Seasons Greetings,

   2013 was a busy year for the Aroostook Partnership for Progress and we made progress in a number of areas - finalizing the 2017 Mobilize Northern Maine sector focus, reducing energy costs, initiating the "Education to Industry" initiative/increasing job awareness, solidifying objectives to advance forestry and agriculture, producing 22 "Advancing Aroostook" WAGM segments, promoting the economic value of wind and mining for Aroostook's economy, gaining 11 new APP investors and briefing our County legislators on suggestions to grow Aroostook's long-term economy.

   For Mobilize Northern Maine, we converged on the four primary sectors to focus on over the next five years to grow our economy and meet our goals of growing 3000 jobs and increasing our 18- to -44-year-old workforce. Those sectors are energy, manufacturing, forestry and agriculture.

   We focused a great deal on the sense of urgency that our 18- t0 -44-year-old workforce has diminished from 42% in 1990 to 27% in 2011- a level that is unsustainable for business with 30% the minimum necessary to maintain let alone grow our business base. Thus, we launched the "Education to Industry" initiative, formed a working group, held an APP/LEAD initiative launch at NMCC then a Summit at UMPI and now have a concerted County-wide effort underway to a) increase job & economic awareness through expanding the Junior Achievement (JA) program in middle and high schools, b) increasing the number of "job shadow and internship opportunities" for County students, c) start a mentor program to further help students, and d) work closely with Ray and Sandy Gauvin and their Aroostook Aspirations Initiative to promote secondary education and development. In the last six months, we have increased our JA volunteer force by >30 business leaders and have three more school districts participating in this valuable program.

   In energy, APP held its 2nd Biomass Fair at UMFK hosting 14 vendors and >330 attendees to highlight the major UMFK biomass conversion project as well as introduce new biomass heating products. Then in Sept., we promoted and attended the Southern Aroostook Development Corporation's Energy Fair, which highlighted biomass, heatpump, solar, geothermal, and propane alternatives for business and residential applications. 2013 also saw the completion of CNG installations at TAMC, McCain's, Naturally Potatoes and Cary Medical Center, which will both realize significant savings and keep $Ms in our local economy. APP also accompanied NMCC President Crowley and his engineers on a trip to Switzerland to get a tour of the Schmid Energy manufacturing plant, discuss the potential for considering manufacturing in Aroostook, and meet with the University of Lucerne research and development experts who were conducting the joint research for Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

   In forestry, we formed a working group, set objectives for promoting this key sector of our economy and increasing value added processing then promoted the need and convinced the Maine Forest Products Council to produce a "Maine's Forest Economy" report that outlined the $8B forestry industry so that we have a baseline to measure future growth. We also quantified several Maine initiated conditions/barriers that disadvantage Maine mills from competing and brought them to the attention of our legislators. We will also continue to educate foresters in best business practices and intend to produce a documentary to enhance the image of forestry in order to attract more workers in this field.

   In agriculture, we formed a diversified agriculture working group and discussed opportunities to increase the output of our underutilized significant acreage in the County. Opportunities include raising beef and beef processing, alternative crops and grains, more organic and natural crops, food cooperatives and the potential for a food hub in southern Aroostook to connect to New England markets. One significant issue we discovered was the need to define and quantify the new emerging food market whereby New Englanders are seeking availability to safer, more natural food supplies.

   In manufacturing, our focus has been to assist firms that intend to expand with financing, tax incentive awareness, in training the workforce to be able to meet the work force requirements for growth, expansion and the new mills being constructed near Ashland. NMDC wrote and received a grant worth $275k to assist us in efforts to consider local green manufacturing and/or attracting firms from outside our area to relocate here to manufacture their products for the American and Canadian markets.

   Regarding mining, we have closely followed the drafting of the extensive new DEP rules, testified in Augusta and written support for the economic impact of this new industry for The County, briefed our legislators on the technology advancements, the fact that it is possible to both have mining and protect our environment and the fact that this new industry could have the largest single positive economic impact to our region.  

   Investments in wind power in Aroostook County are now front and center once again. We have emphasized that between the Oakfield First Wind project and the EDP Renewables #9 Mountain project, there is ~$1B of investment and ~50 new jobs that can come of this effort which while not impacting our local electrical energy prices can provide good long term jobs.

   In 2013, the Partnership had 11 new investors/members join and LEADers Encouraging Aroostook Development had 35 new members join bringing the total number of Partnership private sector businesses to around 170. We also now have Husson University onboard so we have all four colleges represented and we very much value Husson's business training emphasis as we try to increase the awareness of good business practices and business acumen across the County.

   Economic development takes time, increasing awareness of our opportunities then taking action, and getting the State to adopt policies and practices that will help our business sectors grow and remain competitive is essential for growing Aroostook. There is still a great deal of work required and we have a direction and focus to make that happen. In addition, one of the key reasons it will happen is through the tireless efforts and networking of the numerous civic and business leaders that continue to volunteer their time and energy to serve on the APP working groups in Mobilize Maine, energy, agriculture, forestry and education to industry efforts. My heartfelt thanks to all of you for your valuable knowledge, caring and help.