Published in the Current
It will be months before Scarborough knows if it is a good match for the Y, and if so, years before anything gets built, organizers and Y officials said.
But within two months, Y organizers could be asking town residents for as much as $300,000 to further develop the project.
According to Dave Thompson, executive director of the Greater Portland YMCA, it will be at least six weeks before a study of Scarborough’s feasibility as a host community for a YMCA will be complete, and another six weeks or so before the analysis of that information is completed by the national Yorganization.
If a Y is approved, supporters will be looking for between $250,000 and $300,000 to offer some Y services in town, and to begin planning a capital campaign that could take two years to kick off, and which could last as long as five years.
Two representatives from the national YMCA office were in Scarborough this week conducting interviews with community leaders, including Town Manager Ron Owens and members of the volunteer group that approached the Y to bring a facility to town.
Those being interviewed had been identified by members of the community as people who know the town, and who could potentially help gather support for a Y, if one were to be located here.
The study is examining the fund-raising prospects as well as projecting numbers of annual members. It also looks at the size of the community it would serve – beyond just the town limits of Scarborough – and need for the services a Y could provide, such as child care, elder programs and a pool.
Another key criterion is whether there would be additional contributions available each year, to keep the organization going. “A well-run YMCA typically generates about 20 percent of its income from contributions,” Thompson said.
The survey will be complete in another few weeks, after which the national Y organization will look at the information and issue a report on whether the project should go forward.
Thompson said that aside from saying just “yes” or “no,” the report could include analysis of specific risks, such as the high household turnover in Scarborough.
And then the preparation for a major fund-raising project would begin. “We wouldn’t be ready for a capital campaign for two or three years,” Thompson said. But the momentum is already building, according to Mike Harrison, a representative of the national Y organization who coordinates projects in Maine and New Hampshire.
YMCAs built in Maine tend to cost between the $9 million spent for a new Y in Camden and the smaller $4.5 million building in Bath, Harrison said. Both the Camden and Bath buildings have a small, therapeutic pool and a larger, eight-lane lap pool, he said.
In the meantime, Thompson said, the Cumberland County YMCA could start offering programs in borrowed or rented space, like church basements or school gymnasiums.
When it came to putting up a building, Thompson said, groundwork laid now with the town will prove useful. “There has to be a strong relationship with the town,” he said.
To that end, he and other Y professionals have spoken with Owens and Community Services Director Bruce Gullifer, with positive interaction.
“They’re very receptive to the idea,” Thompson said. “Having them support the idea just makes things work so much better.”
Thompson stressed that the process is designed to be objective and examine the realistic possibilities of success for a Y in Scarborough. “We want to take this very seriously, but not let emotions get carried away here,” he said.
Thursday, February 7, 2002
Cape planning $5-million-plus school renovations
Published in the Current
The Cape Elizabeth School Board and Town Council officially discussed for the first time this past week the construction and renovation projects slated for the town’s schools – a project estimated to cost between $5 and $6 million.
Councilors will be asked to approve a plan that would have working beginning at both Pond Cove and the high school in the summer of 2003.
And though funds have yet to be approved, and plans are not yet even in draft form, architect Bob Howe, of HKTA in Portland, has been visiting the Cape Elizabeth schools to explore the buildings and learn from school staff about issues that should be addressed during the renovation.
The school renovation has as its ultimate goal the grouping of grades together, with kindergarten through fourth grade at Pond Cove, fifth through eighth grades at the Middle School, and grades nine through 12 at the high school, Howe said.
Right now, the kindergarten is in the high school, occupying space that will be needed in coming years. To keep the grades together in the future, Howe said, the kindergarten needs a new home.
“That has a domino effect,” Howe said. More classroom space is needed at Pond Cove to accommodate the kindergarten, and additional renovations will
be done to the high school as well. At minimum, the classrooms now serving the kindergarten will need to be updated for teaching high school students.
Howe and Marie Prager, a member of the School Board and chair of its Building Committee, said it is about time for the 33-year-old school building to be renovated anyway, though it appears to be in good shape for its age.
Howe is talking to teachers and administrators at the high school to learn about their concerns and recommendations for the work.
During a recent walk-through at the high school, Howe said there are some basic issues, like making sure windows don’t leak.
And there is definitely a need for improvements to the science classrooms, including adding another physics classroom, so the school will have two.
The existing science classrooms need to be reconfigured and have better access to sinks and other facilities for lab work, as well as being adaptable for use as lecture space.
