Cedar log home firm expands to Pittsfield

PITTSFIELD – A log home company has bought land near Interstate 95 where it is building a model for sales, and the town manager is eyeing a $400,000 assistance grant that would allow shipping from the site.

Moosehead Cedar Log Homes, owned since 1996 by Lucy and Randy Comber, is based in Greenville and employs about 35 people.

“We wanted a location that was closer to the highway,” General Manager James Siedenburg said Monday.

The company has begun building a sales model home just west of I-95 at the corner of Webb and Crawford roads, with about 1,000 feet bordering the interstate. Once a model home is constructed, Siedenburg said, it will afford the company greater visibility.

The Pittsfield location will also make it easier for prospective customers to visit the model home. The company would retain its Greenville location and another model home site in Wilmington, Vt.

Siedenburg said the grant being applied for would provide the funding needed to expand at the Pittsfield location, giving the company the ability to ship its home kits from Pittsfield.

The $400,000 would come from a business assistance grant under the state Community Development Block Grant program.

Pittsfield officials have been working quietly behind the scenes with the Somerset Economic Development Corp. and the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments to assist with the expansion.

Pittsfield received $400,000 under the same program last year to allow Walpole Woodworkers to expand in the Industrial Park. In her report to town councilors, Town Manager Kathryn Ruth said the same amount would be sought for the log home project.

“Given the town’s and region’s unemployment rate, the grant provides a wonderful opportunity to employ people, assist a business, provide a service and expand the tax base,” Ruth wrote in the report. Up to 25 jobs could be created with the log home company expansion.

Applications are due Feb. 11, and although Siedenburg said he will be at tonight’s meeting of the Town Council, a public hearing is not scheduled until Feb. 1.

Other grant opportunities that are up for discussion tonight include $160,000 for seven towns to work cooperatively in recycling; $4,700 to study a four-town recycling pickup effort; $7,500 for community center assistance; $7,500 for swimming pool engineering funding; and up to $3,000 under Project Canopy to replace trees.

The council will also hold a public hearing on a zoning change in the hospital overlay district on Route 100 that would allow day care centers. Appointments to local boards and committees will also be made.

The 7:30 p.m. meeting will begin with a special recognition for former Councilor and Deputy Mayor Robert Stackhouse for his six years of service on the council.