DEXTER – When Dexter Shoe Co. announced in the fall of 2001 that it would cease domestic production of its brand-name shoes in Maine by January 2002, an assortment of agencies quickly gathered to form an action plan for displaced workers.

The result of that action plan was the Dexter Transition Center, a local place where displaced workers could go and get educational assistance, obtain help with the job market and get the necessary training for available jobs in the region, among other services.

Of the approximately 475 shoe workers laid off, 325 have received help at the transition center either with training or assistance in furthering their education. The center also has helped 63 employees find replacement jobs. The center is currently working to help another 55 people find jobs.

The shoe company reportedly still employs about 175 workers at its warehouse and office at the main plant.

“We really do celebrate small successes here,” Barry Martin, executive director of the Workforce Investment Board, said Friday, during an open house at the center that feted those who had a hand in the center’s development and funding.

Among those present was Sen. Susan Collins, who leaned heavily on federal officials to provide a $3.19 million grant for the startup and operation of the temporary transition center.

Collins told those gathered that it seemed a “very dark time indeed” when Dexter Shoe Co. announced it would cease its operations in the state. She praised the collaboration among local, state and federal agencies. “We are a community and we do need to help one another through difficult times,” the senator said.

Having talked with some of the displaced workers, Collins said she marveled at the “special kind of courage” some had shown by returning to school as adults to get their high school diploma. She suggested that the government should give some sort of subsidy or tax credit to displaced workers to help them with health insurance costs.

Through representatives, Sen. Olympia Snowe and U.S. Rep. John Baldacci also commended the agencies involved in the creation of the center and pledged their future help.

A handful of former Dexter Shoe Co. employees, who were pleased with the support provided to them by the center, also were on hand at the open house.

David Vance said that he will never forget his last week at Dexter Shoe Co. when management brought some Chinese workers into his department and asked the local employees to teach the foreign workers how to do their jobs.

“They [the Chinese workers] grabbed the shoes right out of our hands and wanted us to show them how to do it,” the Newport man said Friday. “That was a slap in the face to me,” he said, noting he had worked for the company for 39 years.

Like Vance, Marie Keites of Dover-Foxcroft blames the North American Free Trade Agreement for the shoe company’s decision to cease domestic production of its brand-name shoes in Maine. Over the eight years the agreement has been in place, Keites and other employees had noticed that more and more production work was being shipped to and completed by workers overseas. The cheap labor allowed the company to be more profitable.

Although Keites was concerned about her future at the shoe company after the agreement was signed, she thought the company would stay in Maine long enough for her to retire. After all, she had been with Dexter Shoe Co. for 33 years and she had no high school diploma.

Today, Keites, 53, is back in school working on her GED, hoping to pursue a career in home health care. Vance has been hitting the pavement trying to find a job that will pay enough to sustain his family of three.

While the employees are receiving the assistance they need, not much has transpired in the town’s effort to acquire the two buildings that Dexter Shoe Co. officials said would be available this summer.

“Going to war was easier than dealing with this issue,” Dexter Town Manager Robert Simpson, a retired military officer, said Friday during the open house.

Although officials with the Department of Community and Economic Development initially had pledged their support to help market the available buildings to generate replacement jobs, little has been done by the state, Simpson said after the open house. To get some “fire power,” the town hired a consultant to help the economic development rebuilding effort.

But the efforts have been somewhat stymied because the owners of Dexter Shoe Co. have not communicated with town officials about what they plan to do with the buildings. Simpson said he was told that two of the company’s buildings would be available this summer, but nothing further has been exchanged. Local company officials have been most cooperative; however, they cannot help the town if they themselves are unsure what the owner intends for the buildings, he said.

“It’s very frustrating,” Simpson said, when you can’t make something happen. “We need something positive to happen,” aside from the transition center, he said.