Economic Development Committee - Regular Meeting

Perfect. Recording in progress. Fantastic. Okay, that was Do you do the AI thing too? Do you do the AI um assistant? I don't think summary. It's really good. That's a lot of time. Really? That would be a town policy probably whether they have enabled for their Zoom. Oh, good thinking. Yeah. Right. So, I don't know what their policy is on that. Yeah.

Okay. Uh after that exciting start today, I guess we will get this meeting of the economic development committee underway. Um I think Carrie passed her own copies of the agenda. Um and um I wanted to do introductions. Alex was here. He walked away. But maybe when we come back we can just do a quick round of introductions. Um it's our Derlin replacement. um really one of my best friends in high school. Oh, I tease him. That's why he's uh um he's uh next door to where we live now. And it's it's been nice having that.

I taught him sailing and his brothers said for him. Okay. Who here doesn't have a me to tease him, too. I would be the odd one out. Needs an introduction. Okay. Um well, while we we wait for him to come back. Oh. Oh, he's doing the test from his. He is. Mhm. Graves. Admit. Was he trying to selfie? Okay. I'm hearing you. I'm hearing you. Hello. We were just talking about you. Okay. Be right there. Be

right there. your sailing car to your high school friend

cocktail. Well, while we wait for him to sort of trot down here, I guess we can do um a review and approval of the minutes from the last meeting that Kathy sent around. Um did anyone have any comments or edits? Anybody read them? There we go. Okay. Do I have a motion to approve? Motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting. I'll second. Favor approval. Fantastic. Thank you as always, Kathy.

Yeah. Um, we were just saying we wanted to go around and do a quick round of introductions and then everyone was like, "I taught him sailing. I babysat it." Um, but we can still do a quick round. Um, I'm Megan Bailey. I'm co-chair. Um, I believe I live next door to you with my husband, Michael. Um, two black cats in windows. So, my brother loves those cats. I love that. And that makes me very happy. Yes. Yes. I'm very excited you've been here. I like them as well. My brother loves them. [Laughter] Hi, I'm Carrie Sans. I'm the co-chair with Megan. I I don't think I have a pre-established connection to you, but it's lovely to meet you and I look forward to working with you. Thank you.

Um, I'm Stephanie Reese. Um, I own the Colonels and I'm the general manager of the Northeast Harbor Tennis Club. And I think my husband knows Mark Ree, I think. Yes. Friend. Yes. Yep. Um, I'm Matt Hart. I'm the community relations director at um the neighborhood house and um I think I've been all of you beat because about 20 plus years ago I wonder I I thought to myself somebody in this room a month or two ago I wonder if he puts this on his resume still you were effectively the de facto CEO of it it never got off the ground our business venture but I think now that social

going to go down this path he actually does With social media the way it is now, I really think there's potential there for big time sales. It's Tik Tok gold, I think. Yeah, we got to hear what this is. No, we're not. No, we're not. That was a really strong local deep dive. What's that? Mad respect. Martha Dudman, a babysitter. Babysitter. Happy Miller. and Belle, Janja McGee, high school pal.

I tend to yell out, "Hey, Mr. Town Manager." That's really bad. Sorry, Alex. I'll stop doing that. Nikki Moser, wishing you luck. Chicken. Yep. Yep. And Steve Madura, we've we've chatted already since you started. And seriously, like sailing, this is the guy who investment director. Are you still sailing? When I find time.

Hi, I'm Alex Kimble. I'm the uh new town manager. I'm on three weeks here. Um been an eventful few weeks already. Just starting to really truly get settled in uh to more normal operations a little bit. Um we've heard the town history. Uh prior to here, I worked um I guess for the relevant uh municipal history. I worked for eight years as the finance director for the town of Cumberland um just a little north of Portland and in many ways it was a good proving ground. It's a very similar town in terms of size scope and a lot of the amenities provided to the town of Mount Dert and then for about 12 and a half years um I have a variety of titles at the county of Cumberland culminating in deputy county manager um which also helped me hone a lot of other skills that have already started to prove pretty useful here. Um, so now I'm in that funny position of both being back home, but also in pretty familiar turf, uh, working in local government and applying those skills. Um, and I'm excited to be here and just listening for a while.

We're so excited. We've had a lot of change on the committee over the last year or so. Some relatively new members, um, some folks who'd been here for a long time transitioning off. Um, and we still have four seats available. Um, I know we, you know, kind of bring this up, um, at every meeting. I did reach out to His name is going to escape me, Martha. The young man at the library. Oh, Zag. Yes. We never heard back, but I was like, I should follow up and I I will make sure to do that. Um, has anyone else uh thought of anybody or considered anybody or is anyone else considering stepping off in the relative near future? Um, we're just trying to

Okay. Yeah. Can I just do um we just to be thinking ahead, Megan and I stepped up as co-chairs a year ago and we're currently in our last term and neither of us is going to be able to continue after July of 2026. So, we just want to put it in everybody's head to be thinking about leadership transition coming up. Yes. Will you stay on the committee or are you going to um I will step off the committee. I will probably stay on. Um, yeah. Thanks. So, just a long on-ramp there. Just

we know last time with uh um the transition it sort of took a couple of uh meetings to convince us to do it. So, we thought we would start took years for him to get out of it. I did. I know. So patient. grateful to Dan for stepping up year after year, but he he finally meant it one year when he stepped down. He did. Yes. Um Okay. Well, we're actually uh still relatively on time even with that um 10 minute debacle with the Zoom. Oh, that's right. Apologies, Carrie. Go for it.

This is It will only take one second. These are just a reminder about the forms that we sent out. Um, a couple of years ago, the town adopted a policy of having its um board and committee members sign a a um an agreement that you've read the code of ethics and code of conduct.

And then there's also a conflict of interest policy. So, if you haven't done those, just go ahead and do those and get them to the town clerk. Um she al she meaning the town clerk also provided committee chairs with um links to information about main law that pertains to how board town boards and committees work and communicate and all of that information is now available at the town website which is great. So those resources are there. Has this changed this form? If you filled it out when you joined I think it did. That's why which was only this summer right? So, it's you're you're probably you're probably good. Okay, I'm going to double check, but I'm pretty sure I did.

