Outgoing Bangor City Council chairman Sean Faircloth handed the gavel to his successor, Joe Baldacci, on Monday. But with another year to serve in his three-year term on the council, Faircloth said Tuesday that he remains committed to a group of big-picture strategies aimed at building Bangor’s status as an age-friendly community and one of the best small cities in America.
“I knew I wanted to accomplish some innovative public policies [while chairman],” Faircloth said in a recent interview. Accordingly, the high points of his term include initiatives that improve homeowner energy efficiency, attract immigrant families to the area and develop a neighborhood-based network of cross-generational volunteers.
The EnergySmart Bangor program helps qualified low- and middle-income homeowners pay for an energy efficiency assessment and upgrades such as adding insulation, sealing drafts and installing supplemental heating systems like solar panels. The program, funded in part through cost-saving efficiencies in city buildings, coordinates with the statewide Efficiency Maine program to provide rebates that make these improvements more affordable for seniors and others, Faircloth said.
In addition to keeping older residents in their homes in enhanced safety and comfort, the efficiencies made more affordable through EnergySmart Bangor can go a long way toward making the city’s aging housing stock more attractive to potential buyers when current owners are ready to sell. And, Faircloth noted, energy efficiency also helps combat global warming.
So far, he said, EnergySmart Bangor has served “a couple hundred” homeowners in the city and is looking for more. The program recently won an award from the Maine chapter of Environment America, a national nonprofit organization that promotes environmental protection.
Faircloth also championed a plan to attract a younger — younger than the aging population, that is — and more diverse population and workforce to the Bangor area by making the city more welcoming to immigrant families. The proposed multicultural center won the city council’s endorsement earlier this week, with support and participation from area business, cultural and educational groups. The council’s vote paves the way for more aggressive fundraising and planning.
The center would coordinate legal support, education and community-building functions for people who move to the area from any foreign culture for school, work or resettlement, with a primary aim of building the area’s economic development and business opportunities.
A young, ambitious and culturally diverse workforce will help ensure the availability of health care, transportation and other services for aging Mainers, Faircloth said, while also generating new business and professional opportunities.
In addition, building diversity here will help attract and retain younger Mainers who value cultural and ethnic diversity.
“Bangor needs to come together to become that city that attracts people from away,” he said.
Faircloth’s third strategy for supporting older city residents is called the Innovative Neighborhoods Initiative. The project divides the city into five geographic neighborhoods and challenges them to develop proposals for making their communities safer, more vibrant and more attractive to residents of all ages. Already, focus groups have been meeting across the city under the leadership of the Bangor Department of Health and Community Services and the University of Maine Center on Aging and with funding from the senior advocacy group AARP. A report of their recommendations is due early next month.
The neighborhoods initiative includes a focus on the “Village to Village” model of community volunteerism, with an expanded emphasis on drawing participants of all ages as both volunteers and clients. “That means that if you’re 75 and can be of help to someone who’s 25 and disabled, there’s a system for making that connection,” Faircloth said, “or the other way around.” The cross-generational approach creates more opportunities for interaction and engagement, he said.
Faircloth, who is 56 and has lived in Bangor since the mid-1980s, said he is proud of the council’s accomplishments during his chairmanship and will advocate for these projects during the final year of his term. “With all the gridlock and acrimony at the state and federal level, cities are where it’s at,” he said.
Baldacci, Faircloth’s successor as chairman, confirmed that the council will continue to move the initiatives forward. “I’ve worked with [Faircloth] on all these issues and will continue to support them,” he said.
But, Baldacci added, “the issue always comes down to money,” and Bangor’s budget constraints often dictate priorities.
In difficult economic times, public safety is the council’s primary concern, Baldacci said, including police, fire and ambulance services to help reduce crime and drug-related activities. “Safer neighborhoods are good for seniors and everyone else, too,” he said.
