Ceremony heralds Penquis education center

DOVER-FOXCROFT – In the gymnasium at Mayo Elementary School, which has been vacant for years, the score of the last basketball game reads: Home, 138; Visitor, 19.

U.S. Rep. John Baldacci noticed that score Saturday during groundbreaking ceremonies for a new postsecondary education training center at the school and said, “It can truly be said that the home team won again today.”

The Penquis Training and Education Center, a collaborative effort between Eastern Maine Technical College and the University of Maine System, is being touted as a breakthrough for Piscataquis County’s economic development.

The center will offer college-credit courses, technical training and a conference center and is the first postsecondary opportunity offered in the Penquis region.

State Rep. Stephen Stanley, D-Medway, said the school’s creation was the beginning of the end of Piscataquis County being known as “the arts and crafts county.”

Standing outside the school just before the official groundbreaking, EMTC President Joyce Hedlund said, “This is going to be transformed,” admitting she was speaking as much about the region as the building.

“This college center will offer credit instruction and building and industrial training,” said Hedlund. “This is going to be an exciting environment.”

An architect’s rendering of the completed school shows computer rooms, offices, classrooms and study space. Project co-director Helen Kelly said the town gave the building to EMTC when it no longer was practical or cost-effective to house young children there. “We hope to have the renovations complete and be in and holding classes by next May,” said Kelly.

Rep. Sharon Libby-Jones, D-Greenville, said the project was vital for the economic future of the area. “When you look at Piscataquis County and what’s been happening – the shop and mill closures – retraining is vital,” she said. Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Millinocket, who helped secure funding for the center two years ago as chairman of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee, said two out of three Maine employers say they cannot get enough educated workers. “There’s a metalworking firm in Waterville that cannot expand because it can’t find trained metalworkers,” he said.

Area companies can use the college center as a training ground, helping to identify educational needs for their workers and partnering with the new center to create course opportunities.

“Creating training opportunities boosts economic development, and that is how we grow,” said Michaud. “It is vital to have a work force but even more important to have an educated work force.”

Working out of temporary classrooms in downtown Dover-Foxcroft, Kelly and partner Merlene Sanborn, director of the center, already have been serving the area. In the past year, said Sanborn, 60 students have taken credit courses, 442 have taken noncredit courses, and 800 have taken remote television courses. “What do you suppose is going to happen when we get into this building?” asked Sanborn.

Baldacci commended the project, saying it “has taken the obstacles out of the way for Piscataquis County residents to get a technical education.”