Commissioners hear presentation on county tourism development

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — Tapping the multi-million dollar Maine tourism industry is a challenge, especially for inland areas like Piscataquis County.
    But some local representatives of organizations promoting tourism told the Piscataquis County Commissioners at Monday’s meeting that the time is ripe to encourage more people to visit rural Maine. “Instead of lighthouses and lobsters, we’re about lakes and loons,” said Janet Sawyer, the director of business development for the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council.

    Bryan Wentzell, the Maine policy and program director for the Appalachian Mountain Club, said that the primary goal of PCEDC’s Tourism Development Authority “is to figure the gap between what government can do and what businesses can do on their own … What can we do to get people to stay longer or come back again?”
    Roger Merchant said that the authority, which traces its roots in the county back to 2004, has also answered questions about whether tourism was compatible with forestry or other manufacturing. “The answer, of course, is that we can,” Merchant said. “We are not only rich in recreation sites, but in small town cultural heritage opportunities,” Merchant said. “Ultimately, this has a spinoff effect on businesses, 60 percent of which are associated with or benefit from tourism.”
    Ken Woodbury, PCEDC’s community development director, recapped some of the successful state and federal grants that have helped local tourism efforts. “These all take money — and Piscataquis County is not the place to go looking for money,” he said.
    Examples include a $32,000 grant to build the “missing link” that connects the ATV and snowmobile trail between the Prong Pond trailhead and Kokakjo. “This year, I’m expecting a $35,000 grant for a three-and-a-half mile section in Beaver Cove from the trailhead up to the Tussell Road,” Woodbury said.
    Bob Hamer, a former executive director of the Moosehead Lake Region Chamber of Commerce, said that the area “is always looking for niche marketing … and one thing we’re working on is a single-track, dedicated mountain bike trail system. That’s opening this spring, once the frost heaves go away,” Hamer said.
    Hamer added that in his view, much of the eastern part of Piscataquis County is not being marketed adequately. So a new website and Facebook page — www.mainewoodstourism.org — “will focus on areas that may be undeserved … there are waterfalls, fly-fishing areas, farms and farm stands, museums and much more.”
    New brochures to be distributed at the Chambers of Commerce in Greenville and Dover-Foxcroft and other public places are in the process of being printed and two major events are coming up for businesses and the general public.
    On April 22, the Maine Woods Tourism Training Initiative will host a seminar on making your business “motorcoach friendly” at the Guilford United Methodist Church from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. The fee is $8 per person and includes lunch.
    A major event taking place from May 16 to June 2 is a guided canoe trip retracing the expedition taken by Henry David Thoreau and his Penobscot guide Joe Polis. It will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the publishing of classic essay collection “The Maine Woods.”
    In other business at Monday’s meeting, commissioners approved the promotion of corrections officer Richard Blodgett to corporal as recommended by Sheriff John Goggin and Dave Harmon, the county jail administrator.
    Liquor license renewals were approved for North Woods Trading Post in Township 1, Range 9; Nesowadnehunk Campground in Township 4, Range 10; and Big Moose Inn Cabins in Township 1, Range 9.