MILLINOCKET, Maine — After initially expressing skepticism, Millinocket leaders admitted Thursday that they need help refocusing their town’s future and opted to accept a Virginia economic development firm’s offer to work for the town for free.
“I support this 100 percent, and I am looking forward to hearing what they have to say,” council Chairman Richard Angotti Jr. said Thursday.
“I think strategic planning for this town is exactly what it needs,” Councilor Michael Madore said. “Do I like the idea of somebody offering this help? Absolutely.”
Reacting to a New York Times story on Millinocket earlier this month, CZB Associates President Charles Buki offered the services of six analysts and planners for the economic analysis. But councilors reacted with skepticism during a meeting on Sept. 11, about 2½ weeks before Great Northern Paper Co.’s East Millinocket paper mill filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Several residents also emailed Buki and said, in blunt and occasionally vulgar terms, that Millinocket didn’t need his help, Town Manager Peggy Daigle said. This prompted a Sept. 12 email to Daigle in which Buki sought the terms of Thursday’s vote or said he would withdraw his offer because of the nature of locals’ reaction.
“After working in 44 states and more than 350 communities the last 25 years, I have learned some lessons. Among them, that for every Pittsburgh that digs out, there’s a Buffalo and Cleveland that cannot, and won’t ever be able to,” Buki stated in the email. “For every Aspen and Park City, there’s a Butte and a Leadville and an Ajo that, despite the hard and sincere work of some, cannot overcome the deep negativity of others that, when combined with geographic isolation, proves suicidal.”
Millinocket has struggled over the last 10 years. Its paper mill closed in 2008 and was auctioned for scrap on June 17, and the town has collected only part of $1.18 million in overdue taxes from Great Northern, which owns the mill site and is the town’s largest single taxpayer.
Millinocket’s population has declined by about half over the last decade, and the Katahdin region’s unemployment rate typically runs double the state average.
Councilors reacted Thursday to Buki’s complaints about the community’s reaction to his offer with a mix of defensiveness, candor and apology. They said their skepticism on Sept. 11 was only a first response. Councilor John Raymond said they were wary after enduring decades of outside companies promising much and delivering little.
“We are elected to do due diligence on anybody who comes before us. We didn’t say no,” Madore said. “Nobody on the council said no. What people do in the public when they take it upon themselves to speak for the town, that’s not us.
“We had concerns. We wanted to know more. We wanted to investigate. That is part of being an elected official,” Madore added.
Speaking for himself, East Millinocket Selectmen Clint Linscott asked councilors if they would sanction his asking his Board of Selectmen whether it would become involved with CZB and Millinocket. Councilors agreed, although Madore said he felt that decision belonged more to Buki.
With Councilor Jimmy Busque absent, the council voted 6-0 to have Town Manager Peggy Daigle agree to CZB Associates’ offer to work pro bono assessing the town’s economic assets and helping develop its goals. Councilors also agreed to participate in at least two work sessions with CZB and encourage residents to attend CZB meetings.
Daigle said she would contact CZB to make the agreement.
Buki offered several observations:
— Successful communities welcome outsiders’ help and viewpoints. Failing communities push them away.
— Successful communities learn, adapt, self-reflect and change. Failing communities “rigidly stick to what used to work, in spite of mountains of evidence that the old ways no longer do.”
— Successful communities take risks, place bets, and pick themselves up and try again. Failures are paralyzed by fear.
— Successful communities “find confidence when no data suggests they should and leverage that confidence to welcome outsiders, learn and take risks.”
In other emails, Buki stated that as a man who comes from a small and struggling community, he had no profit motive, merely a desire to help.