Economic Development Committee - Regular Meeting

All right. So, we're Are you going to serve as secretary for tonight? Thank you very much, Kathy. Thanks for your Thanks for your service as secretary. And I'm sorry to bow out. Just want to hear a few other things for And fewer stat. Do we have to to vote? I Jen just pointed that out that we might need to elect Jen officially as the secretary. So the background of that is that Kathy has served as secretary for a yearish

and is is stepping down from that role um due to increased demands at at work and um I think we mentioned that in in our announcement to the group and and Jen has volunteered to step up to that role. Thank you Jen. J. Yes. So, um I'd like to put forth a motion that we elect Jen as secretary. Second. Yes. All in favor? Thanks.

Great. And now with that, we are calling the meeting to order at 4:07 p.m. Thank you. Well, actually, I guess we called it to order just before we did that. Great. I don't think there's anyone new on the committee that we need to introduce. Does every has everyone here met each other?

Great. Excellent. Um, next on the agenda is to review and approve the draft minutes from the October quarterly meeting. Does anyone have any questions about that document? I'd like to call for a motion to approve the minutes. Move. Second. And all in favor? I. Hi, Stephanie.

Hello. Sorry, I'm in Quebec and I'm walking around so I don't want to give anyone motion sickness. Amazing.

Great. Um, I don't have any membership updates. Does anyone have any membership updates or questions? Um I will say that later in the agenda um we have the topic of the MBI uh youth and young adult advisory group and Danny Robbins will be joining us hopefully to share about that group's work. So if you see someone else walking um that is who that probably is. So let's go into our regular updates. Um, we have a we have a skating rink report from from Jamie. And then I understand we have some some questions or comments from from our guests. Um, and when you speak I I might have you say your names so we know who you are. And I just want to remind the everyone that this is a this committee is um focus on economic and community development within the town and our purpose is to make recommendations to to the town uh in accordance with that with that mission. So having said that um let's hear a skating rink report.

Okay. And this is of course just for information only for this committee. But um um obviously it's been a terrible season for skating despite the fierce cold that we had and we did have a a problem with the vendor didn't deliver all the equipment. So we were a little late getting it up but it's ready to go now if if it freezes. Um, we have in hand now enough money uh to cover uh our share and more of the uh expenses of the construction of the rink uh which are a little over a million dollars. Um,

when you say we, Jamie, can you just clarify? The skate Yeah. Well, the skating rink committee uh has the money in a a CDC account at the bank, but the the town actually owns and has owned for a while the rink. So, they're the ones that are making the decisions. But we we still have the money because it's in a it's in a not forprofit. Um the CDC is a nonprofit and so that money is accumulating in the bank

and we will um uh hand it over some of it's in CDs and the intention is to hand everything over to the town as soon as those CDs mature. Um, so I took a second check down to um, Alex last week and so to date we have uh, we have given the town $652,500. Uh, you haven't voted on the check yet, but

it's coming next next Monday. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and so the last major outstanding item on the on the fundraising is a challenge from Susan and David Rockefeller uh who have uh who have offered to match up to $25,000 donations and they asked us to pick a a challenge group and we we chose uh town residents, young people, and town and town merchants. And um so to date we've raised about 10,500 of that. So that leaves uh 14,500. And when when we have met that challenge, uh I think the the fundraising will essentially end. We will hopefully still continue to get donations uh because we uh are creating a fund that will help defay future operations for the town. Um and um and also hopefully at some point a space or where people can get in out of the cold and uh have kind of skate exchanges because we've learned that about 75% of public rink users don't have their own skates. So, we'd like to have the ability to u lend, sell, barter uh whatever skates, but that's that's all uh in uh to be seen. So, um, so we we will essentially be finished with the fundraising part and have, uh, have enough for the for a fund by when we finish the Rockefeller and hopefully we'll have skating before that. May I add to that? Yeah. That um someone in the community who's a regular skater with her husband and child has offered

to create a new website that's directly uh northeast Harbor skating rink.org. Uh because right now it's there is a website but it is a Google site and it's hard to find etc. But this is being designed um to be you know freestanding, easier to find, will connect with the social media that is on Facebook now and maybe Instagram and also has a component of it that would actually allow the community to sort of weigh in. So it's looking at it's tied into like the the weather report so you can see if you know how cold it is, how warm it is and people can weigh in and say, "Oh yeah, it's the ice is great." You know, what's the condition of the ice or is it closed or open etc. So that it just gets more people involved in how things are going there. So

great. Yeah, she showed us a what do you call an example of it yesterday. It's very it's really nice. the name in the minutes. Um, you know, I haven't asked her if she wants fame for it. Uh, maybe I should ask and then I can tell you who it is. We can add that in later. Um, questions questions for Jamie about the skating report.

Um, would now be a good time to turn to our guests and see what they what they say. Would you mind saying your name?

I'm Alan Kimberly. I'm on the harbor committee amongst many other committees. And one of our big concerns is is a project like this is supposed to go through the harbor committee. The harbor committee oversees the entire area from the road to the water. Everything there was built with revenue from the harbor and that's why we oversee it. It's of course the uh the select board always has the final vote over everything but normally speaking everything goes through us and then goes to the select board. And I believe we've only had one meeting of the skating rink and that was it. And nothing else has ever come before us other than a time when we were told that we had a choice of two places to put the chiller building which I believe is something like 18 by 24 that can be on one side of the tennis court or on the other side of the tennis court. We had no option of you know putting it here or there. We had a choice of two and being left out of this whole part. You know, we don't feel very good about any of this just being cast aside like that where the the marina and the the Harvard is an entity that brings in an awful lot of funds. It it gives money to the town above and beyond what the harbor itself uses. And to be left out like this, you know, it's it doesn't give us a warm and fuzzy feeling.

