The following is a recap of some of the top business stories in and around Caribou from 2017.
January
Nicole Duplessis, a 2012 graduate of Van Buren District Secondary School was hired as development and communications assistant for the Aroostook Aspirations Initiative. Duplessis graduated from NESCOM in Bangor with a degree in mass communication. She also worked briefly as a reporter for WAGM-TV.
Paul Cary, a Caribou High School graduate has joined Mortgage Network Inc. in the company’s Bangor branch office. Mortgage Network Inc. is one of the largest independent mortgage lenders in the eastern United States.
Family Eye Care/Mavor Optical, a longtime Caribou optometry business opened at 491 Main Street in Presque Isle. Owner Dr. Craig Small’s children, Abby and Paige, are both optometry students and planning to return to The County to join the family practice once they both graduate in 2019.
Works of Heart, an Amish furniture outlet that offers Maine made products, will be closing its Bennett Drive location at the end of the month and transitioning to a “fully functional and user friendly” online business. Store owner David Marrett said the decision to shut the doors came from closely paying attention to recent economic events, and the building costs that total over $30,000 a year to support.
S.W. Collins has pledged a total of $50,000 toward the gymnasium and music space in the proposed new elementary school for RSU 39. Representatives of S.W. Collins and The Friends of Caribou Schools held a check presentation ceremony.
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- S.W. Collins Company has pledged a total of $50,000 toward the gymnasium and music space in the proposed new elementary school for RSU 39. A check presentation ceremony was recently held with representatives of S.W. Collins and The Friends of Caribou Schools. Participating in the event are, from left, front row, Todd Pelletier, Pat Collins, Tim Doak, Don Collins and Bob White; back row, Gregg Collins, Sam Collins, Robert Sprague and Lynn McNeal. (Contributed)
February
Brian and Julie Weston, owners of Manus Books in Limestone, plan to open a coffee house in the historic former masonic Lodge Building at 30 Main Street in the coming months. The couple recently purchased the building from the Masonic Association and have spent their time reviving, upgrading, and remodeling the space to accommodate their online business and preparing for a community coffee house.
More than 40 Aroostook County business leaders, economic development officials and others gathered with more than 25 lawmakers for Aroostook Day at the Legislature. The day allowed members of the private, public and nonprofit sectors from The County to interact with County delegation members and with legislators from downstate.
Dustin Mancos, a 2010 graduate of Caribou High School, recently reopened the longtime Presque Isle business eatery Winnie’s. Winnie’s has been a fixture on Parson Street since the 1950s. In the last decade, it has seen four owners and been vacant since 2011.
The Northern Maine Development Commission board recently approved a pilot project that would let entrepreneurs use office space in the commission’s Caribou headquarters building. If successful, NMDC may provide a template for others in the region who would like to use space for a similar pilot.
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- The Cubby Thriftstores, which operate in Houlton, Presque Isle, Caribou and Madawaska, and the Cubby Gives program in January donated $1,170 to Patient Airlift Services. PALS arranges free flights throughout the Northeast to medical appointments for children, adults and members of the military who struggle with chronic or life-threatening illnesses. At the presentation are Joel N. Jandreau of St. Francis, PALS outreach ambassador, and Cindy Johnson, president of The Cubby. Jandreau works to raise awareness of PALS in Aroostook County. (Contributed)
March
TheCounty.Me, a news website, combining local news stories from each of the three local County papers (Aroostook Republican, The Star-Herald and Houlton Pioneer Times), starts operating in mid-March.
Northern Girl, the St. John Valley-based local food processor has ceased operations and is looking for a buyer. Northern Girl has been operating since 2011, buying locally-grown conventional and certified organic root vegetables and other crops and freezing and packaging them into products such as russet wedges and root medleys.
Caribou Technology Center’s DECA club returned from a successful run at the state competition in Portland during the first week of March. All members placed in their events and earned the right to go to the national competition in April in Anaheim, California.
Christina Kane-Gibson is hired as Caribou’s new events and marketing coordinator. Kane-Gibson is a 1997 graduate of CHS and a 2001 graduate of Boston University and spent 11 years working in promotions at a FOX television station in Austin, Texas.
Kellyn McGillan is hired as a hairstylist at A Hair Above family hair salon in Fort Fairfield. McGilian is a 2013 graduate of Fort Fairfield High School.
April
Brandon Arey is hired as an association attorney at the firm of McGivney & Kluger PC in downtown Manhattan, New York. Arey is a 2007 graduate of Caribou High School with a juris doctor cum laude from the New England School of Law in Boston in 2016.
Cary Medical Center held a town-hall style community meeting on May 11 at the Caribou Performing Arts Center to start a grassroots effort to strengthen the existing response to substance abuse issues impacting the region.
MMG Insurance of Presque Isle signed on as a major supporter of a second gymnasium at the proposed new elementary school in Caribou. The company presented Friends of Caribou Schools with a check for $50,000.
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- U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, interacts in her Washington, D.C., office with new staff members Jacob Towle, a native of Presque Isle, and Elsa Thibodeau, originally from Stockholm. (Contributed)
May
Longtime veterinarians Dr. Terry and Jim McQuade left the area and are selling their business, North Country Animal Hospital, to Dr. Lori Brown, a traveling veterinarian. The McQuades first began their business 23 years ago when they bought the practice from the previous veterinarian. Their last day was April 27.
Pines Health Services will open a new dental health clinic on the campus of Cary Medical Center.
Aroostook Stitches, a new shop offering quilting supplies opened at 42 Sweden Street. The business is owned by Susan Maley of Stockholm.