Okay, great. If you think you're up to date, awesome. If you think you might not be, now would be a great time to refresh. That's it on that. Thank you, Carrie. Well, um, so we're going to jump into a few quick updates. We're going to start with the skating rink. Carrie is gonna give an update on behalf of Jamie. Jamie is on a plane right now, but um he sent me some updates to share. The the fundraising champion group continues to raise funds and currently they have raised over a million.

Um hoping to raise another 250,000. Fundraising expenses to date are are pretty low for this amount of money being raised. Um he also says the planning board gave unanimous approval. One member was required to recuse themsself. Uh he also reports another headwind construction on the tennis courts will not begin until the spring. So original the original arrangement and structure will continue again this winter. I think he meant uh construction will continue again this winter. Uh he says not what we had planned on but we will make the best of it. Um, that's all I have and I I'm not sure if I can answer specific questions, but we can note questions to be answered ahead of the next meeting.

I think the construction is not going to start until the spring. So, they're going to do the same the same that they've done for the last three winters of having the plastic sheet with the bumpers around it. Thank you. Yes. Original. So, like the the temporary they were hoping to have a construction start in like November and December. But for one reason or another, that's not going to happen and it won't start until like March of next year. So this winter will be the same as the last three. Thank you for clarifying that, Kathy. Awesome. Great.

Kathy tipped me off on that, so I've dived into that a little bit. I think um trying to get it in before the winter would be kind of asking for trouble. be really putting ourselves in a spot where an early December storm could make um pretty giant mess of things. Um I've actually seen these things go in from the past life. This is an aspect of the county of Cumberland I didn't think was coming up here, but the county owns the Cross and Shorts Arena, which of course also is minorly cocky, which also means uh uh very familiar with the term brine chiller. Although I'm not hearing everyone call it a brine chiller yet. Let's all get used to calling that. It's a hilarious name for the thing that makes the ice.

Um, okay. But the the process of getting all those tubes into the concrete is tricky and needs to be done perfectly. And so I I know it's super disappointing, but I I do agree with the engineers are saying, which is of all the things to not push it on, it it's getting that thing perfect um so that it's good for years to come. Um, and when they do lay the concrete in the tubes, it's worth taking a look. It's quite a pattern that goes in there. So, thank you. That's really helpful. It always blows my mind how much money's been raised for the rank. It's really It's really telling.

They're a dedicated group of champions. Yes, absolutely. Um, a workforce housing update. Kathy, I've loved walking by the activity happening up on Summit Road. So, Oh, awesome.

Yeah. So, we've had the foundation is going in. They still need to pour the the basement floor, but they have drilled into the walls for connections for water, sewer, everything, you know, u electrical, communication stuff, etc. And so they have, as of yesterday afternoon, they had filled in on one side and they'll be filling in on the other side pretty soon. The homes themselves are actually supposed to be coming up to Ellsworth today or tomorrow. So coming up, they've been constructed in Pennsylvania. They should be in transit and arriving in Ellsworth.

And then after the marathon, so the week of the 20th, they are to come down to Northeast Harbor so that they'll be close to the site. And then the following week of the 27th, they should be, you know, picked up and put on the foundations. Wow. So, exciting times. Where do you store? Wow. Well, uh, similar to the gray cow parking lot.

So, where, um, Tim Murphy had some there. So, uh, we were talking with Brian Hankle about places close by, thinking that there might be some place else. So, he had worked out I with Derlin before you got started that that would be okay if we did it after the marathon. So that's why sometime that week um we had alerted them. I think that the company that's doing the transport, they must always be in communication with like the main DOT or any state DOT because you know when we started this whole project, the bridge in Sville just came like that. No kidding. Right.

So, they are aware of it and they're either going to have to work their way around or close it off with, you know, flaggers to stop traffic so they can get through at a time.

So, so that's their deal. Yeah. They're the professionals and moving these things. So, so that'll be good. It will take um it will take months. The contract is 160 days from the time they're set on on the foundations to the time that they are completed. So, that's quite a while. We're going to be adding on porches. uh Bilco doors for the basement, doing all the final details inside and outside. Uh so it will be a spring move in for somebody, but we're hoping later this month to put out public information about what the prices are going to be for for buying the house, eligibility criteria, application process, all of that stuff. and and maybe looking at a like a December one application window so that we will start accepting applications on you know particular date and then a first come first serve basis for

um for putting in your application. Okay. Yeah. There's only two houses right and we have a feeling that we're going to get a lot of applications but it'll be the start of a waiting list for the future as well. Yeah. Yeah. So, and you never know, someone may apply, but then it's like, uh, they didn't have quite described tips. So, you may have two piles of, "Oh, they didn't quite yet." Wow. Exciting. So, fingers crossed. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Are you Kathy, are you collecting um any sort of waiting list or indication of interest at this point? Or is there Oh, yes. We have we have a list of 150 plus names of people who have expressed interest in housing.

Some of that for rent and some of it for purchase. And so our agreement was always if you if you give us information we you'll you'll get first dibs on in well you'll get first information notification exactly that there's going to be something available. get yourself prepared because people will um you know there are income caps there population is one to two people per bedroom in either house. There's a threebedroom and a twobedroom. Um it has to be their you know they have to agree by all the affordability covenants which means that there will be future caps on what they can sell the homes for. The whole idea is to keep them affordable in perpetuity. Yeah. Yeah.

Um so people have to understand all of that. will have all that documentation available so people could see what the what the rules and limits might be and it's not going to be for everybody. Um but I think that we're trying to set it at prices that are quite affordable and relative to anything else coming on the market they're very affordable which means we're subsidizing them by quite a bit. Yeah. Yeah. So Oh, that's great. Yeah. So exciting. Any update on the um your other lot

onway? So that um the at the end of August, yes, since we met in July, at the end of August, we got word from the main supreme court that they agreed that the planning the town planning board was correct in all of the decisions on all of those matters with one exception and that was the question of open space requirements. And there was a long discussion during that whole process with the planning board about was it or was it not and they decided you know this open space requirement really applies to cluster not necessarily this particular subdivision application. So they marked it as does not apply. The Supreme Court said actually you have to calculate it. Uh you you know I know you discussed it but you have to do the calculation. You may determine that zero is the amount required but you still have to do the calculation rather than saying it does not apply. And so uh the planning board has they have met they have discussed this a little bit. They need to get one of the people who was on the planning board at the time that did the approval process back in two years ago October of 23.