But in other areas of the school, some teachers are fine with the space they have, while others want more space or a different configuration. The language teachers, for example, are happy with the amount of space they have, but would prefer it not be split across two floors of the school, Howe said.
There is also need for at least one additional computer room, Howe said, and some teachers have asked him for a space for students to congregate.
Other requests have included space for one-on-one work and small group activities, Howe said.
And some issues are related to changes in educational methods since the school was built. For example, the cafeteria was built to handle fewer students at one time than are currently using the room. To provide a nicer eating place without significant changes to the class schedule will require a larger cafeteria, Howe said.
“Students are eating in the halls,” he said.
The music stage and gym floor are also getting examined. The gym can only be sanded once more before the floor needs to be replaced. And the wood is laid directly on concrete.
“It’s hard on players’ legs,” Howe said. But a replacement floor would raise the floor level about three inches, causing problems at the gym doors. Locker rooms, too, need work, with better ventilation and aesthetic improvements that would make people more likely to use them, Howe said.
The front entry to the high school also needs attention. The slope from the parking lot up to the doors is steeper than the Maine Human Rights Act allows. That act adopts the standards of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act for buildings in Maine, Howe said.
Parking on the site is an issue as well, Howe and Prager said. One possible location for additional parking spaces is the flat grassy area behind the building, which is now used informally for extra parking, especially for sporting events.
The building’s infrastructure also needs attention, though fortunately not much of the major systems. “If we had to redo the entire mechanical systems in here, I don’t think the town could afford it,” Howe said.
But some updating of the air circulation system and additional plumbing may be needed, as well as telecommunications wiring, to put phones in each classroom, for example.
Prager stressed that this process is just beginning. After Howe has met with the groups at the high school, he will report to the Building Committee, which will work with him to figure out what work needs to be done and sort out priorities and costs for the projects.
Also in the early planning phase is the Pond Cove construction. The work at the two schools is expected to cost between $5 million and $6 million, Prager said. A final figure should be available by the end of the school year, she said.
The Cape Elizabeth School Board and Town Council officially discussed for the first time this past week the construction and renovation projects slated for the town’s schools – a project estimated to cost between $5 and $6 million.
Councilors will be asked to approve a plan that would have working beginning at both Pond Cove and the high school in the summer of 2003.
And though funds have yet to be approved, and plans are not yet even in draft form, architect Bob Howe, of HKTA in Portland, has been visiting the Cape Elizabeth schools to explore the buildings and learn from school staff about issues that should be addressed during the renovation.
The school renovation has as its ultimate goal the grouping of grades together, with kindergarten through fourth grade at Pond Cove, fifth through eighth grades at the Middle School, and grades nine through 12 at the high school, Howe said.
Right now, the kindergarten is in the high school, occupying space that will be needed in coming years. To keep the grades together in the future, Howe said, the kindergarten needs a new home.
“That has a domino effect,” Howe said. More classroom space is needed at Pond Cove to accommodate the kindergarten, and additional renovations will
be done to the high school as well. At minimum, the classrooms now serving the kindergarten will need to be updated for teaching high school students.
Howe and Marie Prager, a member of the School Board and chair of its Building Committee, said it is about time for the 33-year-old school building to be renovated anyway, though it appears to be in good shape for its age.
Howe is talking to teachers and administrators at the high school to learn about their concerns and recommendations for the work.
During a recent walk-through at the high school, Howe said there are some basic issues, like making sure windows don’t leak.
And there is definitely a need for improvements to the science classrooms, including adding another physics classroom, so the school will have two.
The existing science classrooms need to be reconfigured and have better access to sinks and other facilities for lab work, as well as being adaptable for use as lecture space.
But in other areas of the school, some teachers are fine with the space they have, while others want more space or a different configuration. The language teachers, for example, are happy with the amount of space they have, but would prefer it not be split across two floors of the school, Howe said.
There is also need for at least one additional computer room, Howe said, and some teachers have asked him for a space for students to congregate.
Other requests have included space for one-on-one work and small group activities, Howe said.
And some issues are related to changes in educational methods since the school was built. For example, the cafeteria was built to handle fewer students at one time than are currently using the room. To provide a nicer eating place without significant changes to the class schedule will require a larger cafeteria, Howe said.
“Students are eating in the halls,” he said.
The music stage and gym floor are also getting examined. The gym can only be sanded once more before the floor needs to be replaced. And the wood is laid directly on concrete.
