Lisa Hagen, executive director of the Damariscotta Region Chamber of Commerce and Information Bureau, stands outside the chamber’s recently renovated and reopened building in downtown Damariscotta on Monday, Oct. 9. Hagen, who will leave the post at the end of the year, said she stayed with the role to see the project to completion through red tape delays. (Elizabeth Walztoni photo)
The Damariscotta Region Chamber of Commerce and Information Bureau will see a change in leadership in the new year. Executive Director Lisa Hagen gave her three months notice last week, citing the long-awaited Sept. 28 completion of the chamber building’s renovation project and her plans for retirement.
“It’s been an honor and a privilege to be able to do this over the last couple of years,” Hagen said.
She joined the chamber as a board member, and after her term ended, then-board President John Roberts asked her to help with the chamber’s 2019 annual guide to the Damariscotta region, which she said is a three- to four-month project. After making record advertising sales, she took the executive director role in 2020 for three days a week with plans to remain semi-retired.
“The chamber had some real serious challenges ahead of it, and she spent yeoman’s hours straightening issues and doing it right,” Larry Sidelinger, president of the chamber board, said. “She was there every step of the way … we never had to ask if she’d be there.”
Her efforts and an engaged board have put the chamber on solid footing to move ahead, he said.
“She was the right person at the right time to lead the chamber,” Sidelinger said. “She’s done an amazing job.”
Hagen said she initially planned to stay in the position for a year or two, but red tape delays in the chamber’s building process changed her timeline. Ownership of the King Square parcel between Church and Vine streets took two years to straighten between the state and the town, which has since leased it to the chamber for 99 years.
Renovations of the 88-year-old building, formerly home to the Damariscotta Region Information Bureau, required extensive fundraising and an almost complete gutting of the interior.
“There is no way I would have ever in a million years left in the middle of a project that important,” Hagen said. “I was committed to it to the end.”
Hagen said the project was not just about a building to her, but community significance. She felt she left her signature on it with the paint colors and decoration inside.
“I was definitely up for the challenge,” she said. “It was interesting. I learned so much along the way,” from how much the community was eager to support the project to their memories of the building to the finer points of getting bricks engraved, she said.
Alongside the capital campaign, Hagen said the chamber’s relationship with Lincoln County Television, strengthened during the frightening times of the pandemic, was another highlight of her tenure.
She has now hosted over 80 of the channel’s “Chamber Chat” shows. Hagen also developed the region’s annual guide every year since 2019.
Membership has also grown steadily in 2023, according to Hagen, with 26 additions compared to occasional new members in the past.
Hagen said her three-month notice will make her available to help with the transition to new leadership, whom the board will hire and ultimately set future priorities with.
“We have an awesome board,” she said. “We keep improving things.”
Looking ahead, Hagen would like to see the chamber set new goals to keep on a positive track, focus on economic development, and attract young families.
In her full retirement, Hagen plans to spend time outside with her dog, explore the state, visit her family, and do some traveling. She will also step back from events, including Pumpkinfest and Villages of Light.
“It’s going to be important for whoever takes this position to be able to have those opportunities to do what I’ve done,” she said.
Though she expects to miss interactions with chamber members, she said living two minutes from town will make it easy to drop in and visit their businesses.
Board members are meeting weekly to develop a job description and plan to launch a search for her successor by the end of the month.
“We’ll miss her,” Sidelinger said. “She’ll be a hard act to follow.”