We were also told that no public funds, no uh people's funds were going to be used on this and now there's two lines on the warrant committee. I'm also on the warrant committee and now that's coming up. So, you know, funds from the town people are also going to be asked for. And so, I I don't understand why you wanted to stay away from us, you know, and that's why I'm here now because we've been left out of this whole thing. this is the only way that we can come and even see what's going on is to come and attend a meeting where the skating rank is being brought up

and that's why we're here today. Thank you so much for saying all of that. It's it's great to hear your Thank you. Thank you for saying all of that. Really appreciate hearing hearing your perspective on this. Um I respond I Yes. I I would like Jamie to respond, but what

I would like to say that the um my understanding of why the skating rink is an item on this committee's agenda and someone with maybe with more history can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the the idea for the skating rink originally came up through conversations with the economic development committee and a different group, the community development corporation. has been has acted as the um

fundraising yeah fiscal sponsor. Thank you. Um to support um to give a place for the funds to be to be raised and um there are there are periodic updates to this group because it was one of the um one of the original places that the idea came up. But this group does not have any direct oversight of skating rink details. Am I am I correct in explaining that? I'm I'm not sure. We've always reported as a because it's an economic development matter. We've always reported it for your information. The same way Kathy reports on Got it. 365.

Okay. Not that this committee has any any any say. It's just for your information. It's an update of something that's going on in the town. Okay. As a as an economic development activity. Okay. Thank you. I just wanted to clarify what the role of this discussion within the context of this committee's conversation. So

So well, so that basically is my answer number one, Alan, which is um we're not litigating this at this committee. We're just informing them where we are. And um it's been uh first of all, we have been uh we have kept the Harbor Committee informed. We've been to several meetings. Um I've also talked informally with Harbor Committee members. Uh they're fully appraised of our um of what we're doing, what we have done, and what we will do or hope to do. Uh second of all, the rink has been owned by the town for a year. Uh and the town owns the land on which the rink will be. So the I I think the questions about that are much better directed to the town than to uh me. Uh and and third, this was um and your comments uh were uh listened to at harbor committee meetings where I had was at planning board meetings where I was at town meeting where I was where you stood up three times to object and it was passed by the town. Uh and uh as for the warrants again it's the town owns the rink. The construction is fully paid for by funds that we have raised plus more to defay future operating costs. So to say that this is going to cost the town uh anything to build it is simply not true.

But we did pass a $600,000 bond which was a $917 when paid but it was passed. And what was it for? I want I want to go past that. Well, let me ask you what was it? What was the tour? They said to uh redo the tennis courts exactly. That's the tennis courts piece of it, which is close to 900,000. Our piece of it is a little over 1 billion and we have paid for the entire thing. It's normally speaking tennis courts do not cost a million dollars to redo it. I'm I'm building a skating rink or we're building a skating.

Yes, I know you are. Uh, I don't know how much it costs the tennis court to get built. The town appraises the tennis court at $20,000. Well, I think your question is then for the town. That's that's what the town appraised, isn't it?

I I know that the tennis courts and everything in that area was all built on uh the low uh flood plane. And because the tennis courts are cracking, they say that was because of improper fill. And that's why they say the tennis courts need to be totally dug up and removed. But normally speaking, it does not cost $600,000 for a couple tennis courts. So I know that's what we have been assessed.

Yes, I Yes, I know. And and the people voted for it. you know, we both had discussions back and forth and you know, if we went back and forth, then I said that's fine. You know, the people want it and then the people should because it was voted in. But, you know, we also said that there's not going to be additional funds coming from the people and there's two line items on the warrant. Now, you detail that. what items are on the warrant relating to this scaling.

And just to just to jump in here, I think we have time for a little bit more exchange on this, but I'm not sure that this committee is going to be a great source of I appreciate that. And that was one of our big things is we've been left out of the loop. You want to be heard that little district. Yeah. Um, and I'm not sure what M&R I don't know what they are either andor it sounds like um Brian Hank, right?

And it could be that that's the expenditure, but it doesn't reflect the funds that are and it's it might be that that's the expenditure that has to be approved, but it doesn't reflect the money that's coming in that's already that's available to pay for. Yeah, that's what Here's what we have. I don't know what those mean. I don't know what M&R means. So, I'm wondering if a good next step would be to contact would you say Alex and and Brian town manager and Brian Hankold? It seems like some deeply involved in this engineering part

like some clarification would be would be really helpful on those line items and and our committee is not able to to to clarifications. Final clarification that the town has been we gave them $500,000 um a year ago and they have been spending that down on this on on the plans and the initial construction. So um if there are expenses there for the rink, they should be have been paid for out of our donation. I guess it looks like someone else would like to say something. Would you mind saying your name? Yes, my name is Story Lichfield. I'm a yearround resident. I have a business on Main Street that's open year round.

Uh they're out of a very few with the lights on. I would agree with what Alan said that we were there was an end run done. We were left out. I've been at every meeting. I'm on the Harvard committee as well. And I think jumping looking at the big picture and I I live very close by here. I come into town for my work just about every day and many of these winter days I would drive by the this rink to see if it was being used and it would be a perfectly beautiful day and no one would be there. Um, it just seems to me, the expenses aside, it seems to me that it would be so much more practical. Even Bar Harbor wanted a room. It would be so much more practical if the money was spent. The town owns a lot of land where there's nothing on it. if a structure was built with a roof over it, a larger structure other than that small rink. Um,

you're suggesting a different location for the rink. Is that okay? That's a tennis court. I just don't have anything to um Yeah, I don't we didn't Well, I hear I'm I'm glad to hear your perspective, but I'm not sure this committee can can influence that agenda. And it's not, you know, we just happened to see that this came up. Yeah. Um, yeah. You know, if it was more of a fulls size rink designed,

it would benefit so many more people. Another thing is their ice skating rink group is saying at one point they had an architect design a changing room and a and a warm-up room that looked like it was straight out of Palm Beach and come to find out that that's a little bit of that's a little bit problematic for zoning and everything. M um and Jamie has just said, "Oh, you know, we want to rent skates and all and people have said sell hot chocolate." Well, I believe there's an ordinance where we can't have you can't make money, you can't have a business at the marina. um when there were the fusses going through there and there years ago there was someone who wanted to do yoga classes on the green and we had to say no.