Um so they asked and Meredith Randolph has agreed to come back on there. There were four people on the board at the time. One has moved away and Meredith has since left the board. The other two are still on the board. So the I don't have voted her in her Monday.

So um so she has agreed. She's been appointed now. She there is actually an open alternate seat on the committee. So she's going to fill that spot for a year. Um, and then I think that there may be they might try and get somebody else on the committee to familiarize themselves with the whole application so that they can be certified to make decisions on it. They may and they may not do it. You need to have at least three people to approve this thing going forward. So, um, so that process is going to be happening, but in November probably. I think it'll come up at planning board meeting in November. Okay, good. Well, thank you as always, Kathy. The last detail. Yes.

Oh gosh. You were such a great champion for this. Patience. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Been a long call. Yes. Yeah.

Um if it's okay with everyone and Carrie, if it's okay, I want to quickly touch on the visitor info thing since George isn't here and then we can have maybe a slightly longer discussion about the winter gathering piece of things before jumping into the new topics. Um so at the last meeting um Georanne had brought up the possibility of um or she noted that the town uh doesn't have on its website um an easily accessible calendar or link to events happening out and about. Um and she noted that the chamber does and she wondered if it would be possible for the town to uh either link to the chamber site or you know have some sort of coordination um going on there. And so we at the last meeting we um discussed the possibility of chatting with Derlin and coming to the select board um to get their take on it. And I think with the transition we opted to kind of wait and she wants to come and chat with you about it. Um so she's not here today but I wanted to just make you aware of just that you know idea that she has and um I'm sure she'll be reaching out um soon. With the old um website the town have there used to be like a calendar and you could click on the date. Is that not there anymore?

There. But I think it's pretty specific to meeting agenda stuff. Okay. So, there's one that's definitely good because I was at a meeting the other day and they're like, "Well, let's look on the calendar." And everyone said, "Oh, there's no count." So, we didn't know how to Okay. So, it's a little different. Okay. Yeah. I think it's it's just meetings and nothing else right now. Okay. But I obviously don't know the history. Sort of town business. Yes. Yes. But is there an actual like um November or October calendar? I don't think so. With the date that you can click on like before different now, right? Okay. That's what we I think it was Cath, weren't we? Look, we were in a meeting. Yes. The either agenda. There's an agenda list. Okay.

But not a calendar anymore. You can look at Oh, there's February 5th and there's nothing planned that day. Let's plan some. Okay. All right. Was the idea? I know it was really handy. Yes. Yep. It was the idea that someone might be googling like Mount Mount Dessert things to do or something and they would land on the town website, not necessarily the chamber website and then that would be a easy an easy way to find things to do with the I think so. And yeah, and I think she just pointed to a couple of other towns that, you know, the town itself was sort of broadcasting, you know, things to do and it threw a link. Yeah.

Yes. Okay. Y super. Um okay uh winter gatherings. So at our last meeting uh there was a lot of sort of optimism um around uh the possibility of continuing or expanding or you know doing uh having there be more winter gathering events like there were last year uh that the neighborhood house hosted. Um, and we were talking about the possibility of, you know, the AsticU was considering remaining open over the weekends and the Noraster was going back and forth about possibly remaining open. Um, and I think both of those are they're planning to close for the the season this year.

I do have an update about a few things. Well, I was I was I was going to pitch it to you. So, please I've been I for those who don't know, this past winter, a summer resident funded two cocktail parties at the neighborhood house that were catered by Milk and Honey, and it was called Sip, Snack, and Socialize. It was a Bob thing. It was really fun. It was like right when you needed it, early evening.

Um, and so it took me a minute to figure out who the summer resident was. I went down the wrong path and actually might have gotten some funding from somebody else for something else to do, which would be great, but I got the right one um today and she would love to fund it again. So, I think we've got $8,000 um to do a couple things. Carrie and I actually were we watched the Soul Benders play last week at COA and I actually think it'd be really fun to have a a dance kind of cocktail party. They're such they're such a great band and they have a huge following and I think we'd get people from all over the island which would be fun. So that's one idea and they I asked them and they're very open to it. So that was great and and it's affordable. So

wow. Um I just want to also clarify something. I'm also the vice president of the chamber as some people know and as I've been going around talking to people about this I think there was some confusion that maybe I was trying to organize this on behalf of the chamber which I wasn't. and I was trying to do it as a year- round resident who wants things to do, but I just Georanne called me yesterday and she said, "Well, these things you're trying to do, they're not economic development." And I said, "I don't think that's what the assignment was." The assignment was we all want some things to do. Um, and so I told her that I'd bring it up so that we could all talk about whether I was doing the right thing or being confusing. I don't think I was. So, um

I think this committee anyway, I mean, the name is not completely accurate. It's economic and community development. That's what I said to her, man. Yeah. Yeah. And the only other thing I'll say is I I talked with Emory and I I really sense I'm I'm just going to talk about you now that those those guys have enough to do. And so, as part of sort of helping oversee this, I'm I have I have the energy to really help make things happen. and I've got friends and we have other friends and um so I really want to like I talked with Amarie about doing potluck dinners and sort of organizing more craft events at the at the library like they used to do.

So I'm really I really do have some energy for some of this stuff and I'll keep you guys posted but we aren't going to really know I think we're not going to get that money until January from what I understand. So we'll try to sort of put some things in motion ahead of time but that's where that all stands now. if and if there's anything you know we collectively can do you know um you know we talked Dan used to say that we should be called the sustainability committee because we're really talking about you know sustain you know sustaining the town and I think this is definitely part of it yeah too

oh I'm so excited I fully went into this thinking that this discussion wasn't going to have as much energy because of the astic and the noraster and all of that so thank you so so much Nikki and I've just been brainstorming and I Yeah. Also, Browns, the night of the I'm going to put my chamber hat on now for a second. The night of the Christmas festival, which is another thing that I spend a lot of time working on, Browns is going to be open. Um, they're going to have like a popup craft market for Friday night, all day Saturday, and Sunday. Awesome.

