Lincoln-area development group folding

LINCOLN – Lincoln Paper and Tissue Co.

Pleasant River Lumber Co.

Davis Bros. Inc.

Maine Cooking Woods.

Linkin Donuts.

Despite all of the new businesses moving into or expanding in the area, one of the region’s primary economic development agencies, the Lincoln Lakes Regional Development Corp., will be closing on Sept. 30.

The reason: insufficient funding.

With almost all of the towns that it serves voting down its requests for increased funding, state grants expiring and private funding insufficient, the corporation’s board of directors voted to shut its doors on Sept. 15, Executive Director Cathy Kecki said Friday.

“It’s going to be a very bad thing,” Kecki said Friday. “With the economy struggling regionally and nationally, job creation and business expansion are very important, and without someone working in this area on that, 50-plus hours a week, you are going to suffer.”

The organization serves Burlington, Carroll Plantation, Chester, Drew Plantation, Edinburg, Enfield, Howland, Kingman, LaGrange, Lee, Lakeville, Lincoln, Lowell, Mattamiscontis Township, Mattawamkeag, Maxfield, Passadumkeag, Prentiss Township, Seboeis Plantation, Springfield, Webster Plantation, West Enfield and Winn.

Ruth Birtz, the town’s economic development assistant, said the organization will be missed.

“I think it will be too bad because the LLRDC fills a niche, especially with small businesses, letting them know about grants and development programs that are out there to assist them,” Birtz said Friday. “If they close their doors, that will be a service that won’t be readily available.”

Kecki conceded that when she began work in 2003 with a two-year state grant, she had some handicaps. She needed training to do her job and had to create the network of contacts the job requires within the state and federal governments and local and regional business communities.

Both took considerable time, although she accumulated more than 400 contacts, she said.

“There was not enough time for someone to begin a business like this and to make it successful,” Kecki said. “If this effort is going to be resurrected, they [state officials] should at least fund it for five years.

“It’s sad because we are just now creating the momentum we need,” she said.

“I agree with her,” Birtz said. “Grants are very complicated. There is a lot to know as far as processes that need to be followed go, and it takes a long time to know details that you need to know. Two years is a very short period of time.”

Another difficulty: getting local governments to use her and her office’s services.

Economic development takes time and often is conducted in secret until the deal is done, which restricts economic development agencies, Birtz said.

Kecki feels pride in her accomplishments, having helped Lincoln Paper and Tissue with its recent plans to expand its tissue-making with a new $35 million tissue-making machine. She helped establish the Lincoln Lakes Region Dialysis Center and Pleasant River, which is in Enfield.

“As unfortunate as it is, we [local governments] don’t have the money to fund economic development as we should,” Kecki said. “Fiscally we have everything we can do to maintain services that we already have.”