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Editor’s Note: Maine communities are using local creativity, energy and talent to adapt to the downsizing or disappearance of once-dominant industries. Working in conjunction with the Maine Public Broadcasting Network and its Hometown Economies series, Bangor Daily News reporters over the next few weeks will examine the local economies of Lincoln, Rockland, Bangor-Brewer and Limestone.
Corey Hanson likes to spend afternoons playing pool. With more than 250 customers coming into his business on weekends, the 31-year-old owner of Shooters Billiards in Lincoln tries to enjoy the quiet times in his place, he said.
“In the fall, it picks up again,” Hanson said. “Now the kids have gone away to school and their parents have just finished spending their school supply money or whatever. It’ll get busy again.”
Hanson, who added a 1,600-square-foot restaurant, bar and dance floor to his 4,000-square-foot pool hall since it opened in December 2004, owns one of several town businesses whose success prompted the Maine Public Broadcasting Network to include a segment on Lincoln in a TV series highlighting successful municipal economies.
Hosted by Ann Murray, the “Hometown Economies” series examines how Limestone, Lincoln, Rockland, Waterville, Wilton, Bangor and Brewer have implemented strategies creating long-term economic growth. Lincoln’s segment, the series’ second, aired 8 p.m. Thursday on MPBN. It will be rebroadcast at 7 p.m. Sunday.
LP&T: the anchor
The town’s business success is anchored by the rebirth of Lincoln Paper & Tissue LLC from the abandoned Eastern Pulp and Paper Co. mill. That revitalization began in May 2004, when Gov. John Baldacci and state government officials lured investors Keith Van Scotter and John Wissman from Connecticut to Lincoln and helped them complete their $23.7 million purchase of the plant.
Bankrupt since September 2000, Eastern Pulp devastated the town’s economy by laying off 750 workers in Lincoln and Brewer when it abruptly shut down in January 2004.
Today the mill employs almost 400 people, including more than 40 full-timers hired to work the plant’s new $36 million tissue machine. The new machine is producing about two-thirds of its 100-ton daily capacity and is on schedule for full production in April, said Wissman, LP&T’s chief financial officer.
The new machine doubles the plant’s tissue-making capacity and will help the company compete for as much as 80,000 tons of the North American market’s 8 million tons of annual tissue production, a small but significant portion of the overall market, Wissman said.
“Our outlook is excellent. We already have new market share today because we are shipping more tissue,” Wissman said this week. “We have plenty of room to grow, but we are not really on the radar screen of the big guys [tissue manufacturers] to come after us.”
Retail expansion expected
Lincoln Paper & Tissue’s success is only part of the town’s growth, town officials say.
Situated in a rural area about 50 miles north of Bangor, Lincoln has what is generally recognized as a good school system, SAD 67, and benefits from several natural assets, including 14 lakes and ponds within its lines. It has a major river, the Penobscot, and several streams and tributaries.
Lincoln also plugs into one of the region’s primary economic and population thoroughfares, Interstate 95, and can readily benefit from the south-to-north progression of growth that has helped areas such as Bangor and Old Town.
But unlike Enfield, Medway, Howland and other towns that have highway exits, Lincoln has a small but well-developed downtown and a retail area, West Broadway, forming a service hub that draws thousands of residents from nearby towns, said Ruth Birtz, a town economic development assistant and zoning enforcement supervisor.
That’s why construction probably will start on at least two major retail centers in town by 2008, Birtz said.
“We have at least three environmental studies going on in Lincoln at this time,” Birtz said Tuesday.
“When a major commercial or retail entity looks to develop or expand in a municipality, they do studies to ensure that there are no environmental concerns with the land they wish to buy. It’s one of their last steps before going forward with plans,” she added.
Since late 2004, at least seven retailers have opened or expanded in town, and those who have opened new businesses express satisfaction with the town.
“There are some slow months, but overall our clientele is growing,” said Patty Cloukey, owner of Capello’s Hair Studio and Day Spa, which opened last year. “Our spa services are very well-received and we are drawing clients from other local communities as well.”
Emphasis on tourism
Town officials say their emphasis on tourism as a primary engine that makes growth possible in other economic sectors, such as manufacturing and investment, has helped the town to grow.
“The more people you can draw into your community, and who see what it has to offer, the more business interest you get,” Birtz said. “They come in as visitors and invest in property, and then they tell their friends.”
Lincoln gets heavy tourist population increases over spring and summer as visitors hunt, fish or rent cabins on the town’s water bodies, Birtz said.
Cloukey agreed.
