PCEDC looks to revitalize Penquis Higher Education Center

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    BOWERBANK — The Piscataquis County Economic Development Council (PCEDC) business development and community development directors unveiled their goals for next year at the Nov. 19 county commissioners’ meeting, held at the Bowerbank fire station.

    While Janet Sawyer and Dr. Ken Woodbury outlined their list of proposals and successful economic development projects completed or under way (see separate story), the status of the Penquis Higher Education Center (PHEC) was a major topic of discussion.
    Basically, PHEC is suffering from lack of onsite staff and promotion, said the PCEDC officials.
    Sawyer, the PCEDC business development director, said her agency is working on a plan that “meets the needs of the entire county. We feel that federal and state funds will decline in availability … and if we want to grow as a county, retain our population and stop the out-migration of youth, any activity toward those goals needs to come from a strong effort right here.”
    This includes a “revitalization of the Penquis Higher Education Center (PHEC). We have no educational center to train or retrain citizens for the jobs and opportunities that are available in this rural area,” Sawyer said. “We feel that the gradual decline of the Penquis Higher Education Center is a detriment to this county and its growth.”
    Sawyer said that PCEDC’s goal is to “get UMaine, the community college system and the Piscataquis Valley Adult Education Center all working in that facility so people can get the training to make a living.”
    Sawyer is on the advisory board of EMCC, and said that she’s contacted the college to see what can be done. “Like everyone, they’re strapped for funds and have been spending their dollars where they get the most bang for their buck, which is in Bangor,”  Sawyer said. “But it’s our desire not to have Piscataquis County be an also-ran.”
    No county funds are used to run PHEC; all expenses are picked up by the UMaine System. But Sawyer said that when the center was fully staffed by director Merlene Sanborn and two administrative assistants, “They really promoted taking courses there, and that administration has been diminished. There’s just a part-time clerk there now.”
    While a few classes are being conducted via Polycom, an interactive system, Sawyer said that people “need to walk into a building that says ‘college’ and have that experience.”
    PHEC was created with strong support from the Maine Legislature in 2000 and opened its doors at the renovated elementary school on Mayo Street in Dover-Foxcroft two years later. The center has eight classrooms, a conference room, a gymnasium and the offices of PCEDC.
    Sawyer also said that retired SAD 4 Superintendent Paul Stearns, who is on the executive board of EMCC, has also pledged his support to revitalize PHEC.
    The county commissioners also took up some road issues at the Nov. 19 session.
    They unanimously agreed to resume plowing the road leading to Squaw Mountain Ski Resort for the upcoming season, based on the success of the mountain reopening last year with a volunteer crew.
    They decided not to take any action on two petitions recently presented to them about road conditions in Shirley and Willimantic-Elliotsville, and a request to plow a greater portion of the Hamm Road in Orneville.
    “I feel that the (Elliotsville) road is passable,” Fred Trask, chairman of the county commissioners said. “It’s not as good as it could be, but it would cost a tremendous amount of money for the town of Willimantic to make it a 45 mph road.”
    The other two commissioners, James Annis and Eric Ward, agreed and recommended that the town ask Phil Curtis of the Maine Local Roads Center for his evaluation. Curtis is a former state representative and offers free consulting services for municipalities on transportation issues.
    Trask said, however, that he hopes the county commissioner’s recommendations don’t set a precedent. “I hope we don’t have to do this with every county road we get questions about,” he said. Curtis also inspected a washed-out portion of the Shirley Road.
    The commissioners held a public hearing on a Hamm Road request a few weeks ago, but no one showed up except the county staff. Records show that the road was closed to winter maintenance 40 years ago, so the commissioners voted to keep the status as-is.