PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The PROBUS Club of Aroostook met Aug. 15 at Northern Maine Community College.
Club President Dave Maxey introduced the guest speaker, Tom Powers, executive director of the Presque Isle Industrial Council and Industrial Park. Powers oversees 500,000 square feet of commercial buildings, 53 businesses and 440 developable acres of land.
In 1960 Presque Isle purchased the former Air Force base for $1. It includes the Presque Isle International Airport, Presque Isle Middle School, Northern Maine Community College and 55 miles of railroad tracks in use.
Tenants help pay a large part of the expense for the rail maintenance. There are two full-time employees for general industrial park maintenance. According to Powers, 70 percent of the buildings are owned by the Industrial Park. Some are their own entities, including the middle school, NMCC and the airport.
The park contains many businesses and other tenants as well, including the American Legion, Air Operations Drone Works, Coca-Cola, Fed-Ex, Columbia Forest Products, Northeast Publishing, Northeast Packaging, Dead River, Acme Monaco, Aroosta-Cast, Falcon Transport, Aroostook Trusses, UPS, Presque Isle Public Works, the Central Aroostook Humane Society animal shelter, Presque Isle International Airport and the offices of the Aroostook Mental Health Center, Powers said. The Maine National Guard is currently building its new operations and training facility on site, and the former International Paper building is used for seasonal storage of large equipment such as farm equipment.
Over 500-700 workers are employed at the industrial park at any one time. All buildings and businesses pay taxes to the city of Presque Isle.
In other business, Janet Snow gave a reading on the health benefits of laughter by E. C. LaMeaux.
The next meeting will be held on Thursday, Sept. 19.