Gingerbread contest, carolling, hot cocoa. They're there's going to be a lot going on. It'll be fun. And we've gotten permission from Chief Bender to do solo stove fires down the street instead of one bonfire. And we're putting up a lobster trap tree this year, which will be really fun. So that there's feeling like some good energy about that, which I think is also just part of Do you have a date for the Yeah, it's December 6th. December 6th. Yeah. Is that the same date as the Frosty 5K? That's the first event of the day. Yep.

Got it. Oh, no. So, just some logistical notes. Um, I'm not sure how the money flowed last time. It maybe the donor just gave just paid the neighborhood house to organize those. That's how it happened, right? Yeah. It it was like last December. Everyone was like, "Oh, the Nor Easter's closed." and this summer couple heard about that. The original thing was we want to throw a big party and so we kind of well what about something a little more lowkey and it worked out well.

They covered the cost of the the catering. The rentals are another crazy cost that we're all in the wrong business. We need to be like renting tables and table. Oh my gosh. Yeah. But it it's funny because I think we did it in February and March I think. Yes. And we were sort of we were planning on doing something again. We didn't know whether this donor would be in touch again, but we we'll do at least one thing. And then Jen kind of swooped in and we were like, so but that is an interesting question. I don't know whether it would be them maybe making out a check to the community development corporation.

I mean, if it's all happening through the neighborhood, I just got the sense that you guys could use some help making it happen. And the other thing they were well attended but we kind of thought like oh the one because anytime we do a nighttime event we've always tried to do like a cafe at night or something and the next cafe every person over the age of 75 says I don't go out at night. So we thought well the first one it's still in February it's still dark out at 5 but that was it was well attended there was about 85 90 people. We thought the one in March would be even better attended because it's it was after the time change and it would be light out at like 5:30 or whenever it started and it was it was about the same maybe even a few less. So I think some people were away.

I also think like we can get the word out more but and I think word of mouth will be big because the people that did go last time they oh that was nice and hopefully they'll kind of talk it up this time and more will show. I and I think we'll get the Soul Benders constituency there too, which will feel really fun. Yeah. Yeah. So would both So would the events for 2026 also take place at the neighborhood house or would I think those things would probably just cuz they have the infrastructure to handle it. But I'm also looking at neighborhood house and I mean sorry the library and some other things

cuz I'm just yeah we we can keep in touch about how the you know what the most efficient way is to to get the financial support to the people who are spending the money directly on it. Yeah. Yeah. just if you had thoughts about that that discuss as a group, but maybe in our January meeting we can talk about that. Great. Yeah. Yeah. Um did were you gonna say something, Nikki? No. Okay. Maybe. I was just going to say I'm helping Jen. She is. We'll figure some stuff out. I mean, I think the one thing that we didn't say is that on our list are like places that are outside of

direct. We've also been trying to figure out cuz you know, newbie here was like exactly where does that map go? Where does Bar Harbor start? and where does Northeast end? So, there are little community spots that maybe don't have the scale that the neighborhood house has, but it feels like spreading it out would be important. So, little things like I've volunteered Rick for a cribage festival, which he's not quite sure how to do yet, but I'm working on him. You know, little things. You know how to play cribage? Rick? Yes. And I won't play with him because I think it's stupid. And so he um he would like to play and they had they were doing it at the nor easter but they didn't have like a system to actually make it like a tournament.

So if I could find a partner, this is actually good a good ask. If I could find a logistical partner for Rick who could organize the the like how you figure out who won what round and who advances. He would be thrilled to then show up and help with a cribage festival like kind of an MC. And I would provide cards and find cribage boards wherever I could find them and humor, right? And maybe cookies. A marginally supportive partner. Um yeah, and cookies. So I will not play be on alert. I think they have cribage day or they have a cribage day at some library. I don't know, but we could ask.

They did. Yeah, I remember seeing playing and I think they started ma something which to learn to play that. That's a whole the maong ladies came to the museum this summer and that was great fun. They came actually every week for a month. They came one day a week. Um they move around. Yeah. Learning at neighborhood house. We'll see how it Oh my god. Yeah. You know the noraster in the winter time did a bunch of Caribbean nights. Yes, they did. Those were fun. Those kinds of things might do elsewhere as well. Those were fun. That's a good idea. Well, an MDI historical has a pretty good following for those, but they do them at a restaurant. We don't have open restaurant.

That's kind of the problem. But if we could provide an evening of bag lunch trivia somewhere. Don't know how you do that, but they do. But those are well I mean we go to a lot of those. They're well attended. But I have noticed that they are always at a restaurant level does doesn't Yeah, they have Southwest do a triv. Yeah, I think they do. Yeah. Yeah. So, how to replicate that within Yeah. dessert. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And I I just want to acknowledge your the I think there's some wisdom in spreading things out if possible. Yeah. I think it shouldn't all be right. I mean,

I like to go to the neighborhood house, but I'm not sure everything should be there. It feels like the town is bigger than that. Well, it seems like if there's stuff at the Otter Creek Hall that we know about, we could as a committee, we could help publicize it to try to connect with them. So, do you think that I wonder if MDI Historical would do like a potluck dinner cuz they do the bean supper famously, but I wonder if they would do potluck at the Otter Creek Hall with trivia. Yeah, like potluck and trivia. That would be fun. Would be, wouldn't it? They keeping the hall open in the winter, do they? Are they? I think I think so. Are they? I don't know. So, prior to living here in a past life, I lived on Isao,

which is an island aisle. And in the winter, we would do potluck dinners like once a month. If there was a school play, the kids would put on a school play or, you know, sometimes it was just to do something and everyone brought their own dishes and silverware so there was no mess to clean up and just an opportunity to get together and they were. Yeah. I mean, I know that Rainey's really like that as they're doing more civic things and they're looking at the bean supper and they did a potluck at the neighborhood house a few when was that in August. When was the last thing when it was there? It was their open meeting. It was the open meeting and a potluck and it looked I got there late after work, but it looked really well attended. And I wonder if that's an option cuz sometimes you don't always want to go to the restaurant that they're having trivia.