“It’s hard on players’ legs,” Howe said. But a replacement floor would raise the floor level about three inches, causing problems at the gym doors. Locker rooms, too, need work, with better ventilation and aesthetic improvements that would make people more likely to use them, Howe said.
The front entry to the high school also needs attention. The slope from the parking lot up to the doors is steeper than the Maine Human Rights Act allows. That act adopts the standards of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act for buildings in Maine, Howe said.
Parking on the site is an issue as well, Howe and Prager said. One possible location for additional parking spaces is the flat grassy area behind the building, which is now used informally for extra parking, especially for sporting events.
The building’s infrastructure also needs attention, though fortunately not much of the major systems. “If we had to redo the entire mechanical systems in here, I don’t think the town could afford it,” Howe said.
But some updating of the air circulation system and additional plumbing may be needed, as well as telecommunications wiring, to put phones in each classroom, for example.
Prager stressed that this process is just beginning. After Howe has met with the groups at the high school, he will report to the Building Committee, which will work with him to figure out what work needs to be done and sort out priorities and costs for the projects.
Also in the early planning phase is the Pond Cove construction. The work at the two schools is expected to cost between $5 million and $6 million, Prager said. A final figure should be available by the end of the school year, she said.
Tuesday, February 5, 2002
ManageSoft finds reseller for government contracts offering
Published in Interface Tech News
NASHUA, N.H. ‹ In a deal that may bring in an extra $1 million in the first quarter of this year, ManageSoft has formed a partnership with San Antonio, Texas-based CRV to market ManageSoft's network-aware software inventory and license-monitoring products to U.S. government agencies.
"You've got to get on the GSA list to be able to sell to the government," said William Davenport, ManageSoft's marketing communications manager.
The process of getting on the General Services Administration's approved contracts list is time consuming, but can be avoided by selling products through a company already on the list. Although government agencies can buy items from companies not on a GSA contract, it requires extensive paperwork.
According to Davenport, CRV has a GSA contract and a strong presence in government and corporate sales environments, making a partnership attractive to ManageSoft. CRV plans to integrate ManageSoft products into the services it already offers governmental and corporate clients, Davenport said.
"Any company that is going to be successful needs to have partnerships," Davenport said.
The CRV deal is not ManageSoft's only such agreement, and sales have been climbing since the Oct. 1 release of ManageSoft's latest software package, ManageSoft 6.0. The company changed its name from Open Software Associates and the name of its product from NetDeploy Global at that time.
IDC senior research analyst Fred Broussard said that ManageSoft will be competing with well-entrenched vendors, but the technical superiority of the company's software should help them break in, along with deals like the one with CRV, offering "partners who can help deploy new software throughout the enterprise."
With companies demanding faster return on investment and speedier software deployment times, Broussard said, tools like ManageSoft 6.0 can be very helpful to consultants brought in from the outside to make new software installations work. With partnerships like CRV's, he said, ManageSoft should be able to make a strong showing.
NASHUA, N.H. ‹ In a deal that may bring in an extra $1 million in the first quarter of this year, ManageSoft has formed a partnership with San Antonio, Texas-based CRV to market ManageSoft's network-aware software inventory and license-monitoring products to U.S. government agencies.
"You've got to get on the GSA list to be able to sell to the government," said William Davenport, ManageSoft's marketing communications manager.
The process of getting on the General Services Administration's approved contracts list is time consuming, but can be avoided by selling products through a company already on the list. Although government agencies can buy items from companies not on a GSA contract, it requires extensive paperwork.
According to Davenport, CRV has a GSA contract and a strong presence in government and corporate sales environments, making a partnership attractive to ManageSoft. CRV plans to integrate ManageSoft products into the services it already offers governmental and corporate clients, Davenport said.
"Any company that is going to be successful needs to have partnerships," Davenport said.
The CRV deal is not ManageSoft's only such agreement, and sales have been climbing since the Oct. 1 release of ManageSoft's latest software package, ManageSoft 6.0. The company changed its name from Open Software Associates and the name of its product from NetDeploy Global at that time.
IDC senior research analyst Fred Broussard said that ManageSoft will be competing with well-entrenched vendors, but the technical superiority of the company's software should help them break in, along with deals like the one with CRV, offering "partners who can help deploy new software throughout the enterprise."
With companies demanding faster return on investment and speedier software deployment times, Broussard said, tools like ManageSoft 6.0 can be very helpful to consultants brought in from the outside to make new software installations work. With partnerships like CRV's, he said, ManageSoft should be able to make a strong showing.
