Greenville businesses look to expand with help from CDBG

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    GREENVILLE — Two existing businesses in Greenville are looking to improve their facilities and another one will be starting from scratch next year.
    All three have one thing in common, however. They’ve applied for Community Development Block Grants which help businesses expand, improve or purchase equipment.

Observer photo/Mike Lange

    UPGRADING — The owners of Katahdin Cookie Works and Back Country Bake Shop are seeking a grant to buy new equipment and a delivery vehicle.

    If they’re successful, the businesses must create or retain a certain number of jobs and match the award with an investment equal or greater than the amount of the grant.
    Since the funds must be funneled through the town, residents must approve all applications at a special town meeting, which in the past have been a mere formality.
    That’s why the town has scheduled three public hearings within 45 minutes on Wednesday, March 4 starting at 6:15 p.m. to consider these applications: a $42,000 grant for Katahdin Cookie Works, a $50,000 request from Leisure Life Resort and a $600,000 application from Eagles Landing, Inc., which plans to demolish the old Black Frog Restaurant and replace it with a new building to be known as the Puckerbrush Bar and Grill.
    Kris Arnold and Todd Fagan opened Katahdin Cookie Works and Back Country Bake Shop on Lily Bay Road two-and-a-half years ago in a building that recently housed a print shop and was originally a service station back in the 1950s.
    They specialize in homemade cookies and pastries with local nicknames like Lily Bay Blueberry, Seboomook Snowdrift, the Chesuncookie, Mud Season Moose Tracks and Appalachian Trail Mix.
    Businesses has been great, Arnold said, so they’re seeking a grant to buy a new griddle, double oven, walk-in freezer and a delivery van. “We want to start serving breakfast and lunch to go. We’re doing deliveries now in our own vehicles,” she explained. “Eventually, we hope to open a café by adding onto the building. We’re far enough away from Pritham Avenue (Greenville’s main street) so we’re picking up a lot of traffic heading north.”
    Arnold said she has been baking since she was 9 year old, so Katahdin Cookie Works and Back Country Bake Shop “was something I’ve always dreamed of doing. When we first opened up, we sold out of everything on the first three days. I was calling friends in to help me in the kitchen.”
    The CDBG program is “really great for small businesses,” she added.
    Leisure Life Resort was built in 1974 and both the restaurant and motel are starting to show some age, said manager Kevin Adrien. “We want to replace the dining room windows and the roofs on both buildings,” he said. “The windows aren’t energy-efficient. Even when we cover them with plastic, you can still feel the air seep in.”

Observer photo/Mike Lange

    FUTURE BREWERY — This building in Greenville Junction will eventually be the Big Moose Mountain Brewery.

    Adrien said that the resort went through 10,000 gallons of fuel oil last year “and that’s really a huge expense for us.”
    He and his wife, Aureilie, have managed the resort for the past 17 years and business has been good, he said. “We do really well in snowmobile season and we’ve opened for lunch this year. The trails come right up to the back door,” he said.
    They also get a lot of repeat business, such as out-of-state state police diving teams that train in Moosehead Lake each winter. “They really enjoy coming up here,” Adrien said.
    The most ambitious project in the works for Greenville is Puckerbrush Bar and Grill, a longtime dream of David Clark of Alna, a retired Bath Iron Works vice president, and his wife, Robyn.
    He’s seeking up to $600,000 for construction and equipment for the Puckerbrush Bar and Grill, which will have a seating capacity of 80. “The old Black Frog had a pretty good following over the years, even though it’s fallen off recently,” Clark said. “But there’s a real need for a place in town with this much seating capacity. Even those who own other restaurants in town agree.”
    Clark said that the grant plus his personal investment “is going to be way over $1.5 million. It also requires me to create one job for every $30,000 in matching funds. I’ll have no problem doing that.”
    Clark also has purchased a building in Greenville Junction owned by the late Barbara Vincent that once housed a restaurant and dance studio. “We plan to open a brewery there,” he told the Observer. “We originally thought of brewing our own beer in Puckerbrush, but it would take up too much space. This building is big enough to hold the brewing equipment and eventually, a small brew pub.”
    Clark said that tentatively, it will be called Big Moose Mountain Brewery. “But right now, Puckerbrush is our top priority,” he said.
    Dr. Ken Woodbury, the former community development director of the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council, has also offered to help manage the grant process. Woodbury, a Greenville resident, is now town manager of Sangerville.

Observer photo/Mike Lange

    RENOVATING — The managers of Leisure Life Lounge plan to replace the roof on the restaurant and motel as well as the windows in the dining room.