Got it. So my presumption is that any new enterprise that would be associated with the skating rink would have to go through what committee would it have to go through? The board of selectments. The board of board of board of selectments. So that would be the that would be the procedure. If somebody had an idea about hot chocolate or rentals or something like that, it would have to go through the board of selectment and it starts out at the harbor committee and it starts at it goes to the select board,

right? Well, the harbor committee generally weighs in on what they what they feel about things proposed for the harbor, but the but the board of selectment has final say, has final vote, unless it's something that needs to go to the town, the town meeting. Okay. I think it'd be wonderful if we could build a better skating rink and one that has a roof so it can be used so much more. And uh if you're either heating or cooling an outside area, it's not very environmentally proper these days.

So I we could have it in possibly in a better area. And we thank you for giving us the time to do this. this is the only way that we've been able to slide in here and give some of our comments. I understand that's that's how you feel and you wanted to come and and take this opportunity. And I'm sorry that we can't respond to you with the level of detail that that you were perhaps hoping for, but it sounds like since the town owns and maintains the rink at this point, discussions about future relocation or structures or potential enterprises would be best directed through through them. Does that sound fair? Yep, absolutely. Yeah. And we thank you for your time.

Thank you for coming and participating. Um, you're welcome to stay if you want. I'm going to be here because I have a meeting right after this. Okay. You're welcome to to listen in. Great. Um, thank you all. Um, what is next on our agenda? Workforce. Workforce housing. Can we do how quickly can we get through workforce housing, winter gatherings, visitor info, and the comprehensive plan committee? Very quick. Yeah. The reason I'm saying is because um Danny is here to share with us about a topic coming up on your agenda and we want to make sure that Danny has time to get back to the next thing on their event. Just 5:30.

All right. You've you want to maintain your agenda? We'll be um that. Thank you. That sounds great. Um cool. All right. So, that's where we are in the meeting. um workforce housing.

On December 3rd, the planning board approved two motions and and signed off on it on our Heelway subdivision proposal. There was a 30-day time limit for anybody to appeal that decision and we have not been notified of any appeal. So, it seems that that matter is now put to rest. So, we will start making our plans for developing the Heelway project. Um, we had just had two days of window application time for our two homes on Nolan Way off of Summit Road. And we have applications that we are reviewing, make sure people are eligible and meet the criteria. And um, we know that there are multiple parties interested in one of the houses. So, as we said, we will hold the lottery between those parties and we hope to make an announcement next week about

Wow. Wow. Very exciting. Anybody who didn't get selected to be a buyer will go on to a waiting list for future housing. So, we're going to change our application so that it's just generally speaking, are you interested in housing? and we'll just start a running list so that when we have more houses available, we'll just go down that list and make them available. Are you seeing any themes, Kathy, um in terms of the the needs that are being described by the applicants like why why they want this type of housing? You don't ask that.

Not asking why they want housing. We just assume housing. But I can say that people who are interested, it was intended for first-time home buyers according to a definition. So they haven't owned a home in a number of years. Um, but they are people who rent in the town now. Do they have to I should know this. Do they have to live here to apply? No. Okay. No, that's not one of the criteria. So So the eligibility criteria are that it's a household size that would fit the house. One to two people per bedroom. that there's an income cap, right,

based again on household size. And it's a it's a a range compared to state median income. And it's going to be their primary home. They're going to live in it year round, that they're not going to rent it out. Um that they agree to abide by all of the affordability covenants. It means if the time ever comes when they want to sell it, they will sell it with the same kinds of restrictions to the next people that come along. So there will be a maximum uh sale price that would be set on that. So they have to agree to all of those conditions, but it's not where they live now or for whom they work. We're trying we we have looked at options for selection and weighted possibilities of if you're on committees you get better bonus points or if you live here or you grew up here or you're new here or whatever it is. And it gets so complicated

and a little bit subjective and it gets into the idea of little maybe social engineering. It's like this occupation is more important than that occupation. It's like well that's hard to say. you know, you might need a firefighter EMT at one time, but you also might need a plumber and electrician, you know, and or a school teacher and or this and that. So, we're we're not making evaluations on a lot of different issues, but keeping it to they promise that it's going to be their full-time residence, that they the household size meets the house, that they that they are at a certain range. And I will say this that none of the people who have applied come close to maximum maximum.

Yeah. How many people have applied? I'd rather not say right now. Okay. We'll let you know. Maybe we're starting a list. So more than more than enough. So more than enough, but actually fewer than we thought. So um and so that was something of a surprise. Um we we had no idea what to expect. I prepared, you know, come into our office because we were we were taking them either handd delivered by email or an online submission form and I was prepared, you know, to walk in on Monday morning with people sleeping in the hallway and that was not the case. So, so that was a surprise. Other questions? Do you have a question?

No, everyone asked the question that I had. Great. Thank you, Kathy, for that update. um winter gatherings. This is where we where we talk about um opportunities to gather socially during the off season in our town. I think that is that you I'll go first. You go second. Okay.

We did we we sort of supported through Bar Harbor historical society and hopefully some promotion from this group um MDI's first ever history trivia potluck. Um we had 40ome people show up. All everybody brought food. Um it was a lively evening at the neighborhood house. Everyone seemed really pleased with the format and that's that. Good.