That's true. I mean, I want to support the restaurant, but I don't always want to eat at the restaurant. Apparently, there's a vegan potluck at the neighborhood house once a month. They're starting back up again. I don't know if they have yet, but I think it's like the third Thursday or something. Thursday. Yeah. So, that could be something we can publicize, too. Who's What's the woman from Middleear Mushrooms? Oh, really? Wow. Yeah. She was in the boot camp. So, they're doing potluck at at Neighborhood House. They just started it last year and they kind of did it from winter through like very early spring. I think they had like 12 to 15 people most times. Yeah. Is it a secret? Cuz I've never heard of it.

I mean, I think it's open to anyone. It's just, you know, I think it was just a group of friends that started handshake at the same time. Just to circle back to the point that you raised earlier about community development versus economic development in Matt's comment that this this committee is really about both economic development and community and community building. Um, I feel like some of the efforts to have a series of lively events here in the town in the off season were connected to witnessing businesses um, you know, in sort of an increase in businesses closing closing down for the winter and sort of having pop-up events to just demonstrate, hey, there are people here who want to come out, who want to be together, who want to, you know, buy some food or drink or participate in in an event. So I think that um in some respects the distinction between community building and economic development is is

is important but it in some respects there one feeds into the other. It's sort of all connected if that makes sense. That's what I said to Georgian. So I'm glad that too. Yeah. I mean I'm curious. That's just my opinion. I'm curious what other people think. And I think that's what sort of started this conversation in the first place about really trying to um emphasize these winter gathering events. Exactly. We went to community cafe next when is it? Uh a week from tomorrow. I was going to say I was going to say you guys have your hands full with just that now. Not much of a not those Yeah. Thank you so much. No, honestly, um

happy to do it. And you know, again, please um please let us know if we can do how we can help and um you know, in January at our next meeting. Thanks. Look forward to hammering out more specific details and helping you as we can. Thanks. Oh, that's exciting. I was fully mentally prepared for that to not be a positive discussion, so I'm feeling great right now. Okay. Um, so we're going to pivot to uh some new topics and I wondered if uh Kathy might uh sort of kick off that discussion um with uh her concept uh of a tech hub and her

tech talk.

Yes. So um you know when our organization was started eight years ago uh we had the four pillars of of the community here of Mount Dert were art, food, science and technology and the natural environment and science and technology because the island has such you know worldrenowned labs here and and spin-offs of that and we started looking um so I started talking to a bunch of other people at at the bio lab and the small business development center person, etc. And then we sort of tapped into um Renee Kelly who runs the Foster Center for Innovation at UMO and uh Diane Tilton who runs the Down East Aqua Center, the Down East Institute down in Beiel, the Aqua Center. And um we formed a little group called MSTAR. That was eventually the name. But it was really coming out of the state's interest in having uh hubs of excellence around the state centered on one thing or another. And for our point of view, we're like, you know what, this is Eastern Maine. We have more NIH funding than any place else in the state because of because of the labs here. We have a lot of people who are in the technology business and many people working from home etc. But it's not very well organized and we find that when new businesses start up in the technology world they often are drawn to southern Maine and then to Boston because that's where the money is just following the money. what could we do to attract funding, you know, investment funding, uh, more jobs, more people to come and stay in this part of the state. So, we were talking about, you know, from Orino, Bangor, down east, you know,

Washington and Hancock counties and it became the MSTAR, the Eastern Maine science, technology and academic region. And um we so we were working with different entities or doing different things and it was just it's hard to coales because this was everybody's this is your little side gig to your real job and people got busy so it kind of faded away but during that process we also got some that that group got some funding from MTI to to talk about how do we bring people together and in part it was how do you bring people together networking I mean one of the early things we looked at was for small businesses is in any community um the the Kaufman Foundation 1 Million Cups program and I don't know if anybody else is familiar with that but it's a it's like a Rotary meeting you do at the same place the same time same you know same day of the week, same time of day and you have one or two people talking about their business and what it is they're trying to do and there's a whole group of people at the end you say so what do you need and how can we help you and it's just sort of a support networking kind of thing and So that was our vision is bringing people together to have conversations built around science, technology and and the academic component of all of that. And and so during all of this, you know, last bunch of years, we've also become uh very aware of this entity based out of Vermont called the Center on Rural Innovation or Corey. Just goes by Corey all the time. And it was somebody who was very engaged in the technology world but really wanted to live in Vermont. That's where he was. You know, it's like I why don't we have rural centers of technology and innovation and how could how could we foster that? and um Judy Spruel who was at the Biolab and I both attended a session that the gentleman

who started center on rural innovation did at a main community foundation event in Bangor and we're like this makes a lot of sense this is something great and they have really expanded their their scope and the impact that they're having across the country in helping rural communities figure out does your community have a role in the future of technology. Can you convert those mills that have been shut down and get new jobs for those people with some kind of a technology focus? And so we're just exploring things. But um early on over the summer, I was uh having a conversation with Sylvia Torty, who's the new president at COA, and she was very interested in technology. And we actually looked at a space in town. He's like, "Yeah, couldn't this be, you know, the old Masonic Hall? Two stories, unused space. It's where people did things. They're like, you know, could this be Mason's 2.0 with a technology bent? There's space in there, but the whole building needs rewiring, plumbing, needs an elevator, needs all kinds of things, but you know, you got to dream big or you don't get anywhere anyway." So, so we gathered a small group of people together. Turns out that one of our apartment tenants just finished the Rue Institute. Got a her second masters in uh computer science and and uh analytics, data analytics, etc. from the RU Institute, which is uh a program based in Portland, uh an offshoot of the Northeastern University. And we have our own in town here. Pete Kufari is a small business owner. He has uh mobile one which is a an app used in sports

fields and um he would love to have more people in technology uh in the town and in the community. So we know that there are individuals doing stuff like can we bring everybody together? We we cannot escape the impact of technology on all of our lives and every facet of our lives. How do we embrace that and try and get more people comfortable with it, using it, create solutions to problems we might have? You know, whether that's an environmental problem, the socializing problem, a healthcare problem, whatever it is, can we attract people to do some training and and where might this all go? And so through this process we had a small group of people somebody from COA and uh John Boon is another one who's very interested in this because that has been his whole life too is is uh in technology as a venture capitalist starting him and our own Steve Madiraa here has also been in tech world forever. So, we we sort of assembled a bunch of people and and had um Dave uh oh, sorry, drawing a blank. Dave Helman from COA joined us on there as well. and and I also recruited uh Susan Rulan who had recently left the Deriggo Labs accelerator program in Waterville and she came up and had a conversation with us all about what that experience was, her interactions with the center on rural innovation and how helpful they were to Deriggo in expanding their programs. her input on whether, you know, does a state need another accelerator program? Maybe not, but maybe spend some time with ideiation about what role technology could play in our community.

