Sue and Mike Jillson were frustrated.
They wanted to open an ice cream shop in Manchester, a sister shop to their popular Fielder’s Choice ice cream stand in Sabattus. They bought the land, got the permits, started construction. But suddenly, in August, someone from the Department of Transportation told them to stop.
They may have gotten approval from the town, he said, but not from the Maine DOT. There was talk of fines, traffic studies, a turning lane, possibly a red light — at a cost the couple couldn’t afford.
“I was hysterical,” Sue Jillson said. “I was thinking, ‘This is it. What have we done?’”
But 48 hours later, the crisis was over. The Jillsons were allowed to count customers at their Sabattus shop and use that figure, in lieu of a formal traffic study, to gauge how many cars the new Manchester shop might see.
They got that help from the state’s red tape hotline.
“I can’t even describe to you the relief,” Sue said.
The Maine Department of Economic and Community Development established the hotline in the spring of 2011 as part of Gov. Paul LePage’s promise to improve Maine business conditions. More than a year and a half later, the hotline can tout some success stories — including the Jillsons’ — but it is still not well-known and not well-understood.
The hotline averages only a couple of calls a month from businesspeople who need help cutting through government red tape. It gets a dozen or more calls each month from people looking for answers to other questions: Do I have to charge sales tax? How do I hire people?
And once: How do I get my son’s foreign fiancee to the United States?
“I still try to help them out,” said Cynthia Izon, management analyst for the DECD and the person responsible for answering the red tape hotline. “I say, ‘This is [for] business answers and I’ve never gotten anything like that before, but let me see if I can find a phone number to do with immigration.’”
For those who do call the hotline with a true red tape problem — a small-business owner who has gotten conflicting interpretations of a state regulation, for example — the hotline seems to help. Izon’s favorite calls are the ones in which people start off angry and hang up happy. Or if not happy, at least appeased.
“When they call the red tape hotline they’re sometimes pretty hot under the collar because they’re frustrated. I get that, so I don’t take it personal,” she said. “I try to help them out. By the time the conversation is done and I’ve headed off to try to resolve it or give it to the person who can resolve it, they’re in a much better frame of mind.”
The Jillsons called the hotline in August, afraid they were about to lose their new business. They were spending $450,000 on a Manchester ice cream shop and couldn’t afford thousands more on traffic studies and road or driveway changes. But they also couldn’t afford to walk away from the business if the MDOT said they couldn’t open.
The hotline connected them with a senior program manager at the DECD. That manager spoke to colleagues at the MDOT. The two sides quickly came to an agreement.
The MDOT would get the figures it needed through a simple customer count at the Jillsons’ other, similar shop, and the Jillsons wouldn’t have to spend money on fines, traffic studies or road changes.
“It was painless for us,” Mike Jillson said.
But not everyone is pleased with the red tape hotline. Tim Stentiford ran into myriad problems and delays when he started Motorland Vintage America, a vintage car business in Biddeford.
The hotline helped him get a federal tax ID number in one day rather than the 20 days it can normally take in Maine, but he believes the hotline should have done more than that. He believes once DECD officials learned this was a problem for new businesses, they should have pushed to make the tax ID process faster for everyone, “so that we’re competitive and we’re truly supporting businesses and we’re walking the talk that we’re ‘Open for Business,’” he said, referring to the governor’s slogan.
Doug Ray, development program manager and legislative liaison for the DECD, said Stentiford’s point is a fair one. But, he said, his department can’t tell other departments what to do. It can work with them to address an individual’s problems and it can call attention to problems.
“We’re not going to dictate to whatever department and say, ‘Hey, you better fix that,’” he said. “But certainly if it raises an issue, certainly the departments will look at it and say, ‘Well, jeez, do we need to revisit this statute?’ as they come up.”
Ray pointed out that the red tape hotline isn’t alone in working with businesspeople. The DECD runs a line for people who have questions about running a business in Maine. And state departments have designated business liaisons to help with permitting, licensing and regulatory issues — a June 2011 addition that Ray says has meant fewer calls to the red tape hotline.
But even with business liaisons and only a smattering of calls into the hotline, the DECD believes it is helpful. It promotes the number — 624-7486 — on its website, with “Red Tape Hotline” in red, capital letters next to the image of a red phone. A team of state business development experts also touts the hotline when they speak to businesses across the state.
The Jillsons say they, too, happily talk about the hotline.
Their new ice cream shop will open in the spring.
Honestly, a lot of the policies that the governor and his republican house and senate have put into place have been productive. It’s the few asinine policies, and his big mouth, that have already put the dems back into power in both houses and will prevent the governor from achieving a second term.
Good deal, red tape hinders small businesses… Bottom line… Because I said so.
this state sucks for anything anyone wants to try to do…including starting businesses…also the fact on black friday walmart won’t be opening at 8pm like normal places…
Huh??
Do you walk to school or take your lunch?
I take my lunch
Heaven forbid that a business that just wants to pop up somewhere doesn’t have to worry about the impact on the area surrounding it-they should only worry about making profits. If the entrance to their shop should be placed where it can cause accidents-not their problem, their only problem is profits. Profits above all. Profits above employees. And, for heaven’s sake, no business should even have to do its homework BEFORE buying land, pulling whatever permits they think necessary and beginning construction. So much for personal responsibility.
Their new ice cream shop is going to cause a nightmare in the summer. Built on one of the busiest sections of highways in the state, there will be a serious accident there this summer when traffic is at it’s peak.
But…but… “they” personally counted heads of ice cream buyers in Sabattus so that they wouldn’t lose their $450k investment over a blaring oversight/error on their part. That’s solid and reliable information that logically transfers right on over to Manchester, right? Yes, we should try to cut down on unnecessary red tape, but we’re gonna be in trouble pretty quickly if we put the public’s safety at risk by ignoring reasonable prudence for the sole purpose of maximizing business profits.