So thanks if you shared it. Yeah. Yeah. It was I mean I think sometimes the restaurants are problematic for people in terms of hearing and although they really want to support restaurants and this was not their goal. They couldn't find a restaurant that was open in January to do it. And I think for some of the restaurants, it's hard because you're feeding 40 or 50 people at a time kind of simultaneously. So anyway, this was a good um they were really really pleased with what happened. So thank you to everyone. Neighborhood House donated the space which was super gracious of them. Thank you for that. And um we all baked and cooked and washed dishes. It's almost a test case to see like, hey, you can get 40 people to show up to an event,

right? So is it a is it a I know bingo is not allowed but is well actually we were thinking reverse bingo where if you win you have to provide something to the town like it's sort of like how can we engineer things that look like games get shut down. I know, but if you But bingo must be legal if you don't win anything, right? It must be. It must be. Yeah. Games of chance. You get a crown that you wear for a week around town. You get like or you have to do something like you've got to I don't know. Anyway, game of chance. I'm going to pass the gem before I get in trouble. Boundaries strategically, right?

Summer family who funded the potlucks last or Yeah. potluck cocktail parties last year. Um offered to do it again. I think I said that at the last meeting. She asked me to follow up in January. So, I'm waiting to hear back from her. Oh, okay. And Marie at the neighborhood house asked that that they don't need to worry about this. Like, we'll take it on. So, we we I wanted to check to see if the money should go to the economic development committee when it comes. I I think that it should go directly to the neighborhood that has Well, we Okay. I don't know if she's gonna want to do that. That's the only thing. Do you have a sense of that, Matt? Because it really is to pay the caterer and maybe some rentals.

Yeah. How did it work last time? If if you can say without um divulging anything that you're I think we ended up paying the caterer and for rentals but and received a donation in order to cover. Yes. Yeah. and and this is is this different? Is this a different situation? And I'm not not to insert myself into engineering. No, I just think they they would like to do less work on this. I mean, I guess we'll have to check with Amory if she'd be willing to write the checks if we organize it. safe.

So, um I I suppose this is a good time to update the group that I am I have have resigned my position as treasurer of the community development corporation. Um so I wouldn't I'm no longer able to speak for that group in terms of them being able to receive those funds and pass them on to the neighborhood house. Um, but it's definitely a question that could be that could be asked of the group. I imagine it would be a fairly simple train. I'll follow up with Amory tomorrow. I just think they didn't want to be involved in setting up or cleaning up. It's that what we can do. They just want to provide the money and

and make a great event. Yeah, exactly. Isn't that's really lovely? Yeah. I hope it all works out. I'm excited to try and keep kicking it down the road. Hopefully, it'll happen. When is it supposed to be? She just wanted us not to bug her until January about the money. We haven't set any dates yet. Oh, gotcha. I was sort of waiting to see what the budget was and then decide if we were going to do two or three. Got it. And this is sort of a redo of the was it called snacks, sips, and social socializing. Sips and snacking.

Socializing. Again, just another demonstration that people will actually gather in the winter in the community. And these are not official like events of this committee, but we're trying to spark interest and connect people to make to make them happen. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Great. Um, what is next? Oh, yes. So, it's winter, so we could skip over this topic right now.

You want to skip visitor info? I I will say we still I I haven't talked any further about it, but I still when you bring up like the skating rink website, it's yet another piece of why I think it's really important that we find some structure back on the town website, right, that leads people to opportunities. You talk to Alex. When I met with Alex, he was treasurer and we were talking about, you know, so I been busy. He's been pretty busy and I need to circle. Yes, I need to circle back with him. Um, this is an idea that's still alive.

It's an idea that and frankly the new website has even less links to things than the old website did. So, yes, I still think it's very important. And Georanne, if you if and when you decide um you want to bring this I know we talked about bringing it to the select board. I'm still happy to go with you and sort of like be the one pitching it and then sort of handing it off to you as you deem appropriate or whatever. Just let me know what works for you. Yeah, my next move is to get back with Alex because someone's been hired now, right? Okay. Question. And he did we did bring it up when you were not here at one of the meetings. What did he say?

I don't It sounds really just slipped it. He's probably just Well, I'll go ahead and please do keep it on the agenda because I do think we need to and I will make sure to connect with him before the next meeting. And it might be a I mean it might just be a a you know housekeeping checklist of like okay these are the steps to add something to the town website but it may also be a longer discussion about you know what are all what are all the ways we can make um community businesses more visible. Yeah. Great. Um comprehensive plan committee update just so we're informed. Is that you Kathy?

Yes I am on that committee. I so is Stephanie. Okay. Yeah, Stephanie, if you want to add anything. I don't know if she's still there. Um, yes, I'm here. Continuing to meet, we are looking at the the range of issues. Uh, our next thing is about economic issues for the town,

but and we meet on a monthly basis. Um, and we're just now working through the vision statement. So, grabbing all of the ideas and language and priorities that came out of that big meeting again at Neighborhood House. What would we do without Neighborhood House because we're all meeting there? Um that uh the consultants to the group, the Mus Group, put together a very nice thing. So we're trying not to exactly words smmith it but not in a meeting anyway but we have a lot of discussions about what do we mean by this part of a vision statement you know so it's a little amorphous

and you said economic development is coming up next in the work plan for the so will those be are those like public meetings or are those just is there an opportunity if anyone on this group wants to contribute to that conversation sure you they are I mean like this they are by zoom if there are people who want to weigh in I think if there's an opportunity to do that to take public comment um if there's anybody there just as we did today great

so yeah that is a possibility and I think that again we're not trying to reinvent the wheel looking back at the previous plan gathering information from all of the different village meetings that went on as well as the the one most recently at neighborhood house in November I think it was um and trying to figure out, you know, what's important here and what are the possibilities. We're also we're looking at other communities either in Maine or in other parts of the of the country to say what do they do and and what what's the roles town in an economy, you know. Um so it's again we're trying to define that. It's like what can we do, what can't we do when you do it by ordinances and all the regulations about who can set up a food truck down at the marina for instance, you know, those kinds of rules. Do we want to support that or is that a bad thing? Does that hurt this and help that? You know, those kinds of things. So, the the devil will be in the details at the end. But, but we're at the very early stages of coming up with the vision for the whole thing and then working on parts of it. So economic issues will be the next tackling spot.

