As a health professional and newcomer to the area, I was impressed by an amazing gathering of about 100 people last week at the University of Maine at Farmington.
The Western Maine Sustainable Development Collaborative (Western Mountains Alliance, Mountain Counties Heritage Inc., Coastal Enterprises Inc. and the Maine Center for Economic Policy) sponsored a daylong “Maximizing Shared Assets in Western Maine” conference. People from widely diverse backgrounds were engaged in creating realistic action plans for revitalizing our downtowns, conserving our lands for public use, and providing the needed financial resources.
In this day of bad news, it was refreshing to hear some really good news. Like the story told by Lucia Columbaro and Jeremy Stark of Bethel. They moved Deximer, their free-ranging computer technology business, from Massachusetts to Bethel because of the land conservation work the Mahoosuc Land Trust was doing in the area. It was the quality of life and the people that attracted them, they said.
Kudos to the Western Maine Sustainable Development Collaborative.
Kathleen J. Welch, Ph.D.,
Healthy Community Coalition/an affiliate of the Franklin Community Health Network
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