By Diane Hines
Houlton Rotarian
HOULTON — On Monday, June 1, the guest speaker for the Houlton Rotary Club was Bob Dorsey representing Aroostook Partnership for Progress (APP). Dorsey spoke about the focus and goals and progress of the partnership.
Contributed photo
ROTARY GUEST — Bob Dorsey, middle, was the guest speaker at the Houlton Rotary Club June 1. With Dorsey are Rotarian Dana Delano, left, and Rotary President Amy Hocking
The group has supported LD 826 which increased rural broadband and LD 750 which is about the mining rules development in Maine. Northern Forest Products Industry Cluster has been another effort as well as growing manufacturing such as the Norinco Rail Car.
In the planning stage is the 2015-2016 Teacher Awareness Summit. Diversified agriculture awareness is also being promoted by APP. A free website is http://opportunitiesaroostook.com/ to learn more about these efforts.
The goals and progress to date of APP involve First Wind being at the top of the list for new jobs at 157 jobs for the first half of 2014 and a report of 413 new jobs for the second half of 2014.
So far, in 2015 there are 134 new jobs. The economic potential is for forest, manufacturing, and wind development.
Going forward, Dorsey is looking at increasing collaboration with County groups, increasing participation among County businesses and the potential for economic development clusters.
The website for more information is www.appme.org.