Good for this committee to know if you have things that you would like to weigh in on. Yeah. We meet the first Thursday of the month though. I think it's February 8th is our next meeting. Okay.

Any other questions for Kathy about that? Thank you. Thanks for the update. Um awesome. Let's move on and bring Danny into the conversation. Are you ready? We're not we're not too far behind in our agenda. So the the background of this is that um I think I think Megan and I came across a description of this group called the uh Mount Desert Island Youth and Young Adult Advisory Group and and thought gosh they're their goals uh have some overlap with our goals in terms of creating livable communities. Um, so I mentioned Megan and I mentioned this to this group and and to see if we wanted to invite Danny to to come of that group. So, thank you so much for dedicating some time. You can come closer if you want. Yeah. Um, it's a bit of an awkward

comfortable. Um, so I just put together a little one pager about our group um with some fun photos of the last event that we hosted. Um so that is kind of circulate that that's specifically um NDI youth and young adult advisory. We've been calling it YA funny.

Yeah. Um and then um this project I'm working on through I wear a lot of different nonprofit hats and kind of pull from different grantfunded um projects across my nonprofit circus that is my life. Um, but this project is mainly supported by just Maine for just us or JMJU, which is a youthled uh youth empowerment and uh climate action organization, but um in general they're working on uh youth development across the state and I'm a rural youth organizer with them. Um and then I also work for Healthy Acadia and I'm a community health coordinator with Healthy Acadia. So, um, through my, um, prevention work, I do substance and tobacco prevention. Actually, I teach a lot of kids in Hancock County not to smoke, but really I also go around and support youth development projects, and that can be um, lots of like social development projects for youth, economic opportunities for youth, job opportunities for youth. Um, so that kind of ties into this work and I'm able to support this project from both sources. So, this is from Healthy Acadia. a little bit about our prevention team and the work that we've been doing in communities across Hancock and Washington County um with the Healthy Acadia main prevention network funding. So,

so this is like background about the nonprofits that are this is like your the youth advisory is sort of part of this umbrella that's supported by multiple nonprofit sources. Okay, thank you for that context. Yeah. Yeah. So, we're not um like MDI Youth and Young Adults is not its own nonprofit entity. It's it's really like a community-based project that is supported by these different nonprofitations. Yeah. So, tell us about what you do. Yeah. So, yeah, we have an extra one to

Yeah, this um Yeah. So this came out of um interestingly enough some conversations that I was having with my peers. I live in Bar Harbor. I'm a resident of Bar Harbor and lived there almost 12 years. My dad is from Bar Harbor. So um I am one of those people that is like from here but has like always kind of coming back and went to college elsewhere. and um my peer group in Bar Harbor um we were starting to have these conversations around the OB unit closure um at MGI hospital and talking a lot about how difficult it was to kind of hear this refrain that people wanted young families to be here establishing themselves and having a livable future here when none of us feel like we can have kids here. like it just doesn't feel possible with housing and employment and the way that the economic reality of this really seasonal place is. So, we were like, well, what if we kind of start brainstorming ways that young families could actually be here? Like, we're all in our late 20s, early 30s. Like, what does that look like? Um, and how do we get more voices in the room from all these different industries that that support um MDI all year long? Um, and in terms of like the demographics of the group, it's open to people 18 to 35. That may seem like a huge spread, but a lot of us in our 30s feel economically that we have more in common with an 18-year-old than a 50-year-old.

And um, so we're trying to kind of like build solidarity in that economic year. Um, and a big goal of ours this year is to bring more high school students into this process, especially high school students who'd like to be working in the trades in heritage in heritage industries like commercial fishing um, and who would like to stay here if they're from MDI. So, um, that's a big 2026 goal. But, um, so far we're a group of like roughly 10 to 15 like floating people in and out of our meetings. Um, entirely renters. There are no homeowners among us. Um, we report being regular voters in our towns where we live. We all work full-time jobs and or study full-time. So, there are a few COA students who have been attending our meetings and they all have part-time jobs, usually in seasonal industries on the island. Um, and most of us, almost all of us, uh, identify as falling within the Alice demographic. I don't know if this group is familiar with Alice, which is a measurement uh that I first came across with United Way. Um although if you go on the United Way website, their metrics for what is Alice is not even really reasonable for rural Maine. Um like they were saying like most like median income is like $75,000 which is not our experience of living on MDI.

Um but Alice stands for asset limited income constrained employed. So, um, we are all there, um, and somehow like live in a very bountiful place and have a very rich community and still live paycheck to paycheck despite working 50 or 60 hours a week. Um, I think that's the reality of of most people in their 20s and 30s here. Um so our participants represent educators, healthc care professionals, uh commercial fishing industry, uh people, outdoor recreation and tourism, service industry workers. There's a few of us from like climate action groups and nonprofits. Um we have a small business owner on our our crowd and then of course some local college students. Um, so we're looking to kind of expand the age range and uh, financially the people who qualify as young adults is more than you would think. Um, in public health a young adult is up to 40. So, makes me feel really young. Um, so we're working on or we're just having these conversations, hosting these open meetings. We've had three open meetings and one community event. We've been talking about and our barriers around affordable housing. um economic opportunity for youth and young adults, food security and food sovereignty, um health care access, coastal climate resiliency. We're really interested in like how is MDI going to evolve with a changing ocean, with a changing climate, and then youth empowerment and civic engagement, getting our young people in all of our towns across the island to be voting and participating in local government and uh community development, making sure we have friends.

