EASTPORT – A $150,000 state grant will help the city finish work on downtown infrastructure in anticipation of another flourishing tourism year.

Commissioner John Richardson of the state Department of Economic and Community Development was in Eastport on Wednesday to present the “Street-Scape Grant.”

City Manager George “Bud” Finch accepted the grant.

“People don’t come to Maine to shop in our Maine mall,” Richardson said. “They come because of the unique character of our small New England villages. And I see here in this particular location an area for cultural tourism that is ripe. To bring some cruise ships into the dock. Get people to walk the streets and be part of the community.”

With a lot of grass-roots work, the little city that used to be the butt of Maine humorists’ jokes is on the move. The downtown buildings that at one time were bleak and empty are being renovated. New businesses are moving into the downtown area.

Now the downtown boasts art galleries and pottery studios along with a variety of restaurants. The Tides Institute is a presence downtown along with the fisherman statue. The statue was donated to the city several years ago by a film crew after they finished filming a television reality show.

Finch said the grant would be used to complete sidewalks and streetlights in the downtown area.

“We are very pleased to be recipients of a 2008 grant during what are very difficult financial times at all levels of government,” Finch said. “Without the grant the city would not have been able to fund the continuation of the project during the coming summer construction season.”

Finch said the city was aware of its potential. “We want to be that totally developed ecocommunity,” he said and then ticked off some of the pluses within the city, including the only marina between Saint John, New Brunswick, and Bar Harbor where boats can fill up dockside; a ferry service that travels to Deer Island, New Brunswick; and an international airport where planes can clear customs on-site.

“Tour Hershey Park, tour Ben and Jerry’s, tour Raye’s Mustard,” Finch said. “When people go to Ben and Jerry’s, all you see is a pint of ice cream drop off a [conveyor] belt. At Raye’s Mustard [you can see stone-ground mustard being made].”

Richardson said his office was looking to promote all of Maine. “We are really looking at our tourism promotional plan as a more comprehensive plan where we brand not just tourism opportunities, but all opportunities in the state of Maine, because people are attracted for various reasons.”

Watching a ship being loaded is part of that Maine mystique and part of the state’s promotional objectives, Richardson said. Eastport has a deep-water port at Estes Head. “You and I may think it is odd that someone would want to sit and watch a ship being loaded, but it may be because their grandfather was a longshoreman in New York City and they are here because they want to enjoy Maine,” Richardson said. “So they see an opportunity to see something and reminisce about what their grandfather might have done.”

Maine is now targeting a broad range of tourism. “So we are branding Maine in a way that is not just about, as they used to say, lighthouses, lobsters and L.L. Bean; we are branding Maine in a way that will talk about Eastport and shipping opportunities and opportunities for cruise lines.”

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