And and from my point of view, from an economic development point of view, I'm like, you know what, if people are working from home remotely or even in a shared work space, etc., even if they're working for somebody else, that's income coming into the community that can be spent around here. That's that's a plus, I think, for our community. And so, and we have problems, you know, what's our electrical grid doing? How can we how can we form our own electric grid? How could we do this? How could we do that? What role could we could technology play in improving all of our lives, helping the economy and sh maybe shifting from a tourist centered economy to something that's less dependent on tourism because it shuts off November one, you know? So,

what role might that play? So, we've had a couple of conversations. we have a little bit of money from the MTI grant and so we can put it to good use uh if we can start networking events or something else like that. So that's where so the idea is sort of dual purpose supporting local entrepreneurs and solving local problems with technology at least it could be. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for that summary. And you know I also think recognizing the role that remote workers um even if they're not entrepreneurs just remote workers working for somebody else. I'm I'm giving a keynote on Friday and that's a really big

piece of my talk is showing that change particularly since co and how it's affected rural parts of Maine. Um, and it's been pretty significant. Um, yeah, that's really interesting. Yeah. So, I just I mean I've been working sort of as an aside a very small part of my own work, but seeing where might this lead? So, we've just had some conversations and I'm and I'm just sort of wondering is it something we should continue to pursue? Should we bring more people into the conversation? Where might this go? you know, and is it some is there any any role for this committee to play in fostering those conversations?

Well, it seems like it could be a draw for people considering moving to Mount Dert, right? Mhm. As more people work remotely and we made sure that everybody in the town through the town's broadband committee that spectrum is available to every street in town. So, we wanted to make sure that people had access to it. Mhm. Yeah. Did you learn in your in your conversations with the experts from Vermont, Center on Rural Innovation, is that right? Is there a playbook that a town of our size would would look to for guidance?

There is. They do have sort of a a checklist, an assessment of is your town ready for this? Do you have this? One of those things is do you have higher red close by? Well, we do have the college. uh they recommend like a a community population of about 5,000. It's like well maybe not the town of Mount Desert but the island 5,000 you know and as I think about it I would always want whatever we did to be here in Northeast Harbor as an attraction for people to come here. I mean that's always our goal is to have people if they're not living here because they can't afford to are they coming here for some other reason and they might also get gas, go out to do lunch, do this, do that, etc. more people, you know, their work or their hobby or their passion or whatever it is is bringing them in.

And and I think that there are so many businesses or types of industries. I w I was really prompted on this more recently when we had all of those uh renderings done for our Nolan Way project and Heelway. It's like, man, these guys are so good. These drawings are outstanding. They did them in such a short time frame. They're so they're beautiful. It's like how did you do that? What technology did you use? Are you would you like to set up a satellite office around here? You know, I mean this would be a good job for somebody and be useful to people who are either buying a house, renovating a house, using the architects, etc. That's just one iteration of what a technology program could bring to the community.

The the um what is it called? The wheelhouse above 123. Is that year round? Is that summer? It's open year round. We actually spent our first two years renting space for about half of that upper floor there. That's where Pete Kafari is. And now Pete moved up. He's taking over the conference room. There are five, four or five private offices and then three cubbies and then a shared table so people can come in for a day and have space and you know have coffee, copier, Wi-Fi, etc. So they're very busy in the summertime. Yes. And pretty empty. I mean, we were the only ones there in the winter time then and now I'm sure Pete's going to be the only one there now, too. So,

but that was the idea because John Boon started it and he has another version of that down in conquered that is busy all the time. You know, so so we we know that that model can work in the right community. So, um I have two thoughts. One is the just reflecting Kathy on your your comment about a technology meaning the architectural drawings that is related to an economic activity that's very prevalent here already which is like real estate transfers and real estate development you know and it that just seems like a beautiful way to build on

your your assets you know they're it's we're not going to not be a tourism community you know the that's just I think at least in the next hundred years but but we are you know there will always be real estate transactions happening there like so what are the other things that are like good for the community that are always happening here that have a technology component that could help make the case for citing some sort of development you know here so that was one thought I had in reflection of what you're saying and then the other thought I had is in terms of this committee I guess my initial thoughts are um it's a great place to bring bring ideas up and hear hear from people who are have different economic roles in the in the community or nonprofit roles or town government roles or resident roles. Just it's a great place to hear feedback from people. Um, and I think you know we all now know that this idea is alive and who do we know that we might want to mention it to and you know put them in touch with you. Um, and then if there is, I think in the future if the idea seems to have legs, um, I think this committee, and tell me if I'm wrong, Martha, that this committee could be a good place to interface with with the town level of of community interaction like is there zoning or policy or I don't know that maybe I'm wrong about that, but this seem this is a place where sort of community ideas and town government, you know, meet. So, how could that relationship be be useful? I think in developing the idea. Those are just my thoughts.

And I think I know I was supposed to be at that meeting and I had another meeting pop up at the same time, but please keep us posted if you do have future meetings cuz I think having someone else from the committee, you wear both hats beautifully, but sometimes it's nice to have, you know, that perspective to, you know, reflect. And Steve was there. I was I was there on Zoom. Yeah. I couldn't either, but in person, but I was there. Yeah, I was there on Zoom. That's Yeah, it's very interesting that the the the challenge is,

you know, how do you you know, you want at some point I sort of have this tendency sort of, you know, cut to the chase and it's like, okay, so how so how are you going to how are you going to structure a business or what could you do here that's unique to structure a business that could generate good jobs in this town? I mean, I sort of went sort of all the way to to the end. And so I, you know, I started thinking about, you know, the only the only way that that's that you're going to be able to um at least get a foot in the door because because a lot of these things already exist is I mean, first thing I thought of was, you know, you could do you could do you could put a call center here, right? There's would be no problem. There's already one in, you know, I know in Belfast there's a big one there, but I mean there, you know, a third party call center company could, you know, no problem could have that here. um you know thirdparty software development you could have you know that kind that kind of stuff if you know some sort of services company that just needs bodies because in theory anyway um you the the the you know the cost of a body here would be less than the cost of a body in Boston um or in Portland even for that matter. So, so you could have, you know, you don't you don't necessarily want to go into a, you know, trying to compete on price right out of the gate, but but at the same time, uh, you this in theory should be a less expensive place than a big city to to work in. And I mean, I know when I was in one of my prior lives, I hired a call center group in South Dakota.