The first meeting of The Glass Is Half Full Task Force brought 20 individuals together to discuss possible endeavors for Caribou’s future. According to the first press release issued by the group, participants deemed the meeting a success.
June
Andrew Ketch’s farm, Ketch Organics, was certified organic by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association this year by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association.
Jaime Bell, a science teacher at Caribou High School and an alum of the University of Maine, was one of two teachers in the state chosen by engineering Prof. Dana Humphrey to be inducted into the university’s Francis Crowe Society. Bell was first inducted as a student and received the second honor for inspiring future engineers.
Andrew Ketch of the Woodland family farm Ketch Organics works a field to plant multiple varieties of lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard and celery. His wife Meeka also will plant flowers to offer bouquets at their farm stand. (Contributed/Meeka Ketch)
July
United Way of Aroostook recently named Jessica Ouellette of the University Credit Union in Presque Isle and Jon Gulliver from the Northern Maine Development Commission as this year’s campaign co-chairs.
Echoes magazine released its farewell issue this month. Issue 117 concludes a 29-year run of the quarterly publication founded in 1988 by Gordon Hammond and Kathryn Olmstead.
St. John Valley native David Levasseur, DDS, has returned to Aroostook County to expand Pines Dental services in Caribou. Levasseur joins Pines Dental providers Dr. R.C. Taddeo and dental hygienists Patricia Ericson and Lucy Morin.
Tim Goff, Fort Fairfield’s marketing and economic development director, transferred to a position as bank manager for Machias Savings Bank in Presque Isle.
The longtime Caribou business, the Old Iron Inn Bed and Breakfast marks its 25th anniversary.
August
The family of Heather Fox, a patient at Jefferson Cary Cancer Center in Caribou, donates a bell to the center. The bell is to be rung whenever a patient reaches the end of his or her chemotherapy treatments.
Originally from Saco, Dr. Jacob Kieffer has come back to Maine to join the Center for Advanced Dentistry team in Auburn. Kieffer is the son of Scott and Pam Kieffer, originally from Caribou. His grandparents are the late Leo and Patricia Kieffer, and Richard and Barbara Hebert, all of Caribou.
The ‘Stuff the Bus’ event returned this month in order to help local students get ready to head back to school. A Drop off box was set up at the Presque Isle Wal-Mart to donate items such as crayons, pencils, colored pencils, backpacks and more. Last year, the event collected $20,000 in supplies that were in turn shared with children and schools throughout The County.
Caribou received a $100,000 grant from the Northern Border Regional Commission to assist with tearing down and cleaning up of the former Birds Eye processing plant site on Route 1.
Barrett Fisher was hired as a veterans service officer just a couple weeks after the Maine Bureau of Veterans’ Services moved its Caribou office from the Northern Maine Veterans’ Cemetery to the same building as the Bureau of Motor Vehicles on the Access Highway. Fisher brings over a decade of military experience to the position and served on active duty for more than 13 years in the Army Military Police Corps.
After 100 plus years of ownership, the iconic Anderson’s store in Stockholm was put on the market. The store draws in customers from miles away every day with fresh cuts of meat, homemade baked goods and traditional Swedish offerings.
September
Haney’s Building Specialties, a building materials company in Caribou, is marking its 18th anniversary and held a grand reopening on Sept. 8 and 9.
Dollar General holds a grand opening on Sept. 16 at the former Family Dollar location on Sweden Street. The first 50 adult customers receive a free $10 gift card and the first 200 customers receive a Dollar General tote.
More than 100 potential customers visit the new medical marijuana, Safe Alternatives, opened by Valley resident Leo Trudel. Trudel teaches business classes at UMFK as well, and also grows the medicinal pot in Eagle Lake and dispenses it in Caribou.
In addition to teaching business classes at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, Leo Trudel has owned Safe Alternatives, a medical marijuana operation for seven years. He first started in Frenchville in 2010, but now grows the medicinal pot in Eagle Lake and dispenses it at a new shop in Caribou. (Christopher Bouchard)
October
The City of Caribou has won top recognition for its annual report following judging by the Maine Municipal Association. The city earned a “supreme” or first-place, designation in the 5,000-and-over population category for producing the highest quality annual report.
The director and staff of the Caribou Public Library are surprised to receive a letter and a check for $6,000 to update the children’s room heating and air conditioning unit. The money is from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation.
The Caribou Kiwanis Club celebrated their 60th anniversary on Oc. 10 with an outing at the Tiki Bar Lounge in Caribou. Kiwanis New England and Bermuda District Governor Dan Bennett flew up from Boston for the celebration.
November
The Leapfrog Group, the nation’s leading nonprofit watchdog on hospital quality and safety once again gives Cary Medical Center an “A” grade.
The United Way of Aroostook, ACAP and WAGM-TV collect hundreds of donations totaling more than $43,000 during the Heating Homes with Helping Hands Telethon on Nov. 2.
December
A Yarmouth manufacturer donates Cuddledown bedding to the new Dahlgren-Skidgel Farm of Hope located on the old 12.5-acre parcel that once housed Phil Florist in Caribou.
Dr. Hans Duvefelt has returned to the area and joined the local Pines Health Service practice in Caribou and Presque Isle. He is a member of the AMA, the Maine Medical Association and the New Brunswick Medical Society.
Residents learn that a Dollar General and a laundromat are two new businesses coming to Limestone in 2018.
Thompson-Hamel marks 55 years in the estate planning, investment, insurance brokering and payroll services business.