What about all the yard sales that people have on busy roads do the half to go thru all of this ? They are just as dangerous .
Don’t you agree that when applying for the permits this matter should have been mentioned? They may not have picked this location…or a may have realized there would be a problem with the location of the drivway from the begining. When the town hands over permits, it leads the business owner to believe there will be no problems with where they about to build.
The town may not of had a problem, but if it’s a state road then there is a whole plethora of problems. Curb cuts, setbacks, parking, traffic flow,etc… The towns don’t speak for the state, It’s the responsibility of the owners to get their ducks in a row. You could also say the same about the banks, before they give someone $450,000 wouldn’t you want to see this work ironed out first.
Thanks to this program their darn lucky. imho
I think as long as the safety of the public isn’t put in jepody everyone agrees with cutting down on red tape. However, considering what we’ve been shown about Mr. LePage’s thinking on a variety of other subjects, we best keep a few rolls of the red stuff hanging around so that we don’t all end up living in a profit driven toxic soup.
Red tape is not the problem here, it is the mental capacity and organization of people overseeing the permitting process, contacting the hotline could have been avoided nor not needed if this problem was reviewed when permits were applied and approved. MDOT wants to be involved in every little business now and if that is the case they need to work that to towns and cities during the permitting process, but then again it is not like these folks were opening up a mall. I hate to see what would happen if MDOT found out someone was opening an Avon shop. You think they would have better things to do, such as paving Route 11-43 for example to name one of the many roads
I agree. The DECD should be proactive in working with DOT to have DOT get a State Roads requirements program in place with the towns and cities who issue permits.
MaineDOT doesn’t want to be involved in everyone’s business. Everyone’s business wants to be on the road that is the responsibility of MaineDOT.
Some roads have such a thick cluster of businesses which generate heavy traffic, that the road plugs up. We can all understand that issue. When the road becomes unsafe, or totally congested, you’ll be looking to the business owners to address the problem, correct? No, you’ll be looking to MaineDOT.
MaineDOT isn’t a perfect organization, and I have been a harsh critic of it myself, at times. Still, it is a good organization that tries to balance competing needs of towns, businesses, and the through-traveler. This is just my own opinion, and feel free to disagree, which I am sure that you will, but if MaineDOT errs in achieving this balance, it tends to be too nice to the business and municipal interests, at the expense of through travelers.
And here is a news flash: it is true that Route 11/43 is a lousy road. No one wishes it to be a lousy road, but it is. It connects the major metropolitan areas of East Corinth and Corinna, passing through the major city of Exeter. It cannot be a high priority, for the simple reason that every lousy road cannot be a high priority, otherwise, there are no priorities.
You probably don’t have to live out there. Unless you are one of the farmers out that way, I suspect that you live there by choice, and choices have pluses and minuses. The condition of 11/43 is one of the minuses – on that point, I am sure, we agree.
The people at MaineDOT have better things to do than waking up each morning, and devising evil schemes to ruin your day, Route11_43.
The point I am making here is if I want to open a business, anywhere then during the permitting process “someone” should tell me after learning what it is I want to do, whether I am reconstructing or taking over an existing building etc I should speak with MDOT. That should be in the very early stages. When big box wants to come to town somehow these studies, etc never get overlooked, but when the little guy does, somehow they are, this is a classic example.
MDOT shouldn’t need to be involved in every permitting process, there needs to be clearer guidelines such as the size of the business, hours of operation, new construction to determine if MDOT needs to be involved to begin with and not after the fact. This should not have happened period to these folks.
If MDOT does not want to be involved in everyones business, then that is a great piece of red tape to cut, otherwise, like all branches of the government seem to have, people need to work together.
I understand and have reviewed the rules of DOTs involvement before that if I make a significant change, need to change my right of way for example, they need to be involved and even in some cases can tell me where I have to place my entrances and exits depending on traffic from customers, road, etc.
Your news flash is out of date and no longer a flash, Route 11/43 is a terrible road among others, it is again too bad that people who work and live out there pay their dues in the form of taxes and not only do they not get a thank you note, they get terrible maintenance
Have you been on the section at all int he past few months from Corinth into Exeter? Right by Beans Mill Road and Garland Road you got this awkward hump where cars drive over and at the speed limit if you hit it with a light car or passenger truck your front end takes a good hit after driving over it. I mean DOT has the time, money and resources to shut people down, tell people they need a traffic study, and be invovled in business they don’t want to or enjoy being in, but they can’t put down a thick enough layer of pavement in the dips and torn up areas of the road, let alone grind down or whatever it takes that stupid hump in the middle of the road…..
Whether I live out there or not is not the principal at hand here, I can move anywhere in the state and overtime that road can be come trash like Route 11/43 and face the same negligence but again, pay your taxes and you cant get decent service as the old expression goes. If I move it is my choice for the most part, but a torn up neglected road in this state, should be somewhere in the top of the list of the department when people pay their dues. At some point here people are going to start refusing to pay their mismanaged, misguided government, because giving money to that type of government is like giving it to an irresponsible person. It is like telling the bank you want money to buy one thing but you buy another and cry poverty later.
MDOT does not devise evil schemes and ruin my day lol, trust me MDOT is the least of my worries because I am aware of just how tough it is to watch 5 guys run a sweeper, and none of them direct traffic over a hill and instead folks as myself, end up doing it for them…..
Seems like a great program to me. Everything worked out quickly as it should have,. To bad the Liberals who will be in charge soon want to cut out this program in order to collect more fines..
They left out that it has to be a business that the Governor approves of. try to get a permit for a wind farm.