FARMINGTON – Approximately 15 members of the Franklin County Municipal Association, which is composed of Franklin County town government leaders, asked questions, made suggestions and joked with Poland Spring representative Tom Brennan, the featured speaker at an association meeting Wednesday.
The meeting saw none of the controversy that has surrounded discussions about the bottling company in recent months.
Poland Spring Water Co., a subsidiary of Nestle Waters of North America, has been garnering both support and criticism from area residents since last fall when it began expanding its operations in and around Franklin County. The company opened a pumping station in Pierce Pond Township last year, and is in the process of obtaining permits for another station in Dallas Plantation. The company is now considering opening a bottling plant in Kingfield.
Some opponents of the possible plant have cited fears of heightened truck traffic in Kingfield and on Route 27 in letters to the Irregular newspaper and to town government, and at the meetings on the subject during the past year. According to County Commissioner Fred Hardy, however, additional traffic in Franklin County could be the region’s ticket to heightened prosperity. “I think we have to realize that if we’re going to have any kind of industry in Franklin County, we’re going to have to have transportation,” he said at Wednesday’s meeting.
Unless, he added, “all we want to have are summer homes here.”
Other members of the association nodded and voiced support for Hardy’s position. Clyde Barker, chairman of the Board of Selectmen in Strong, even laughingly asked Brennan if the company was in the habit of farming out production of bottle caps and labels.
Association members questioned Brennan on the benefits and negative effects a plant in Kingfield could have on the surrounding communities. Brennan told the group that as Poland Spring business continues to grow, as many as 300 new jobs could be created. He added that, currently, plant jobs in Hollis and Poland are paying $14 to $25 per hour, and that, if hiring policies remain the same, “the lion’s share of employment comes from a 30-mile radius.”
After Brennan answered questions about the possibility of a water-bottling tax, none of the association members spoke for a number of seconds. If the tax referendum passes, he said, “there are going to be two big vacant buildings in southern Maine.”
“Yeah, it’s unfortunate, and it’s really kind of scary,” he said. “There’s a good possibility (if the referendum passes) that the allocation of resources would go someplace else. We have eight regional brands.”
He added that, “Nestle is the largest food company on the planet, and there’s a reason for that. Anybody who’s got a business understands that you’ve got to make money to run a business.”
Fred Hayes told the group, “I don’t understand why some people talk about water for nothing. Who pays those people? And taxes! It ain’t exactly free. Maybe the water coming out of the ground is.”
Brennan noted Poland Spring has a payroll of $37 million a year, and pays $35 million to small businesses that perform support services for the company. “That’s in my mind a positive thing for the state,” he said.
One member of the association asked what the assembly could “do to help,” and others in the audience nodded in assent. “Don’t sign that thing,” Brennan said, in reference to the water-tax petition.
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