Friday, February 1, 2002
Don't let the name fool you; MTI supports much more than just high-tech companies
Published in Interface Business News
GARDINER, Maine—Working to meet a need among Maine businesses for research and development funding, the Maine Technology Institute (MTI) issues grants to support creation and marketing of new products and services.
“MTI’s mandate is from the legislature to help the small inventor/entrepreneur do business development to bring a product to commercialization,” said MTI grant recipient Jim White of pest-repellent start-up Holy Terra in Cape Elizabeth.
MTI also helps more established companies explore new technologies to improve their businesses, and sees “technology” as broadly defined, according to MTI director Janet Yancey-Wrona.
“Maine Technology Institute doesn’t just mean high technology. It’s also a walk-behind blueberry harvester,” Yancey-Wrona said.
With $6.4 million annually in funds available to Maine businesses, MTI is fast becoming a major force in development of new products for production in Maine. This year things are a little tighter, Yancey-Wrona said: The state is asking for $1 million to help make up the budget shortfall.
But the agency is still granting money, hosting networking functions to get businesspeople together, and running grant-writing workshops.
Successful MTI grantees are at various stages of business and project development. White, a research biologist who came up with a pest-repellent formula, needed to form a company, protect his intellectual property and start federal approval processes for possible agricultural use.
“The first grant that we received allowed us to do all the legal end of this,” White said. “There’s so many of us that just need $10,000, $15,000 to get the ball rolling.”
MTI requires grantees to match funds, which can be done with cash, other grants, or “sweat equity,” like the work done by Joan Gordon at Maine Molecular Quality Controls in Scarborough.
“We’re two scientists. How do you run a business?” said Gordon, president of the two-person company. MMQC spun out of Maine Medical Center’s research department in 2001 with a goal of improving the reliability of genetic testing.
“There are no kits,” she said. “We needed to develop other types of technology.”
Federal grants under the Small Business Research Innovation program are hard to get, and Gordon would have been competing against companies as large as 500 employees, with whole departments dedicated to writing grants, she said.
With MTI, the pool of applicants is smaller, and assistance is more available. “They’re local. You can talk to them,” Gordon said.
MTI has helped Gordon with more than just writing grants, recommending a bookkeeper when Gordon decided to outsource that service. “It’s practical support as opposed to purely research support,” Gordon said.
Chris Sieracki, of Fluid Imaging Technologies in East Boothbay, was further along in his project than MMQC was in theirs. But after developing an instrument to constantly monitor water quality, he wanted to be able to put it into water, rather than siphoning fluid out for examination.
“We saw there being a good market for a submersible version of this instrument,” Sieracki said.
He got an MTI grant to develop it and has already sold three to major research institutions, at $70,000 each. He expects to hire a marketing director in the next few months, and is now working with Kady International of Scarborough to develop equipment for monitoring ballast water in ships.
“We need (MTI grantees) to be pulling in federal R&D money,” Janet Yancey-Wrona said. “We also want to see that Maine as a whole is coming up in terms of federal R&D funding.”
There is some risk, though, and Yancey-Wrona accepts that. “If everyone’s successful then we’re not doing what we say we’re doing,” she said. “There’s a lot that you learn from a failed project.”
And MTI even helps venerable businesses that are already successful, if they have new projects they want to work on. MTI is funding a partnership between the University of Maine and Sappi Limited, a multinational with a big presence in Maine, that is doing research on new methods of retaining fibers during the papermaking process.
MTI really makes a difference. Just ask Joan Gordon. “Without MTI we probably would be out of business by now,” she said.
GARDINER, Maine—Working to meet a need among Maine businesses for research and development funding, the Maine Technology Institute (MTI) issues grants to support creation and marketing of new products and services.
“MTI’s mandate is from the legislature to help the small inventor/entrepreneur do business development to bring a product to commercialization,” said MTI grant recipient Jim White of pest-repellent start-up Holy Terra in Cape Elizabeth.
MTI also helps more established companies explore new technologies to improve their businesses, and sees “technology” as broadly defined, according to MTI director Janet Yancey-Wrona.
“Maine Technology Institute doesn’t just mean high technology. It’s also a walk-behind blueberry harvester,” Yancey-Wrona said.
