of all because that’s your future,” Milo Town Manager Jane Jones said.

Her town, whose streets are peppered with “For Sale” signs, lost 217 people in the last decade. Because northern Maine is losing its population, the region will have less political clout in Augusta, deepening the disparity in education, Jones said.

“We certainly have the quality of life, and what is missing is the job opportunities,” Jones said of her service-center community. The town has been hit hard by the closing of Dexter Shoe Co., the restructuring of the railroads and the closing of forest products industries.

Dover-Foxcroft’s decade population loss of 446 was not startling news to Town Manager Owen Pratt. The lack of jobs was one of three factors that influenced the population decline, he said.

“If a person can’t find a job acceptable to them, then they have to move, and that’s what’s happening,” Pratt said, citing as an example the experiences of his own two daughters. One moved to Colorado for a good-paying job, and the other is completing her education at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine.

Any growth in Dover-Foxcroft, the county’s largest town and a service-center community, has been in the health care field.

The town is the home of a regional hospital, nursing homes and several service agencies for the elderly and mentally and physically handicapped. Currently, an expansion is being undertaken at the hospital, a renovation is planned for a boarding home for the elderly and the construction of a new residential care facility is scheduled to begin this year. The town obtained a grant to extend water and sewer lines to make the latter project a go.

The second reason for the decline, Pratt said, was the technological changes, particularly in forest products, that modernized practices and eliminated jobs.

Pratt also noted the third factor, that people are moving out of urban areas into rural space as a trend in service-center communities, citing his town’s 9.5 percent population loss, Greenville’s 14 percent decline and Milo’s 8.3 percent loss.

The high cost of living in service-center communities has driven residents to outlying rural towns, where taxes are considerably lower, Pratt said. It is cheaper to live in smaller towns and commute to jobs in the service-center communities, the town official said.

“People who live in service-center communities should not shoulder the entire burden to provide public services and to create jobs that everybody needs,” he said.

In fact, the census confirmed that growth has occurred in smaller towns surrounding service-center communities. Sebec, a small town on the outskirts of Dover-Foxcroft, had a 10 percent gain in population, from 554 to 612.The unorganized territories in the Moosehead Lake region, even though little is offered in the way of services to their residents other than low tax rates, increased in population by 72 percent, from a total of 359 to 506. And the tiny plantation of Lakeview, Milo’s neighbor, had an explosive growth of 87 percent, 23 to 43, the most of any Piscataquis County community.

Lakeview Plantation, a small lakefront community, has no commercial businesses, no post office, no home rule, just state-imposed regulations. Residents who live outside the 1.3 miles of highway maintained by the plantation must provide their own road maintenance.

The reason for Lakeview’s growth is simple, according to Fred Trask, first assessor, who noted the percentage would have been higher had he been counted in the census.

“The only advantage is we probably have the lowest tax rate in the state of Maine because we don’t provide the services,” he said. The mill rate of nearly $2 per $1,000 valuation covers just the basic obligations of the plantation, Trask said.

The trends identified by the census all stem from the lack of quality jobs, say municipal officials. Unless the flow of the county’s “lifeblood,” its young people, is stopped, the deaths will continue to outpace the births and the population will continue to decline.

In recognizing the lack of a post-secondary education center located within the county was a serious disadvantage for young people, town and county officials rallied their support for the opening of the Penquis Training and Education Center in Dover-Foxcroft. That facility, now operating from the former Mayo Street Elementary School, provides on-site, customized training for county residents, as well as opportunities for higher learning.

Pratt noted that even with the decline in population, the news on the economic front is not all grim. JSI Store Fixtures opened a plant in Milo, and Creative Apparel plans to expand its business to Dover-Foxcroft later this year.

But, he noted, the region needs to create more jobs for its survival.

Greenville Town Manager John Simko said, “Education is meant to be a recreation of community.” But for that to be true, there must be good jobs available to sustain families, he said.

And that, Simko noted, is Piscataquis County’s biggest challenge– to not only draw back students after they graduate from college or leave the military, but also to provide them with choice, quality jobs.