Staff Writer
FORT FAIRFIELD – The Fort Fairfield Chamber of Commerce will recognize both its Citizen and Business of the Year at the March 9 annual dinner.
According to Shawn Murchison, executive director of the chamber, this year’s Citizen of the Year is Philip C. Roberts.
“Philip is a Fort Fairfield native and has been a lawyer in this town for about 55 years,” said Murchison. “He’s served on several committees and has been involved in lots of projects in town. When they built the new high school he was involved in that, and he is very community minded.
“One of the big things that people know him for is that he goes to every single home sporting event there is,” he said. “Baseball, basketball, soccer … he goes to every home game and some of the away ones. He supports the athletic program very much.”
The chamber’s Business of the Year is McGillan, Inc.
“McGillan, Inc. is an earthwork construction company that is owned by J.R. McGillan and his wife, Janet,” said Murchison. “They’ve done a lot in the town … they helped with the community bandstand project, the pool project, the bluegrass festival site … they’re involved in a lot of different stuff, and are very community oriented.”
Murchison said the honorees were actually voted on by the community.
“This year it’s a little different … the community actually voted on these two awards,” he said. “We announced the idea at a couple of town meetings and put ballots at businesses all through the town. People just filled them out and returned them to my office.
“We got a pretty good response,” said Murchison. “We’ll try to do something like that again.”
The chamber’s annual dinner will be held at Mike & Maude’s Restaurant on Main Street in Fort Fairfield.
Social hour will be held at 6 p.m. with dinner (prime rib or baked stuffed haddock) being served at 7 p.m. The program will begin at 8 p.m.
The cost of the dinner is $15 per person.
Those interested in attending the chamber function are asked to RSVP by calling the chamber office at 472-3802 by March 5.
