Sachs a catalyst for rapid growth

BREWER – When Andrew “Drew” Sachs began work as Brewer’s economic development director in May 1999, he was given two directives by City Manager Steve Bost: Develop the waterfront area and pay attention to drawing businesses to the outer Wilson Street corridor.

Sachs wasted no time. Four years later, the first phase of waterfront restoration is about to begin, fully funded by $3 million in state and federal grants and $200,000 of local money. A plan to convert the area into a scenic delight, complete with a hiking trail and children’s garden, has been developed by a committee of locals headed by former mayor Donna Thornton.

Businesses are vying for space along Wilson Street, once a sparsely occupied area. A Wal-Mart Supercenter that will employ about 350 people will open June 18. Construction on Ruby Tuesday’s Classic Grill, a national chain restaurant, will begin this summer on Walton Drive adjacent to Wal-Mart.

Sachs, who earns about $78,000 a year at age 34, played a key role in jump-starting these developments and several others in Brewer, and he and Bost are poised to announce more businesses coming to the city. Sachs’ role in the rather rapid cultivation of economic development for the city has been recognized by his boss and others who see him in action.

Sachs not only demands much of himself, but serves as an inspiration to others, according to Bost. When he hired Sachs a few months after he took the helm as city manager, Bost said he was looking for someone “not cut out of the same cloth” as the majority of career economic development specialists.

“Drew’s resume stood out,” Bost said, particularly for his experience at the federal level in Washington, D.C., and his “tremendous political experience and savvy.” Sachs was picked from among 80 applicants.

Other Brewer officials are glad Sachs was chosen.

“Drew Sachs has done wonders for Brewer. He has helped spur more businesses and, consequently, more jobs in an eastern Maine area where economically depressed communities nearby are doing the opposite,” said Mike Lagasse, who heads the Brewer Economic Development Corp., a private group dedicated to creating or improving jobs in the city, broadening its tax base and assisting development in general.

A graduate of Bates College and George Washington University, where he earned a master’s degree in public administration, Sachs said he and his wife, Melanie, who is originally from New Sharon, returned to the Pine Tree State to fulfill a personal plan and to raise their daughter and son, now aged 4 and 2, respectively.When he interviewed for the Brewer job, Sachs was impressed with the City Council and management he found there, particularly Bost, who displays both “vision and competence. When I met with the council, it was very clear I was coming into an environment where economic development wasn’t a question, it was a demand,” Sachs said.

His experience includes a variety of jobs, from serving internships with U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe and former U.S. Sen. William S. Cohen to working as chief of the program outreach department of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Bost recalls talking to the head of FEMA in Washington, D.C., who told him FEMA occasionally submits testimony or documents to the White House to be used at presidential and vice presidential press conferences. Usually such material is screened heavily before it reaches the Oval Office, but “when the White House received something from Drew, it was ready to go,” Bost said.

“The feeling was, ‘If it comes from Drew Sachs, it’s quality,”‘ Bost recalled the FEMA official saying.