Um, so I went to, you know, I went to Sou Falls, South Dakota in the middle of February. Um, which was a real interesting situation. That's a situation. Well, I just I Yeah. I mean, the only thing I remember is waking waking up. It was two below and uh I walked from from the hotel to the car, which was literally about here to my car here, and I just got out of the shower. My hair froze like But anyway, but but it was but it was amazing. It was amazing what they were able to do up there and um and you know, something similar to here, but of course that already exists. So, how do you you know, how do you how do you how do you break into that? What's the Yeah. What's the next thing? So, is there something with you know, AI or um Yeah. I mean, you know, for that matter, you know, you talked about, you know, old empty buildings. Could you build could you put a could you put a data center?

Data center. Um uh that's a you know, that's a fairly heavy lift. Um but a lot of those things are going into places like, you know, I mean, I keep thinking of the what's the the in Bucksport, the old paper mill there,

big old building and and you know, what's going to go in there, but and uh but that would be that that's the kind of places where these things are going. Um, so is that something that could that that could happen here because that would be huge huge benefit. So anyway, that that's where I sort of in that meeting sort of came out of it is like okay well how would you how could you actually put this into you know something that would actually generate you know jobs and revenue and activity in this part of the world and those are just you know I I don't have the answer yet but those are some of the things I thought that would be least worth investigating or trying to find. And I think your example of Bucksport and Milaninoit is the other group I always think of as you know a small community that has really uh

gotten itself together in a really impressive way um over the past couple of years. The Arata example. Yeah. Yeah. And I think I think Ann was maybe going to say something. Were you going to say

No, I was pretty much in line with um Steve's thought process. You know, it's you want to kind of cut to the chase, but the truth of the matter is and know you framed it. It's great. It's like you're using technology, not just creating a, you know, one technology solution. It's, you know, thinking about it holistically. Um, I think our cold water here could give us some, you know, some room with people who love to do the cold plunges. you know along those lines then some one of the things that I'd been thinking for a long time is having a hackathon and sort of build an event a season sort of like our old boot camps

of um having having speakers having people from different spheres talk about how technology might impact their their sphere whether it's art or nature or science or food or anything else and then come up with a problem and challenge and have a hackathon and people of different ages. It could be fun, it could be engaging, you come up with a solution to a potential solution to a problem, but it would also be a winter activity around here. You know,

R, not to go too far down this rabbit hole, but Rue Rue does that. They have they do these um main start start something start startup weekends that are basically hack little hackathons organized around specific themes. Um so so there's a model pick a theme and have it relate to Mount Dessert and I'm going to follow up with you about that. Okay. And I'd be happy to put you in touch with the people who run those events at through through R. Great. Thank you. Jay and I have attended a couple of them just to see how they do that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like it.

How many uh so we have the college, right? How I'm sure this varies and I'm sure caveat caveat. Um how many do the students how many of them stick around after they graduate? Good question. Um, and is there a way I'm sure it's not I know the median age of our county, so I know it's not a lot, but I know that. Yeah, I know. I'm aware. Um, but um I don't know. I think getting students involved in something, you know, and enticing them or seeing an opportunity here might get them to stick around.

There there was a list I work at College of the Atlantic for anyone who doesn't know. There was a list um that someone started a few years ago that was all the businesses on the island that were started by Yeah. alumni like swallow. Yeah, exactly. Or right here in town, right? We have real pizza, right? Michael Bolan is responsible for probably x% of them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But right real pizza on we can all we can all probably think of five immediately and then

learn about you know 10 more. So I don't know where that list is. Um, it doesn't exactly answer your question and I don't know what the stats are on how many students stick around, but it's that could be an important dynamic to think about in terms of encouraging people who come here. Yeah. And think they're going to be here for 4 years, fall in love with it, want to stay here, and then want options, you know, that meet that that touch on their interests beyond just it's a beautiful place to live. Right. Yeah. And I think the, you know, the body point, uh, you know, is a good one, but but we need bodies to be here. Um, and, you know, we're an aging community. We're an aging state. Uh, and, um,

uh, yeah. Yeah. Really trying to keep I think part of that difficulty is affordability.

Right. Down to housing. Y. Yeah. or from apartment to townhouse to houses and tent to tent anything. Yeah. All of it happens.

Okay. Thank you so much for that uh sort of update, Kathy. And I I think um before we touch on um you know things that we uh well okay so we've already identified for the January meeting. We've already identified um you know we're going to check in with Jen um on you know where she is with with that process. And again in the meantime between now and then please don't hesitate. Um, and we'll also, you know, we can do what we can to advertise like the Christmas festival and, you know, these other things that are happening between now and then. Um, any other, um, potential business for the January meeting.

Make sure we touch on this, too.

Oh, that's right. Okay. Yeah. So Kathy um h reached out about a really interesting she made a really interesting point and she wondered um whether it made sense for the this is about the conversations with businesses whether it made sense for the committee or some other um for us to have conversations with businesses in the area whether it's businesses that have recently closed like Browns um businesses that um do close during during the winter, so like noraster and whatnot. Um, and just get their take on, you know, what is working, what is not working. Um, but we do understand that the chamber also just had a couple of business roundts in the spring. Um,

Terry, did you have any other I think Georanne could speak to that. Yeah. And probably could do an update next time because she's pretty dialed in to everybody who's closing and why they're closing and what's happening. Mhm. And that I think that was yeah I think that that was definitely you Kathy right who suggested that as an agenda item for for this meeting. So it was to like it was just give me give me one second. It was I think you had said it could help inform future economic development and it sounds like the chamber is has some data on that.