With $6.4 million annually in funds available to Maine businesses, MTI is fast becoming a major force in development of new products for production in Maine. This year things are a little tighter, Yancey-Wrona said: The state is asking for $1 million to help make up the budget shortfall.
But the agency is still granting money, hosting networking functions to get businesspeople together, and running grant-writing workshops.
Successful MTI grantees are at various stages of business and project development. White, a research biologist who came up with a pest-repellent formula, needed to form a company, protect his intellectual property and start federal approval processes for possible agricultural use.
“The first grant that we received allowed us to do all the legal end of this,” White said. “There’s so many of us that just need $10,000, $15,000 to get the ball rolling.”
MTI requires grantees to match funds, which can be done with cash, other grants, or “sweat equity,” like the work done by Joan Gordon at Maine Molecular Quality Controls in Scarborough.
“We’re two scientists. How do you run a business?” said Gordon, president of the two-person company. MMQC spun out of Maine Medical Center’s research department in 2001 with a goal of improving the reliability of genetic testing.
“There are no kits,” she said. “We needed to develop other types of technology.”
Federal grants under the Small Business Research Innovation program are hard to get, and Gordon would have been competing against companies as large as 500 employees, with whole departments dedicated to writing grants, she said.
With MTI, the pool of applicants is smaller, and assistance is more available. “They’re local. You can talk to them,” Gordon said.
MTI has helped Gordon with more than just writing grants, recommending a bookkeeper when Gordon decided to outsource that service. “It’s practical support as opposed to purely research support,” Gordon said.
Chris Sieracki, of Fluid Imaging Technologies in East Boothbay, was further along in his project than MMQC was in theirs. But after developing an instrument to constantly monitor water quality, he wanted to be able to put it into water, rather than siphoning fluid out for examination.
“We saw there being a good market for a submersible version of this instrument,” Sieracki said.
He got an MTI grant to develop it and has already sold three to major research institutions, at $70,000 each. He expects to hire a marketing director in the next few months, and is now working with Kady International of Scarborough to develop equipment for monitoring ballast water in ships.
“We need (MTI grantees) to be pulling in federal R&D money,” Janet Yancey-Wrona said. “We also want to see that Maine as a whole is coming up in terms of federal R&D funding.”
There is some risk, though, and Yancey-Wrona accepts that. “If everyone’s successful then we’re not doing what we say we’re doing,” she said. “There’s a lot that you learn from a failed project.”
And MTI even helps venerable businesses that are already successful, if they have new projects they want to work on. MTI is funding a partnership between the University of Maine and Sappi Limited, a multinational with a big presence in Maine, that is doing research on new methods of retaining fibers during the papermaking process.
MTI really makes a difference. Just ask Joan Gordon. “Without MTI we probably would be out of business by now,” she said.
Incubators growing throughout Maine
Published in Interface Business News
AUGUSTA—Responding to demand for support of small businesses, the state of Maine and private-sector businesspeople are establishing seven business incubators around the state.
Called Applied Technology Development Centers, the state-funded centers are targeted at specific sectors of the economy, including forestry, aquaculture, precision manufacturing, biotechnology and information technology. Start-up grants for each of the seven centers around the state are between $450,000 and $950,000, and the state will support each center’s overhead costs with $40,000 to $50,000 in annual funding.
The goal is “to support emerging small businesses that are commercializing new technology, products and services,” said Phil Helgerson, director of the state’s incubator program.
Incubators provide space, business advice, professional networking and access to state, federal and private business development grants and loans, helping businesses get going.
“They can be more than they otherwise would be, operating independently,” Helgerson said.
National data, cited by a number of incubator administrators, indicates that over 75 percent of incubator graduates remain in business, and over 80 percent of them stay near where they incubated.
However, the centers must come up with most of the money to keep themselves going, from rent paid by tenants, grant programs and community and business contributions. Down the road, royalties from the products developed at the centers may provide a significant revenue stream.
“They are essentially self-sustaining operations,” Helgerson said. The program started in 2000 and got its first installment of state funds in early 2001. All seven centers will be done with construction by mid-2002, and some have already reached that stage, he said.
One state incubator has been going for five years, and offers a picture of where its sister incubators could be in that time. The Center for Environmental Enterprise, housed at Southern Maine Technical College in South Portland, already has one graduate, TerraLink, now on Congress Street in Portland.
The center has several tenants, including New England Classic, a wood paneling and wainscoting manufacturer that specializes in using sustainable resources in its products.
