GrowSmart forum offers visions for future
By Bob Kalish, Brunswick Times-Record Bob_Kalish@TimesRecord.Com
05/01/2006
BRUNSWICK — Alan Caron and his associates from GrowSmart Maine were completing their eighth 90-minute presentation in three days Thursday but any fatigue they were feeling had dissipated by the end of session, helped by a standing room crowd of more than 100 who crammed into the Morrell Meeting Room of the Curtis Memorial Library.
The topic was hot: How to plan for growth without losing the character of Maine's small towns and rural areas.
Caron, president of GrowSmart Maine, and Bruce Katz of the Brookings Institution have been touring the state to listen to what people have to say about the way life should be in Maine during the 21st century. They began at 7:30 a.m. on Monday in Caribou and ended Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. in Alfred.
In Brunswick they heard from average citizens; town officials from Cumberland, Sagadahoc and Lincoln counties; a former governor; and others interested in growth and how to protect the Maine way of life.
A sample of some of the comments:
— Brunswick Town Manager Donald Gerrish said it would be helpful to rethink the current geography that puts Brunswick in Cumberland County and to develop new ways to help cities and towns become less dependent on the property tax as the major revenue source.
— Chris Miller said "the party was over" as far as using fossil fuels and that energy issues had to be considered when discussing growth and sprawl. "We need to rethink our bigger-is-better policies," he said.
— Russell Libby of Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association said it was too easy to confuse the term "medical care" with "health care." It's the former that is so expensive, not the latter.
"We grow a lot of our own food here," he said. "We should buy what local farmer's grow and keep the money here."
— That view was echoed by Jill Victor, a local artist who runs a Web site promoting other local artists and craftspeople.
"Local artists and craftspeople represent the character and heritage of the state," she said. "When we're talking about growth we can't forget the people who make things."
The meetings in Brunswick and throughout the state are the result of a major initiative launched last year when GrowSmart Maine commissioned the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization, to prepare a major study of the future of Maine. Brookings has 10 economists and researchers working on the project. More than 40 "listening sessions" similar to the one in Brunswick will be held before the final study is released — sometime in September, according to Katz.
Why is such a study needed? Caron cites several reasons:
— Manufacturing jobs, formerly a mainstay of the economy, are declining and being replaced with a service-based economy.
— Natural resource jobs from forests, farms and oceans are shrinking.
— Taxes in Maine are among the highest in the country.
— Unplanned and haphazard growth threatens to make parts of Maine look too much like the places tourists and businesses are escaping when they come here.
The economists and researchers at Brookings will focus on the state's demographic, economic and development trends and the effect of state and local policies on those trends. Their report is expected this fall.
The Brookings project represents the start of a five-year effort by GrowSmart Maine to encourage major changes in the direction of a more sustainable economic, environmental and land use future.
|
