Log home firm aids County jobsgroup $20,000 to support economic growth

OAKFIELD – A company that has furnished log homes for people throughout the world recently joined hands with an area development organization.

One of the goals of Aroostook Partnership for Progress is to stimulate creation of 1,500 quality jobs and attract at least $50 million in capital investments to Aroostook County by 2007.

The partnership recently announced that it had received a $20,000 pledge from Katahdin Cedar Log Homes, an Oakfield-based firm that manufactures cedar homes, camps and condominiums and employs some 100 people.

The company is just one of a number of organizations that have supported APP since it was launched in the fall of 2003.

Dedicated to economic development, the partnership is a joint creation of the Northern Maine Development Commission and Maine Public Service Co.

“We view our commitment as a strategic investment and we look forward to a long and productive relationship,” said David Gordon, president of Katahdin Cedar Log Homes.

Founded in 1973 as Katahdin Forest Products, the company now ships its wares as far as Israel, Japan and Scotland. The business has expanded over the years, and across the street from the Oakfield mill is Cedar Ideas, another company-owned work site that uses the cedar left over from the manufacturing process to make window boxes, toys, planters and other items.

Last October, the company organized construction of the first log home for the ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” Company staffers and log-home dealers tag-teamed with the show and hundreds of volunteers to furnish one of their customized dwellings for a longtime lobster fisherman from Wells who lost his right arm as the result of an accident while lobstering.

Gordon pointed out that his company and the partnership share similar goals.

Companies such as Katahdin Cedar Log Homes have pledged well over $1 million to support the partnership since its inception.