There is a waiting list to get in, and a rigorous application process designed to pick out the most likely to succeed, though Ferland admits that not all incubating businesses will graduate.
The incubator also offers a degree of legitimacy to a small business. “A federal lab isn’t interested in working with someone in his garage,” Ferland said.
An entrepreneur does not have to look to the state for incubators.
A privately-funded incubator is in development on Ayers Island, in the Penobscot River in Orono. It will focus on developing university research into commercial products. “It’s fairly broad,” said project coordinator John Hackney. One such commercial product is a method to turn household trash into building materials.
Things have been a bit slow to get going at Ayers Island, though, because the site, a former textile mill, needs to be cleaned up, and a one-lane bridge needs to be replaced before the center can really start up.
In rural eastern Maine, where businesses are often far from each other, the incubator idea has broken the “building barrier” with the Incubator Without Walls (IWW).
Project manager Debbie Neuman said it was impossible to choose a location for a building that could actually serve the entire region. “We felt we could have a much greater impact if we did it without a building,” Neuman said.
So the IWW serves six counties over the phone and the Internet, and with small centers in Calais, Bangor and Belfast.
Rather than just serving start-ups, the IWW is open to all of the small businesses in the region. Since October 1999, the IWW has helped 300 businesses, Neuman said.
Like most incubators, the IWW is a partnership between several community and economic development organizations. “It’s not our program. It’s everybody’s. We’re in this together,” Neuman said.
AUGUSTA—Responding to demand for support of small businesses, the state of Maine and private-sector businesspeople are establishing seven business incubators around the state.
Called Applied Technology Development Centers, the state-funded centers are targeted at specific sectors of the economy, including forestry, aquaculture, precision manufacturing, biotechnology and information technology. Start-up grants for each of the seven centers around the state are between $450,000 and $950,000, and the state will support each center’s overhead costs with $40,000 to $50,000 in annual funding.
The goal is “to support emerging small businesses that are commercializing new technology, products and services,” said Phil Helgerson, director of the state’s incubator program.
Incubators provide space, business advice, professional networking and access to state, federal and private business development grants and loans, helping businesses get going.
“They can be more than they otherwise would be, operating independently,” Helgerson said.
National data, cited by a number of incubator administrators, indicates that over 75 percent of incubator graduates remain in business, and over 80 percent of them stay near where they incubated.
However, the centers must come up with most of the money to keep themselves going, from rent paid by tenants, grant programs and community and business contributions. Down the road, royalties from the products developed at the centers may provide a significant revenue stream.
“They are essentially self-sustaining operations,” Helgerson said. The program started in 2000 and got its first installment of state funds in early 2001. All seven centers will be done with construction by mid-2002, and some have already reached that stage, he said.
One state incubator has been going for five years, and offers a picture of where its sister incubators could be in that time. The Center for Environmental Enterprise, housed at Southern Maine Technical College in South Portland, already has one graduate, TerraLink, now on Congress Street in Portland.
The center has several tenants, including New England Classic, a wood paneling and wainscoting manufacturer that specializes in using sustainable resources in its products.
There is a waiting list to get in, and a rigorous application process designed to pick out the most likely to succeed, though Ferland admits that not all incubating businesses will graduate.
The incubator also offers a degree of legitimacy to a small business. “A federal lab isn’t interested in working with someone in his garage,” Ferland said.
An entrepreneur does not have to look to the state for incubators.
A privately-funded incubator is in development on Ayers Island, in the Penobscot River in Orono. It will focus on developing university research into commercial products. “It’s fairly broad,” said project coordinator John Hackney. One such commercial product is a method to turn household trash into building materials.
Things have been a bit slow to get going at Ayers Island, though, because the site, a former textile mill, needs to be cleaned up, and a one-lane bridge needs to be replaced before the center can really start up.
In rural eastern Maine, where businesses are often far from each other, the incubator idea has broken the “building barrier” with the Incubator Without Walls (IWW).
Project manager Debbie Neuman said it was impossible to choose a location for a building that could actually serve the entire region. “We felt we could have a much greater impact if we did it without a building,” Neuman said.
So the IWW serves six counties over the phone and the Internet, and with small centers in Calais, Bangor and Belfast.
Rather than just serving start-ups, the IWW is open to all of the small businesses in the region. Since October 1999, the IWW has helped 300 businesses, Neuman said.
Like most incubators, the IWW is a partnership between several community and economic development organizations. “It’s not our program. It’s everybody’s. We’re in this together,” Neuman said.
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