Sorry Nikki. No, no. I have a I have a I have a hypothetical question based on so um I recently saw something where someone had said they were looking for space but not in Northeast Harbor and I reached out and I was like why not in Northeast Harbor and they said that they had come to the town manager and been told that the type of business that they had would absolutely not be approved. So I was wondering is there a set of those guidelines? Is there a rule? Is it hypothetical? Is it based on it was it business? Nope. It was nas was not that was not that and I don't I don't I' I'd like to have the conversation with that. Like I said to them, I'm not looking to open a wormhole or cause any grief, but I am sort of curious. Is there a

is there a set of guidelines from the town about what businesses are more likely to be licensed, less likely to be licensed? Is that actually an issue? because I know that I registered my business with the town and I don't remember being grilled particularly hard about what I was going to be doing over there. So I've heard and I are both giving each other right now. So I'm just sort of curious. I mean I would be happy to have a private I was like what in the world? It was nothing that was not legal or licensable currently anywhere in other towns in other places. Okay. Yes. Yes. And I again I

all curious what is Was it a paper making business? It was not a chemical 20 question. No, I can dig. I that would be news to me. Yeah, let's maybe we could have conversely doesn't mean much right now. I mean, I was sort of curious about that sense of like, yeah, what sort of businesses do people want in town? And is that a thing? And is that, you know, I'm going to get myself into trouble here soon, but I think you're you because there's a lot of empty space in town. We are looking at a tremendous amount of empty real estate right now.

Just really scary and sad story. This that's a really that's a very illuminating story. And I think the question you raised right after it is is key like hey is there some set of guidelines you know or how how would a person know like what would right how would a person know I don't know maybe there's not but and you know I think your point about well what do people want in town what is their vision I'm I'm assuming and hoping that that's a question that the comp plan committee might be able to help answer once again say on coffee. Anytime I'm on Oh, you're on coffee. Yeah, I'm on coffee. Yeah.

If you buy a hemp store, everybody always says drugstore. Oh, yeah. Oh, to get med. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I think it's the million-dollar question right now for Northeast or maybe some other towns, but I think a lot of people are trying to figure that. Yeah. Well, if you want for January because we have asked that question in many over the years, many times what kind of business do you want? And I'll try and gather information for the January meeting. There was drugstore and drugstore place to eat. We've got a hair place now. So, that's cleaner. Cleaners. Yep.

Okay. Thanks for letting me bump back to that. No, no, thank you. I completely skipped right over that. And you had started the list. You were starting to build a list, I think, of business for January. Well, and I think that build right on it. So So no, I think that's perfect. So um uh again, we we'll be able to um get an update from Jen. We can maybe circle back. So we can circle back to Georgian um and get her take on um just sort of business sentiment right now. What's worked, what's not worked, and see if maybe um if that suffices or if you know there's another role this committee can play in understanding some of that. Um that makes sense.

I think the point about is there a set of guidelines you know around businesses and licenses and all of that. Well the question is like I could go out courting a bunch of businesses but it would be awful to have them show up and be like oh no we can't you can't be here you know like what what is is I just I'd like to know. Yeah. No I think it's completely valid.

Yeah. I mean I'll jump in. I think in general for a municipality there are of course many occasions where they may jump in and dictate certain businesses but that's typically tied to very sort of upfront rules that often times would be voted on even by the town because obviously it's a very very slippery slope if you start getting down that and so you need to be extremely careful. Um a and certainly um a good example would be the the recent rounds of legislations that occurred with recreational marijuana stores where um municipalities had that choice but it was an extremely upfront process. Um

it's an opt in Yeah, an opt-in type of process. So, like I said, going too far and dictating is an extremely slippery slope that most municipalities would stay very far away from overstepping there. Um, so

um, okay. Is there any other topic that um and of course folks can you know we stay in touch between the meetings and if any ideas come to mind you know we'll make sure it gets on the agenda in January but is there anything sort of pressing um anything else pressing on folks minds that we want to make sure we hit on in January. All right. Our next meeting is going to Oh, I meant to pull this. What's the second Wednesday in January? It's going to be on uh I'm gonna see what you say and see if it matches what I think. Do you Oh, say what you think. Say what you think.

January 14th is what I think. Okay. Correct. Good job, Carrie. Yeah, you came prepared. It's going to be at 4:00 on January 14th. Um, and um, any other quick updates or any announcements or anyone? Shameless self-promotion. Rick is having a studio palooa open studio visit Saturday. Come by their cookies 10 to 3. I saw the love and trac. So, I will see you there. Yes. Come on over. Is there anything the um the marathon goes through? That's right.

Businesses have a boom time before or after the marathon? No. Single minded group. It starts really early and it ends itself with servers. Yeah. I mean, we get someone that will run in for a donut that's not necessarily Sydney. I think they're trying to follow their runners. So they'll wait and yeah, definitely grab a doughnut or a pastry, but I don't think they necessarily have the time to the night before there's people watching. Saturday watching Sunday is pretty good. Saturday's pretty good. Yeah, Sunday is usually pretty quiet. Yeah, Sunday's quiet. We just cheer as they go by. Y

that's kind of my last Sunday open until December. Same. We close a few days after that. Y it's fun though. Yeah. And the half starts at the neighborhood house, right? Right. 20th 20. How many of you were running in it? My daughter's running. You can cheer for Georgia. Her husband's running. Like his six or something. I might be doing the half. Really? [Music] We'll see. But I was even talking to someone in Southwest Turbo. I was like, "Are you busy on?" And they're like, "No, we are actually not busy on the day." Even though everyone ends there,

it's they're tired, exhausted, the roads shut down. It's hard to get a little afraid to drive anywhere. Where it ends, it ends, you know, it's hard. It's very hard. That's what she said. Yep. She said, "No, that's not a busy day." And I said, "I say, yeah, that's really interesting feedback." What day are you guys closing? I think Tuesday the 22nd, we order food Friday. However long it gets. Yep. But that's that's what we're aiming for. Yep. Yep. Have you had a good season? Yeah, it was a good season. I know people were just Yeah, we still had a good season. I mean, and we've kind of real co's over.

That whole boom to the This is much more normal, I guess you would say. We're just going to officially adjourn and stop this recording and then they don't exactly be so happy. But please continue. Oh, no.