The Bucksport Enterprise : January 7, 2021
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20 21 The Enterprise is back after a week off, and is ready to chronicle another year! VOLUME 30 - NUMBER 1 • jANUARY 7, 2021 BUCKSPORT, ME 04416 *$1.00 Council ponders latest proposal to market town BUCKSPORT - The latest ing that will be streamed on a of several consultants’ reports Google Meets site on the inter on how the Town of Bucksport net, starting at 6 p.m. should best promote itself now That panel, (Erected by Rich is in hand. Rotella, the town’s community The nearly SI0,000, 26-page and economic development report by DesignLab of director, includes RSU 25 Supt. Millinocket repeats many of the of Schools James Boothby, John recommendations contained in Wardwell, Ron Russell, John the previous reports. Paul LaLonde, Frank Dunbar, These include encouraging Robert Carmichael Jr., Rob more development activity on Carmichael and Richard social media and television Peterson. advertising, and another call to Also invited is the entire develop a new logo and new Town Councilor: Mark brochures for the town’s promo Eastman, Kathy Downes, James tional efforts. Morrison, Edward Rankin Jr., The report, many months in Dan Ormsby, Paul Bissonnette the making, suggests three-year and Mayor Peter Stewart. projects to concentrate on vari The virtual meeting was ous marketing goals, some of called because the Town which have already been tried Council’s committee assign but have not been repeated in ments have not been deter recent years. mined for this year. The study includes many Once the final marketing demographic statistics gleaned plan is established, the Town from various public sources. Council will vote on whether to The report, now labeled a accept the plan. The councilors THE GREAT EASTERN, a tanker displaying the flag of the Marshall Islands, draft version, will be discussed also will decide how much became the first vessel of 2021 to dock on Bucksport’s waterfront. The ship, built by the Community & Economic money will be allocated over the in 2005, is seen here being nudged into the dock by one of the two tugs that accom Development Committee next next few years to carry out the panied the tanker up the Penobscot from Belfast. Monday during a virtual meet final recommendations. - 26 pretty pages of advice - Another study tells most what they already knew BUCKSPORT - The latest 26-pages of up a rather rosy picture of the economy aging poulation that resides in them. The ably similar to those they had tucked into neatly packaged advice on what the Town of along Main Street, contrary to what the local schools were built to accommodate a series of planning studies they sold indi Bucksport ought to do to enhance its dot on the few remaining merchants there have been 1,700; they now serve 1,100. vidually to communities across New York map may prove disappointing to some. reporting, especially since the onset of the Here’s what the DesignLab suggests State. Regrettably, the latest marketing consult pandemic. They also have great faith in should happen here over “the next three Then there was the study by a one- ants appear to have repackaged many of the redevelopment of the paper mill site. years and beyond” Begin by setting a - man Maryland consulting firm that at the the ideas floated by the town’s previous That’s despite the fact that all of the cur three year goal of 36 new families (100 last minute included a suggestion that the municipal marketing rent forecasts suggest only about 100 jobs to 120 new residents). town back reusing fish and have pens NEWS gurus. More disturb- there, and many of those are now over No mention was made of the continu installed in Bucksport Bay; no matter that ANALYSIS ^ * * r two years away. ing outflow of seniors seeking the support the pens would be in the middle of an _______ DesignLab of A possible need for a hotel to accom services not available here. The continu active shipping channel controlled by the Millinocket, appears unaware of how many modate the seamen in town for several ing departure of young people - a prob Army Corps of Engineers. To buttress his of their ideas fared when they were suggest days or weeks at the new mariners’ safety lem across Maine - also isn’t mentioned. research, he tucked in a Time magazine ed by others and attempted here in the past. school has been dangled, but as-yet that Those numbers are vital when doing the article about fish farming, one he’d Much of the report seems a flowery remains a vision, not a reality. math on growing the local population. efipped out while flying back to delivery of cooltie-cutter, one-template-fits- The folks at DesignLab did spotlight The firm suggests launching an Maryland. all Est of ideas from the marketers’ song- one potential area that until now has been “Opportunity by the Bay” development The town manager ended up re-writ- book . Get a new logo, build a new website, almost an unspoken taboo: encourage res campaign with a spifiy logo and a memo ing the executive summary of that publish a few flyers, booklets and ads, re idential growth. rable tagline to accomplish growth. $14,000 study because the summary was name the Bay Festival to celebrate the intro A former town manager 20 years ago so pitiful he didn’t want to share the origi duction of salmon to the local economy, all bragged to a businessman purchasing a On t h e s h e l f nal version with the council or the public. of it in language akin to what the first hen local service business that the population There’s a lot of deja vu in the latest Each of the studies over the past 20 said after delivering the first egg to the world. of Bucksport was just under 5,0000, and marketing study. Just re-read the previous years-or-so has called for new logos and Most of DesignLab’s ideas are not new, he, by golly, was committed to keeping it studies the town bought and that now sit updated websites. Updating the current they’re just surrounded by larger and splashier that way. He viewed new residents as on the shelves at the Town Offices. municipal website has been in the works graphics designed to encourage the town’s lead more schools, more roads, more trash, A group from Saratoga Springs , NY for at least two years, but the site has ership to purchase a few more years of continu more nuisance than valuable to a well- recendy got S200,000-or-so aifter they sug changed only sEghdy. In the second year, ing advice from more people who visit the run, frugal community. Three town man gested some ideas that already had fal DesignLab suggests a new website and an town like the itinerant trombone salesman seek agers later, Bucksport’s population still is tered while their study was being com ing to peddle 76 of ‘em. right there: just under 5,000. That no piled. They suggested buying the former PLEASE SEE STU D Y , PAGE 7 Again, the consultants are urging more growth pohcy was practiced with little, if fitness center at the paper mill for a small tourism, even though that industry and its any, public participation. business “incubator” office structure. The short season in this part of Maine is cur local Methodists didn’t talk about the pos rently deep in the doldrums, thanks to Growth is good sibilities: they bought the building for a Covid-19. The plague virus isn’t even men Growth is not all bad, especially when very reasonable price. The Saratoga tioned in the latest report. Bucksport has many large houses that no Springs people also included a lot of sug The DesignLab staff, instead, dehvers longer meet the emerging needs of the - gestions for Bucksport that were remark PACiF 2 » THE BUCKSPORT ENTERPRISE « IANUARY 7. 2021 169 US Route 1 PO Box 1743 Bucksport, ME 04416 Phone: 207-469-9930 Two Rivers Realty, LLC Email: [email protected] lUEOftii www.tworiversrealtyme.com Bucksport- Conveniently located building lot only B u cksport-T his cozy 2 BR/1 BA is close to Orland- Conveniendy located, this 4BR/1.5BA a short commute to Bangor/Brewer area. This town & won’t last long! A great starter home, cape style home offers a wooded 0.31 acre lot wooded 2.03-acre lot features a sloped topogra 22 Millvale centrally located with easy access to Ellsworth, 227 River Road with public sewer. Spacious interior rooms phy overlooking Stubbs Brook, perfect for a Bangor, Bucksport & Brewer. 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