Friends get you through the winter. Um, so yeah, there's lots of info here on this sheet. I mean, take these with you. In 2026, we're looking to, like I said, kind of expand our participation, especially on the ranges of the ages that we have. Um, we're going to host two to three events in within these interest areas. Um, and we're really I'm so excited to be invited tonight because we're really interested in contributing to municipal economic and sustainability planning processes. So, as our towns either put together sustainability plans or comprehensive plans, we really want more young people in the room. I'm sure it's rare that you see someone in their 20s at this meeting. We're all probably working, but um we want to be in these rooms and contributing to these processes um and making this place more livable for everybody. Um and then yeah, there's a little bit about the organizations that support us. And then these lovely photos on the back are from a really fun event we had in November just as a sample of the kind of stuff we've been talking about. Um, one of our participants is a boat builder and a commercial fisherwoman and is on has been on the harbor committee um, in her municipality and just knows a lot about food access along the coastline here um, and how to collaborate with the fishing industry and not get in their way yet access nourishing foods here for free. Um, so we had a coastal food food access workshop. She took us down to the shore and taught us how to forage for muscles and clams, how to have a recreational lobster license, which is really cool. And then we talk more about um some of the major barriers that people all across the island have to accessing food, especially with recent cuts to things like SNAP benefits. Um hunger is not not on MDI. Like there are hungry people on our island. Um and a lot of them are our age. Um, so occasionally we talk about in our group like having to choose between like paying for your

apartment and having a roof over your head to starve under. We talk about that a lot and that's um, definitely moving the shell game of finances around is an experience that we all share. Um, so this was kind of a great opportunity to get outside and enjoy the beautiful place we live in and think about how empowering it is to access food from the ocean that is here. So yeah, that's great. That was a nice summary and and I bet people have some some questions. I have a couple questions. Yeah, thank you. That's very impressive. It sounds like you've done a lot already. Um, if you could say I have two questions. The first is if you could say the one thing that people are most concerned about in your group. What would it be? I think it's housing. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Everyone is very crafty. There's no shortage of employment. We may have to have three or four jobs but there is no shortage of employment for us. Um it is housing that is the issue for us. Um and it touches everything else right like

it's not uncommon for people in their 20s and 30s. Maybe not so much in Mount Dert. I don't I'm not super familiar. I lived in Northeast for about a year but um I'm not super familiar with the rental economy over here. In other parts of the island, it's common to move three to five times a year, like all of your belongings to a new apartment. Um, so it's like the stability of housing. When housing gets turned into seasonal rentals, it's easy to lose what was stable housing. I mean, this is a tale as old as time, but nobody wants to make $1,500 a month on an apartment if they could make $1,500 a week in the summer. Um, so we're always just going to be losing that battle as young people. Um, so housing, housing, housing, housing.

Um, the my other question was, do you have you're from you said you live in Bar Harbor and you grew up there? Uh, on and off. Yeah. Um, so are are your members from all over the island? Are they mostly Bar Harbor? Yeah, we have a couple from Mount Dert and one that has lived in Tmont and recently moved back to Bar Harbor, but primarily Bar Harbor. Yeah, that's also kind of on our goals list of expanding because there are socioeconomic differences across the municipalities on the island and I think we have a lot more in common than than we might think. So, more participation. Thanks. And solutions in one place affect solutions in the other place. Absolutely. Yeah. More problems in one place.

I'm going to throw out contact me at the Bar Harbor Historical Society. We'd love to be a venue for something that you want to do. So connect with me and we'll offer you some space for free to have a meeting, do a something, do something with us. Yeah, Nikki, that was okay. Um, yeah, something where like an event we're interested in hosting maybe early spring would be a renters forum um where renters can gather to just like meet each other and like make kind of like a neighborhood network of like, oh, my power went out. Oh, you could come to my house. like, you know, and like what is your landlord charging? Like what are the benefits of living there? Do you feel like you have security?

Like having possibly someone from Pineree Legal to be like these are your rights as renters and these are what our municipalities are doing to protect renters and make renting more stable on the island. So kind of like not so much like tenants uniony, but more like how do we make ourselves literate in renting so that we feel like we could safely live here. Yeah. So impressive. Yeah. Yeah. And disturbing at the same time. Yeah. I mean, I'm looking at your list of issues and it's and and you know, it's I'm so happy you have all these programs, but it's also, you know, kind of shocking.

Yeah. I mean, the healthy Aadia stuff that it the connection might not be immediate, but um the way I think about prevention work is improving all of our social determinance of health. And as we know like on the coast of Maine we have a huge opioid problem and we also have like a lot of you there's a lot of drinking on the coast of Maine as well and um the rates of substance use of domestic violence of just poverty in general go down when our social determinance of health go up. So it feels really connected to that for me. Yeah. If you were to boil down your the mission of your group into a sentence or two, what what would what what what are you really trying to accomplish?

I think uh building a livable future on MDI for people under 35. Yeah, I would encou encourage you um we had an effort you're probably aware of a few years ago um to try and have some kind of restraint on um short-term rentals in the town of Mount Dert. Yeah, it failed the town meeting by very few votes. No, was it was it the

we got clobbered but but um what but but I think um one of the things we were missing was your voice. And so I would really encourage you um it's going to come around again. I mean people have to realize what it's doing to our communities and um if you can manage to get some more people from the town of Mount Dert and the other towns too. It's filled by one vote in Tmont.

