Officials unveil business park study Northern Maine Development Commission eyes next step toward facility

PATTEN – What started out as “nothing more than a thought” in 2002 became a tangible reality Thursday afternoon as officials from the Northern Maine Development Commission teamed with community leaders at a press conference to unveil a regional business park feasibility study.

Goals of the 19-page study included identifying places that would be premium sites to build business parks and estimating a workable size for the enterprises. The report also outlined how the parks could serve the surrounding communities and how those communities could work together to build them.

A host of towns in northern and southern Aroostook County participated in the project. Van Buren, Cyr Plantation, Hamlin, Grand Isle, Stacyville, Sherman and Patten took part, with Patten and Van Buren leading the way.

“The primary conclusion of the report was that developing a business park would be a positive factor in supporting infrastructure and economic development in the region,” Shawn Manter, tourism development specialist for NMDC, said Thursday. “And if we take a regional approach to this, we will have a lot more success.”

Plots of land in each section of the county were studied. Planners initially selected 17 sites that potentially could host the park, but have now pegged an 84-acre plot in Sherman as the best location. The land has frontage on Route 11 and access to the railroad.

Although the Sherman site is the front-runner, Manter said officials are not limiting themselves to just one park. There is always the possibility of constructing more in the future on other plots of land, he acknowledged.

With a possible site selected and the pros and cons of the location outlined, NMDC officials said the next step would be working with the communities of Sherman, Patten and Stacyville to complete the next phase of the project.

Alain Ouellette, NMDC director of community and economic development, said the crew would be working with town officials and local economic development groups to complete the action points outlined in the report. The points include identifying funding sources, working to secure grants and implementing a business attraction strategy.

Everyone at the meeting stressed that the vision of a business park would not be realized immediately, as no bricks have been laid, no funding has been raised, and no details are yet set in stone.

“It is a process, and a lot of things need to happen,” Manter said at the conference. “It will not happen overnight.”

Ouellette agreed, but credited town officials for working diligently to take the first steps toward their overall goal.

“This began as nothing more than a thought in 2002,” he said, acknowledging that it had taken three years to proceed from simply talking about the project to actually crafting a road map to make it happen. “Economic development does not happen overnight … I think we have started on the right path. Now, it is a matter of continuing on the path together.”

Patten Town Manager Rhonda Harvey concurred and vowed the feasibility study would not languish on a shelf.

“We are going to be aggressive in working with the plan and with other communities,” she said Thursday. “That way, we can make people see that we are working with this and get them to buy into the plan.”