STEPPING TOGETHER

There’s usually fanfare when a university opens a new building. But the recent opening of the refurbished steps leading to the University of Maine’s Fogler Library passed without much ado. Repaired steps, of course, aren’t that interesting, but this project deserves attention because of who pushed it along after years of disregard for what has rightly been restored as a focal point of the Orono campus.

Crumbling limestone, unsightly and dangerous, has been replaced with Deer Isle granite better able to withstand Maine weather. Now the grand entrance to the library from the campus quadrangle is accessible to the disabled, more attractive and safer. Perhaps more important than the physical improvements is the partnership that made it possible.

Repairing the steps had long been on the university’s to-do list but was overtaken by more prominent projects that offered better opportunities to attract donors. It wasn’t until representatives from H.E. Sargent of Stillwater ap-proached university officials about helping with the steps that the project moved up the list. John Simpson, the company’s president, a UMaine graduate and member of university boards, suggested that his company and others team up with the university to fix what had become an eyesore. Through his efforts, one-third of the $900,000 needed for the project came from area businesses. H.E. Sargent oversaw the work and solicited donations from other companies including crushed stone, a pre-cast concrete light pole and catch basins and services such as demolition and geotechnical testing.

Mr. Simpson likened the project to an old-fashioned barn raising where community members lend skills, equipment, materials and time to its completion. Even the owner of the quarry on Crotch Island, the source of the granite for the John F. Kennedy memorial, reduced the price of the stone, although he has no connection to the university.

This small collaborative project serves as a model for future university endeavors. Not only did the campus get an important project done and the companies get a tax break, but the bond between the university and the companies was strengthened. The campus is no longer simply a place in Orono, but the place where the generosity of H.E. Sargent, Gagne Precast Products and S.W. Cole Engineering and others helped build the beautiful steps and terrace at the library entrance. Perhaps this experience will encourage them to pitch in again with a project of importance to their community.

Based on the steps experience, the university is working with an Ellsworth lumberyard to solicit in-kind donations for a project in the Honors College.

It is a good blend of corporate philanthropy and community cooperation.