Yeah. Um but but you know I think it it would be really powerful at a town meeting to hear from people like you because we all I mean all our friends are well my friends are all dying. They're old but we want young people here and um and we're all aware of how important it is. But I think you could really make a huge difference there. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. My email's on the bottom of the sheet. Oh, great. And my other email's on the other sheet. So, if you want to get involved, civics, civics, we need we need people. We need horses. Absolutely.

Is there are there specific ways um I see I see you raise your hand, Alan. I'll get to you in a second. I I Are there specific ways that you want to connect with municipalities, government committees, town committees? Is that just a brainstorming idea or do you

It's really a brainstorming thing. situations like this is really I think where we're at right now. I don't think that proposing or supporting specific legislation, especially not in towns that we don't live in, right, is working for us at this point. Um, but sitting in on committees like this and letting you know that we exist and we want to be a resource to economic committees as well. Like if people have questions about how the economy is functioning for people in Alice or people under 35, like invite us to meetings and we want to talk about it and share our experience, right? Or if we, you know, if something comes up for discussion and and we wonder, gosh, how would that affect the under 35 crowd? Yeah.

We not like you represent everybody, but access to things like um the main integrated youth health survey, which is like people much younger than me. that's like high schoolers that are answering really broad slew of health questions, but like we know how to get that data. We like could help with a survey process. Um like we are interested in collaborating with groups that are working specifically on housing across the state to see like what's your strategy in your community. This is not an issue that's unique to MDI. So, um, yeah, like being a little bit of almost like a research kind of asset to all of these committees,

um, and making sure that young people feel

that's great. I just want to respond to Jaime's question and then Alan had a comment and then we'll go back to you Jamie. Is that good? So, your your question was about like a a mission statement and Danny actually emailed me and Megan a statement that I can pass on to to the group. So you have a I mean this is great but it's like a two sentence thing so I can share that with you. Um and then Alan did you want to weigh in? Uh it's kind of a silly idea, but years ago, many people our age would host a foreign student. And that could be a wonderful idea to help, you know, a lot of the younger people if uh people like myself with a big somewhat empty house could host young people. My better half volunteers at Beach Hill Farms and all the people there are just wonderful and we socialize with them all and that could be a real easy way that we could help people, you know,

have have a place because it's everything is so expensive and the cost of a home is only going to go up. Yeah. And this would be one way of, you know, finding places for people to live. Yeah. Thank you for that suggestion. Did you want to say something else? I just um this this board could use some young people on it. So, if there are people in your group that would uh be interested in wanting to be on this board or any other boards, the I think one of the issues I see from where I sit, which is at the end of the spectrum, uh there aren't young people on any of the committees.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I I do think that is a little bit of a cultural issue around political efficacy and like just being an agent in your own community. I think a lot of young people struggle with that. It's mostly I think they are so busy surviving and so um like yeah ways to incentivize participation that actually make participation easier for young people is a thing we talk about a lot too. Like what would you need to actually be a leader in your community? It's money and housing. It always is. Yeah. Yeah. We can provide either but yeah.

Yeah. But for for the right person who's available and interested. I we can make dinner. Now that's not a bad social group to have in that. May May I ask a quick question? Yes. What if you guys are all worried about housing and you have to keep moving and what what would be an affordable rent for folks in this group? I mean, it really depends um on kind of what your income is looking like and a lot of people have had to piece together a really seasonal relationship to this place because of fluctuating income. Um, but I think I'm I'm starting to see two bedrooms close to 2,800.

Oh, like that's a mortgage. It should be a mortgage. Out of control, right? Yeah. Yeah. Me and my partner are hopefully moving in March. Everybody cross your fingers. Um, and we have a onebedroom for 1500 lined up for us, which is like with two incomes is going to be okay for us. If it were one of us, we wouldn't really be able to do that. That sounds so awful. Yeah. Yeah. The thing I can see you is that they rented rays so quickly and so precipitously with really without notice that that's why people are suddenly out looking for someplace else.

Yeah, it it can be kind of sudden. Um and something that's also come to my attention is that uh there are increasingly landlords are trying to be competitive in their market and using technological support like these apps that will connect them with other landlords and let them know what they're charging for their apartment so that it kind of inflates the cost of rent

yeah it's happening a lot in Portland. Um, I haven't I don't know what landlords on the island might be using that app. It's like Zillow for landlords basically. Um, but like it's something to keep in mind is that we know that they're competing in their market to make sure that they can cover their cost as a landlord, but at the same time our wages are being stagnant and wages aren't rising to meet that kind of inflated rent. So, you know, you you can no longer be an elementary school teacher most places on the island and afford a two-bedroom apartment. It's just not really possible. And I was an elementary school teacher for three years. So, I know

Danny, thank you so much for coming. Happy to stop by with information. And I'll leave these for extra people. Thank you. You have lots of email addresses. We appreciate you coming. Um, Megan, I've not been very inclusive to you or you, Stephanie, either. So, you guys weigh in when you want to. I am busy coughing my lungs up. So, I'm I'm good. I'm listening. I I'm good, too. Okay, great. Um, so the next item on the agenda is an announcement that I have. Hi Danny.