“We have a really good tourism area. It draws people from all over New England and they come and they love the waters,” Cloukey said. “When they come from away, they come because it’s beautiful and they know someone local. That’s how the word spreads.”
Much of the town’s new population over the next 10 years, Birtz said, will likely be part-time residents who visit the town now and retire to Lincoln later.
More service providers
Lincoln’s health service providers are growing in response to the demands of being a service hub and tourist stop, including Penobscot Valley Hospital. A series of renovations worth about $5 million is under way at PVH, including a $350,000 lobby renovation that will begin after the hospital’s new $4.1 million surgical suite is finished.
Hospital labor delivery suites, waiting rooms and switchboard areas have been redone.
Town dentist Durwin Libby has begun construction to double the size of his office on Enfield Road, and Health Access Network is also planning an expansion, Birtz has said, but the biggest health care development might be a new veterans clinic due to open Jan. 1 on River Road.
The $450,000 primary care clinic will feature mental health and medical care management services as one of five rural clinics statewide. Exactly how many veterans it will serve is uncertain, but about 6,700 area vets will be directly informed of the clinic, VA officials have said.
Another big service project in development is a proposed senior citizens’ village and town community center intended for West Broadway near River Road and I-95. If it goes as planned, the project would house about 100 senior citizens in a mix of assisted-living apartments and stand-alone housing.
Town officials and residents also are raising funds to build a recreational center that they expect will become a regional draw.
10 years of marketing
Birtz and Town Manager Glenn Aho see the town’s recent economic success as the culmination of more than 10 years of marketing Lincoln as an all-purpose destination.
Except for the year the mill closed, Aho and the Town Council have allocated town funds annually since 1995 for TV commercials, radio spots, a town Web site (lincolnmaine.org) and other town advertising. The town has an events coordinator, Beth Weatherbee, who spearheads town celebrations such as Homecoming that draw thousands of people.
“We have tried to develop a brand name for Lincoln,” said Aho, who estimated that the town has spent about $50,000 on advertising since 2003.
Good word-of-mouth helped Michael and Nickole Clendenning of Hampden decide last month to spend $400,000 to buy Green Valley Golf Course of West Enfield, about five miles from the Lincoln town line.
“We looked at a lot of places around the state, but when you come to the Lincoln area, everyone is very positive about the local economy,” Michael Clendenning said. “They seem to worry about it a lot less than anybody else.”
Cloukey had a similar experience. When she told her husband, Carl, owner of Carl’s Auto Parts on West Broadway, that she wanted to open her spa and salon, he was incredulous. “He said, ‘Are you sure Lincoln can support a business like this?’ and I said, ‘Absolutely.’
“I had full confidence that it would,” she said.
During his nearly 11-year tenure, Aho has made town marketing and promotion cost-effective by placing it within the job descriptions of several town officials, including Birtz and Weatherbee. He emphasizes customer relations with town hall workers as well, Birtz said.
“If we did not have him spearheading this pro-active marketing approach, we would not be where we are now,” Birtz said. “It’s a commitment. You can’t just do it sporadically, and it’s a tedious process. Your gains are subtle. They happen over time, little by little.”
Shooters owner Hanson, who moved to Lincoln from Glenburn, said town government’s customer service made a difference with him.
“The people at town hall were very friendly with anything I needed,” he said. “It’s a very friendly town for business.”
“The most frequent compliment we get from developers is how easy it is to do business in Lincoln,” Aho said. “All the staff members here are responsible for that. Everybody helps out.”
Lots of space
Another factor in Lincoln’s success, Birtz said, is that it has room to grow. About half the town’s 47,000 acres is undeveloped, including most land surrounding its ponds and lakes. Recent sales of almost all of its lakefront property by the Webber Timberlands Co. – once owner of half the town’s 23,000 forestry acres – have spurred growth, Birtz said.
She expects about 300 building permits for new or rebuilt shorefront property to be issued this year, double a typical year’s output. While they are displacing many longtime residents, the lakefront property and in-town sales are bringing new residents and money into the area.
The town’s abundance of space will allow it to develop plans to expand the Lincoln Municipal Airport, and to build the town’s first industrial park with funding created by the tax breaks given to Lincoln Paper & Tissue LLC as part of its expansion, Birtz and Aho said.
With the release of funds at least a year away, town officials don’t expect the park or the airport expansion to occur for several years. They hope the park will be the next decade’s answer to the mill expansion.
“It will be a very big thing because we have had no less than four inquiries a year from light manufacturers or distributors, and the first thing they look for is an industrial park with utilities,” Birtz said. “If we had it now, we would have seen even more economic development.”
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