Maine businessman Jack Jensen has put together a deal that will protect 240 jobs in Lewiston. That’s great news during a time when, despite signs of economic recovery, unemployment and underemployment remain huge problems.

Jensen will become the majority owner of Lewiston-based Philips Elmet, which will be renamed Elmet Technologies Inc. The company makes a variety of products for the lighting, semiconductor and medical industries. According to Jensen, Elmet’s employees will have the opportunity to stay on.

Maine has lost almost 4,000 manufacturing jobs in the last year alone and more than 17,000 in the last three years. In this difficult climate, protecting the jobs already in the state is as important as recruiting new employers.

Information from the Gov. John Baldacci’s office suggests that Elmet could expand its operations sometime in the future, adding new products and serving new markets. Whether that will translate into new jobs remains to be seen, but there is that hope.

The plight of the American worker remains tenuous. The official unemployment figure of 5.9 percent does not tell the whole truth.

The Los Angeles Times reports that there are 8.7 million people unemployed, meaning they are out of work but still looking for a job. Additionally, there are 4.9 million part-time workers who would rather be working full time and another 1.5 million people who want to work, but who have given up the search. Put the numbers together and the job picture is more bleak. The total then hits about 9.7 percent.

Protecting 240 jobs won’t make a blip on national or state unemployment numbers. But for the community and the workers at Elmet, the purchase is great news.

Jensen is a native of Maine, who worked at Elmet for 13 years before moving up the Philips’ corporate ladder and moving to New Jersey, where he became senior vice president of sales.

Welcome back to Maine, Mr. Jensen.

Philips Elmet has been in Lewiston since 1929. It’s good to know it’s sticking around.


A better place


Del and Priscilla Gendron are special people, and Lewiston is lucky that they are part of the community.

For almost 20 years, the Gendrons have opened their home to neighbors and strangers alike for Christmas. Each year, they have bought scores of toys and allowed children younger than 7 to come in and pick out a gift. The toys weren’t extravagant: a firetruck here and a Barbie there.

The price wasn’t the point. The value in the gift came from the giving.

Now in their 70s, the Gendron’s are retiring from the community Santa Claus business. The work involved has just become too much.

Instead of dwelling on the sadness of a passing tradition, we prefer to think about the hundreds of smiles brought to hundreds of little faces over the years.

The world is a better place because of people like the Gendrons and their generosity.


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