Hi. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Um, an announcement that I have and I totally got the name of the grant wrong. I was rushing. Sorry about that. It's not an inbre grant. It is called a main space grant. And let me explain. So this is this is related to my um work at COA, which is where I work. If anyone doesn't know that um COA has funding from the main space grant consortium which is affiliated with NASA and it's to support students conducting STEM focused research projects under faculty supervision and the STEM component is incredibly broad and incor could incorporate data or technology market research even arts and humanities and social sciences and a new requirement this year is that students conduct work in collaboration with or in support of local businesses and nonprofits. Um so I thought that might be an interesting opportunity to to promote here. So one option is for the student to design a project a subset of a project around a company's issue or problem or need. The grant awards are are small. They range from $300 to $3,000. And the funds can be used for things like materials, student stipens, travel, software. The funds would go directly to the student, not to the business, but the student could collaborate, you know, with the business to design something. And application deadlines come up uh once per academic term. So, sometimes per year. We've got a a deadline coming up in February and then one in in May. And it's a relatively quick turnaround time. Um, and I'll give you the the faculty contact name in a minute, but I just thought if there's a Mount Desert business or nonprofit with some sort of research question that you consider collaborating with an undergrad student

on, um, you can let me know or you can let Dr. Brittany Slabak know and um, I'll I'll provide her email address to the to the group, but Dr. B we call her. Does it have to Sorry, you mentioned space. Does it? So it's Yes, I know everyone immediately thinks like I'm just trying to right cosmology or something but no it's it's because it's it's loosely affiliated with NASA project has to have a STEM connection so science technology engineering and math but not necessarily space no no but and the concept of STEM can be sure

can be applied very very broadly and if you're if you have an idea and you're not sure what the requirements are. You can reach out to Dr. B and she can she can clarify that. So, just wanted to make that announcement and I'm sure we all know know some businesses. That I'll put it like in our newsletter. I thought that might be good for the chamber chamber members to know some some little blurb. I I can cut it down. That's that's great. And other small business people. Bye, Martha. Bye, Martha.

Got it. Um, and I have one other just brief announcement about this is also an opportunity for businesses. Um, bear with me while I stumble. It's it's from New Ventures Maine, which is a nonprofit that supports micro microenterprise statewide, and they have what's called a marketing mini grant program. You're you're aware of it already. Okay. No, it's it's a great program.

Yeah. It's for really small businesses, like five and under employees, and the grants are only $1,000. Um, and you have to have, I think, under 150k gross sales. So, it's really looking at that really entrylevel microenterprise, but the for profit

um for profit. Yeah, for profofit. And that's a it's it's a grant to help um develop your your marketing toolkit. And the deadline for that is Friday, January 30th. So, anyone interested in that could could Google that. It's the organization is New Ventures Main, but it sounds like you're already familiar with that. Anyway, I just wanted to make those announcements to people who might know a small business owner who's looking for either a research project or or a marketing grant. Um, those are all the things that I think I had on my list. Do we have other things that I forgot or and then when I say I I mean we Megan, sorry.

I know. No, I know you're good. I um I I don't think so. Um I did want to just make one other like brief general like related to my work announcement too. Sort of in the spirit of that. Um I am going to be on Maine calling next Thursday. Um talking about Maine's demographics um talking about population projections. my office does. Um, and that's kind of be the topic at hand. I think we'll mostly be talking state level, but I imagine we'll get county and maybe even town level uh questions that come up. So, um, FYI, that's great.

Main calling. That's cool. And the is the topic just general like what's going on with means demographics? Yeah, I think they're doing a a year-long series on aging Maine, I think. And this is sort of the kickoff episode just sort of talking about, you know, we're the oldest state in the US. Why is that? What's going on? What's trends, you know, with our different generations? Um, going out 10, 20 years, what do we expect? I'm sure housing is going to come up. So, you know, be groupy, right? Thanks for that heads up, Megan. That's at 11 o'clock, right? On Thursday is when main calling is on.

All right. Yeah. Super. Um, any other topics or announcements from anybody? Well, I I this this group has I mean, I guess it's gotten us all thinking, but we don't talk much about age groups and like in your your housing stuff, Kathy. We talk about income, but it's the young people that we're really that's who we're building the future for. And um how can we get them, you know, more involved and what can we do to what can this group do to make a difference in their lives?

Great question. You you were inspired by hearing from Danny a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we're looking at all the obstacles and the barriers and and you know these are not easy these are not quick fixes but they have to happen right I mean people have to have a place to live we're losing people like that who are doing important valuable work bring energy to a place and and a real sense of community but we're losing them because of housingare food insecurity all of I like that her phrase affordable living instead of affordable housing. Yeah, affordable living.

Are you gonna say something, Megan? I was just going to say, you know, I think it was last year or so we were really talking as a committee about connecting uh with different towns and sort of thinking re regionally, right? Like the island is a region and different organizations we want to sort of stay connected with and keep on top of. And I'm kind of embarrassed that we didn't think to try and see if there was a youth specific organization. And I'm so glad uh we got to hear uh from Danny today. Yeah. They've self-organized and are figuring out what their priorities are. Yeah. Yeah. And Allan had an idea about connecting different across generations by sharing housing. Very interesting. Yeah. Um,

the other thing that was really fascinating is that 18 to 35, a 35year-old has more in common with an 18-year-old, which was just that just that's just sparked a lot of a lot of misconception in my mind, but it makes sense. I mean, yeah, it'd be really interesting to dig into the data behind that. Yeah. Well, and I I have heard from folks always around housing issues, you know, that um a parent has their 30some children living with them because they can't find anything else, right? You know, on the island,

maybe you can't tell us this, but were your applicants younger or older or mix? I'd say a a mix one in their 30s and 40s, you know, with children uh elementary school through through high school um and and college, some with college age children as well. So,

all right. Um reminder of our upcoming meeting. Next meeting date is April 8th, which is the second Wednesday of the month quarterly um at 4 p.m. And if there's nothing else, then I think we can adjourn at 5:17 p.m. and clear the way for the next committee meeting. Thank you everybody. Thank you. I will make sure I do not get double booked again. Don't worry though. Yeah, good luck. Anything else?

I was just going to say thank you for doing the heavy lifting today, Carrie. Sorry. All Kyle who came in and set up the the meeting in advance. Yeah. Get better, Megan. Yeah. Get better. Gosh. Hi. I'm gonna stop the recording now. Hi Stephanie.