MACHIAS, Maine — Now what?
That’s the question confronting those who oversee the Washington County Development Authority, which was created years ago by the Legislature to determine how best to repurpose the U.S. Navy base within the Washington County community of Cutler.
That project is a done deal, with most of the Navy housing being sold off as vacation condos. Beyond that project, the authority subsequently helped to grease the wheels for the successful launch of a telecommunications firm, a sea salt operation and a construction business. Now the agency is more or less out of money, with about $10,000 in the bank and few prospects for future funding.
“I don’t know that it’s over, but we haven’t received any funding for quite some time,” said Harold Prescott, who is chairman of the authority’s board of directors.
Prescott sees the economic development entity as an asset to Washington County, but he isn’t optimistic about future funding.
“I honestly can’t see us getting anywhere from here,” he said Friday.
Washington County Manager Betsy Fitzgerald has been tasked, in effect, to go door-to-door to local banks to solicit cash support that would keep the authority’s nose above water. The first of those cold calls is scheduled for this week.
“We are in a bit of an identity crisis,” Fitzgerald said Friday. “We haven’t had a project to work on for some time. We’re now involved in an effort to acquire some capital so that we are in a position to help new businesses establish themselves in Washington County.”
The future of the authority will be on the agenda of a meeting on Tuesday, Fitzgerald said.
“I don’t want to be negative, but, if there are other groups that can be advocates for new business here, I’m not sure there’s a role for the Development Authority,” she said.
The Cutler complex looked pretty desolate the other day.
Not sure how much more $$$ there is to dump into this remnant
of the cold/hot wars.
Condo’s ??! Huh?
Pretty spot … but , middle of nowhere.
Cutler gets, what Cutler deserves! They didn’t want anything in there….
Ditto that. The old Cutler base as well as the base in Winter harbor COULD have been major boons to the area but in both cases to much bs and allot of the ” I do not want that near me” both bases would have been resorts or many other things. but one sold off into homes and the other handed over to the park ( winter harbor) who instead of making use of what was there tore down building and built new ones at taxpayer expense.
Just another Tax Payer Boondoggle. Sell off a few military houses and call them a Condo Community. Glad to see WCDA run out of money and hopefully out of business. A few Good Ole Boys made a few bucks off the taxpayers.