Coverage to include towns in northern Penobscot County
CARIBOU — The Northern Maine Development Commission executive board of directors recently voted to expand the agency’s service area, which will now include the northern Penobscot County towns of Medway, East Millinocket, Millinocket, Mattawamkeag and Lee.
According to NMDC Senior Planner Jay Kamm, the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry contacted the NMDC, Washington County Council of Governments, Hancock County Planning Commission, Kennebec Valley Council of Governments, and the Midcoast Regional Planning Commission to “see if there was any interest in covering land use, technical assistance in the towns that were formerly served by the Penobscot Valley Council of Governments.”
“The Maine Department of Agriculture was concerned that those municipalities haven’t been covered under a land use technical assistance contract,” Kamm said at an April 14 board meeting. “They have some issues, and were hoping that regional councils could come together and meet those needs.”
Since it is too far from away from their service area, Washington County Council of Governments was not interested in servicing the area, Kamm explained.
Kamm told the board that, after speaking with NMDC Executive Director Bob Clark and Planning and Development Division Director Alain Ouellette, they found they had an interest in the available communities.
Moving ahead, NMDC’s plan is to contact municipal officials from each area, let them know that they are available, and to determine what their land use issues are as well as community needs.
The contract is currently small, as the Department of Agriculture and regional councils are still in the process of determining the best approach.
“I believe it’s about $221 per community,” Kamm said. “It’s not a lot of money, especially when you have to travel two hours from our region here in Caribou to those areas. We know that the Small Business Development Center is providing assistance to Medway, East Millinocket and Millinocket, so we do have a working relationship with those communities.”
The senior planner added that NMDC had some contact with town officials of the aforementioned communities when they were doing the community garden planning and zoning effort.
While the board will not be able to physically serve these communities or attend planning and selectboard meeting, they will provide services via email and telephone. Kamm says that officials from the aforementioned communities are invited to attend any workshops held by the board.
“If they are willing to travel, then we are certainly willing to host them,” said Kamm. “The thought is that this could lead to additional services in 2018.”
