Kennel gives disabled adults chance to join the work force

PITTSFIELD – When the Pineland Center closed 30 years ago, hundreds of adults with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities were “mainstreamed” into communities and cities across the state.

A promise was made, said Tom Davis, director of Sebasticook Farms in central Maine, “to put the supports in each community to allow people with mental retardation to live lives of dignity and purpose.” Davis said gains have been made in the areas of health, safety and residential centers but “we have not done well with employment options.”

As he surveyed more than 100 people outside a new Sebasticook Farms building on Hartland Avenue in Pittsfield on Friday afternoon – a building that houses a variety of employment opportunities – Davis said the project “represents a small step towards fulfilling that promise of employment.”

The building, a cooperative effort between the U.S. Rural Development Administration, Merrill Bank, the Great Bay Foundation and Cianbro Corp., provides services for several local businesses, along with a cat and dog boarding kennel.

Although there are many support staff and administrators on hand, the project provides jobs for more than two dozen developmentally disabled adults.

In his address to those gathered Friday for the grand opening, employee David Packard said it clearly and with pride: “I get to make my own money.”

“It’s been a long journey,” said Davis, noting that the program had once been housed in old buildings, barns and church basements.

John Campbell, a member of Sebasticook Farms’ board of directors, called the new business “another dynamic initiative.”

Jane Gallivan of the Maine Bureau of Behavioral and Developmental Services, called the Pittsfield day program and kennel a model for the “vision that the mentally retarded can live in and be part of the community.”

Other speakers included U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, Pittsfield Town Manager Kathryn Ruth, Charles Cianchette of Cianbro, a representative from Sen. Susan Collins’ office, Peter Greenleaf of the Great Bay Foundation and Michael Aube of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, director of rural development.

Great Bay Foundation provided a grant and rural development loaned the project $375,000. Cianbro donated demolition work to remove the former restaurant on the kennel site.

The open house featured lunch, gifts and tours of the new facility. David Ledin of Dixmont, who helps care for the boarding cats and dogs, proudly showed off the immaculate pens and kennels. He said he “loves them all” and is sad when they go home with their owners.

Davis said, “We have only scratched the surface here.” He said that erecting the building and kennel are only step one of a four-part plan. “We eventually hope to add grooming and animal training,” he said. “We might even get into breeding.”