After more than 15 years of providing economic development and regional planning services for Lincoln County, Coastal Enterprises Inc. and Lincoln County are terminating their contract effective Sept. 30, three months earlier than anticipated.
The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners held a special meeting Thursday, Sept. 17 to vote to terminate the contract and cancel the fourth-quarter payment to Coastal Enterprises Inc.
Through the annual contract of $130,193, CEI has hosted the Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission, providing office space, internet and phone service, and covering the salary and benefits of the commission’s two employees.
Those two employees, Economic and Community Development Director Mary Ellen Barnes and Community Development Assistant Zach Mosher, will be brought onto Lincoln County’s payroll effective Thursday, Oct. 1, commissioners decided at the special meeting.
The cost of salary and benefits for the two new county employees for the fourth quarter of the county’s 2015 fiscal year are roughly equivalent to the discontinued $33,548.52 fourth-quarter payment to CEI, Lincoln County Administrator John O’Connell said.
The Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission intends to file for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, a lengthy application process which the commission hopes to complete by the end of 2016, Commissioner Hamilton Meserve said.
In the interim period, the commission will be brought in-house and considered a county department. “I think of it as an evolution,” Barnes said. “It’s an evolution of our relationship (with CEI).”
Lincoln County has contracted with CEI to provide economic development services for as long as Barnes could remember, she said. Those services were provided through the Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission, an organization that operated autonomously on county funds, in addition to grants, under CEI’s umbrella.
“We were hosted by CEI,” Barnes said. “They provided the space, all the things that come with the space, and we were considered CEI employees. It was a great partnership. They provided us great support.”
The Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission has its own board of directors, which determines the mission, vision, and budget of the organization. “Our funding came from our own funding sources,” Barnes said. “There was no CEI money in our budget.”
For the past couple years, CEI has prepared to move from Wiscasset to Brunswick – that move is now nearing completion with CEI’s buildings on Water Street for sale and the move planned for mid-October.
In preparation for the move, county commissioners purchased a building on Bath Road in Wiscasset for the commission’s new headquarters. The county received an unexpected windfall from the Maine Public Employees Retirement System, which changed its accounting system and closed the county’s long-standing account, enabling the purchase of the former chapel at 297 Bath Rd., next to the Sea Basket Restaurant.
The cost of the building was $141,918.12, well below its market value of $250,000, Meserve said. With the addition of renovations, the total cost of moving the regional planning commission’s headquarters to Bath Road is approximately $160,000, Meserve said.
The commission believed it had until the end of the calendar year to make the move to the new building. Lincoln County received notification from CEI on Sept. 16 the commission would have to vacate the building by October and that CEI wanted to terminate its contract with the county, requiring commissioners to schedule a special meeting to make arrangements.
Economic development and regional planning services will now be provided strictly in-house until the Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission achieves nonprofit status and becomes a stand-alone organization. The commission anticipates it will be contracted by Lincoln County to provide economic development services once it becomes an independent nonprofit.
With CEI packing boxes and preparing to shutter its buildings on Water Street, the abrupt move-out date and cancellation of the contract was not a total surprise, Barnes said. “It wasn’t so unexpected. It certainly wasn’t our preference, but it’s all going to work out,” Barnes said.
The synergy that came from aligning with CEI and having a daily face-to-face interaction with staff and clients from CEI’s other economic development programs will be missed, Barnes said. “The relationship will continue, even if it’s through emails and phone calls,” Barnes said.
According to Meserve, the county would like to transform the new building at 297 Bath Rd. to an economic development center and rent out the additional space in the building to fellow economic development organizations. According to Meserve, the space could also be used to host conferences and workshops.
The Small Business Development Center, also housed by CEI, will need a new home come October and is planning on also moving to the Bath Road location, Director David Hill said.
The Small Business Development Center is a federal Small Business Administration program, which is administered in Maine by the University of Southern Maine. The University of Southern Maine contracts administration of the Small Business Development Center in the Midcoast out to CEI, Hill said.
The Small Business Development Center will continue its contract with CEI, however, the center will remain in Wiscasset. With the center responsible for territory that stretches up to Belfast, moving to Brunswick did not make sense, Hill said.
While firm negotiations between Lincoln County and the center have not begun yet, Hill said he is unaware of any other housing option on the table. “We expect (the move) will go pretty smoothly,” Hill said. “We’re happy to be in Wiscasset.”
Despite the Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission’s new position as a county department, the work of the commission will remain the same, O’Connell said. The organization will continue to provide technical assistance to businesses and municipalities, carry out grant programs, promote sustainable eco-tourism, coordinate with other economic development partners, and perform the additional work outlined in the organization’s work plan.
The commission is hoping to be settled in its new building in early October, Barnes said. “The building is going to give us a lot more visibility, much more than we have now,” Barnes said. “We’re going to be able to promote the county much better from Route 1.”
Editor’s Note: This story has been changed to reflect a clarification. According to Mary Ellen Barnes, the regional planning commission was planning to move into its new building at roughly the same time CEI moved.
