BANGOR, Maine — The new president and CEO of the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce says one of her biggest goals will be working to bring attention and support to the area’s small businesses.
“How can the chamber continue to shine the spotlight on member businesses, their success stories, and why they’ve chosen this region,” said Deb Neuman, who spoke to hundreds of business and community leaders from Bangor and surrounding communities who gathered for the chamber’s annual breakfast Thursday morning at the Cross Insurance Center.
Neuman, in her fourth day on the job, introduced herself to the crowd, though most everyone in the room was already somewhat acquainted with the media personality and business leader.
She said the chamber would feature members prominently in its materials and bring attention to their successes. If owners are facing difficulties or hurdles in business, the chamber will work to link them up with other businesses or resources that can help.
The chamber has more than 800 members representing Bangor and 20 surrounding communities.
Neuman also wants to keep member businesses apprised of changes in state, federal and local policies that might affect the way they do business. She said many small business owners are so focused on their work that they struggle to keep up to date with changing government landscapes. Others might not know to whom to go to get their voices and opinions heard.
One such area will be minimum wage. Bangor passed a local minimum wage increase plan in December. That increase will happen in 2017, but a statewide minimum wage increase measure that could appear on ballots in November would trump Bangor’s measure by hiking the minimum wage across the state.
Neuman said she has heard “passionate” opinions from chamber members on both sides of the issue. Some believe it’s already been too long without a minimum wage hike and firmly believe all workers deserve to make more than $7.50 per hour.
Others believe that it should be a state or federal issue, and that a local increase is bad for business because it puts businesses in Bangor at a competitive disadvantage with neighbors. Businesses that operate in multiple communities are especially concerned about how a local increase in Bangor would affect them, she said.
The chamber also plans to act as an advocate in some areas, such as promoting the spread of broadband access into business communities and rural parts of the state.
Neuman replaced former CEO John Porter, who resigned Aug. 28 to take a job in Portland.
Yellow Light Breen, president and CEO of Maine Development Foundation and former Bangor Savings Bank executive, delivered the breakfast’s keynote address.
He said the state and chamber’s No. 1 priority should be “workforce, workforce workforce.”
The Bangor area is an epicenter of education, research and development for the region, and all universities, colleges and places like Jackson Lab would need to play a role in building industries and preparing people to work in those industries, Breen said.
Investment in and support of those institutions would be key to building the workforce Maine will need going into the future, he said.
“No one else is going to do this for us as a region,” Breen said. “It’s really on the leaders in this room to make things happen, to work together in ways that we haven’t in the past, and frankly to think more like a region.”
Also during Thursday’s event, the chamber recognized David Dunning of S.W. Cole Engineering as its volunteer of the year for his role in leading the search for the chamber’s newly minted president and CEO.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.