SHERMAN – For the past two years, much attention has been focused on the town of Houlton and its struggle to find ways to spearhead economic development and bring more businesses, jobs and revenue into the area.

But Houlton is not the only area that is trying to jolt the area’s economic pulse. In Sherman, a fledgling organization has been working hard since 1999 to do the very same thing.

Officials with the Upper Valley Economic Council said recently that their work will be a lot easier thanks to a donation from a local company.

UVEC’s Jeff Packard said in a press release that the Katahdin Trust Co. had recently donated $2,000 for the general budget of the organization. Packard said the contribution will help UVEC’s operations continue.

UVEC is a collective of community and business leaders in Patten, Mount Chase, Sherman and Stacyville. The group is devoted to fostering healthy economies by promoting existing business expansion, marketing the area to new industries and providing a premium environment for entrepreneurial activity.

The organization has several projects under way, which Packard said include a dairy relocation program to assist dairy farms that are being pushed by urban sprawl, and working with Patten, Stacyville and Sherman on an industrial park project.

Katahdin Trust Co. provides extensive financial services to northern Maine and has branches in 14 Aroostook County towns.