If Kent Inc. were just another struggling business with a product that had outlived its market, the extraordinary effort currently under way to save the company would not be worth the trouble. But Kent not only makes a product in demand, it does so with an appreciation of Fort Kent that turns the company into a member of the community, even if its headquarters is in New York. The response from the community and local, state and federal government officials is an encouraging and appropriate sign.

Kent needs capital with the same certainty that Fort Kent needs the company’s 185 jobs. Formed in 1997 after Gerber Childrenswear closed the plant and moved to Texas, Kent has been short of capital in a business that operates year-round for the product that sells over four or five months each year. The company produces blanket sleepers, which are one-piece fleece pajamas that keep children warm even if they kick off their blankets. According to Kent President Michael Gans, “We can sell our product, there is no question.”

The company has had offers to move overseas but wants to stay in Fort Kent. To remain, it needs some of the protective warmth its product provides – in its case, that would come from a commitment of $2 million in the next six weeks or so. In a meeting held last week at Sen. Olympia Snowe’s office, the officials began working out a plan to save the company through federal empowerment zones, Economic Development Administration support and, perhaps because of the Loring closure, Department of Defense money.

The effort is appropriately extensive because the alternative is dismal. Maine has seen the result of a major employer leaving small towns: smaller businesses suffer and sometimes fail; residents who can leave, do; some of those who stay do so because their homes have lost half or two-thirds of their value; the tax base shrinks; the services of the town falter. This pattern has appeared often enough to make attempted rescues like this one vital.

Should the plant close, the state could respond with job advice and retraining money; it may even be able to find better work for the employees elsewhere in Maine. But the state cannot preserve its small cities if it is merely cleaning up after a business has left town. It needs to preserve what is there and build on a stable economic base.

It is not clear yet whether the money for Kent will be found in time. But it is clear that sort of effort being made on its behalf now will be needed in more and more places in the northern half of the state if Maine is to put a stop to the decline of its towns and cities.