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V I E W P O I N T S W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 3 S E P T E M B E R 1 6 , 2 0 2 4 From the Editor F or our focus on Augusta, Waterville and central Maine, there was an abundance of topics to tackle. For our cover story, Senior Writer Laurie Schreiber delved into a Farmington program that is cultivating entrepreneurs while they're still in school. e nonprofit Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. e co-op program "emphasizes entre- preneurship because it's important for youth to understand what it takes to operate a business," the founder tells Laurie. e center has forged part- nerships with "Maine Cabin Masters" and Maine businesses like OpBox. Now, expansion is on the horizon in Farmington. For more, see "Youth entrepreneurs," which starts on Page 12. Waterville's Main Street has seen an enor- mous amount of growth in recent years, helped by investment from Colby College and an influx of private capital. Staff Writer Alexis Wells spent time downtown talking to retailers about what changes they've seen and what's still needed. See Alexis's story, "New life coming to Waterville," which starts on Page 16. No doubt you've seen an influx of solar arrays as you drive around central Maine. Mainebiz freelancer Bridget Reed Morawski, who special- izes in energy topics, looked at the growing trend of farmers leasing out acreage for installation of solar panels — often vast arrays, covering substan- tial acreage. While a good source of revenue for farmers, there are growing concerns that Maine is losing valuable farmland to solar developers. For more, see "Farmers look to the sun," which starts on Page 20. Peter Van Allen pvanallen@mainebiz.biz Featured @ Mainebiz.biz For a daily digest of Maine's top business news, sign up for the Mainebiz Daily Report at mainebiz.biz/enews Get all the latest news from Maine's No. 1 business news source, Mainebiz, by subscribing to the Daily Report and Real Estate Insider newsletters. Here is the top content from Aug. 26 to Sept. 9: 1. Here are the 2024 'Best Places to Work in Maine' 2. Rockland's new port program aims to ease visits for cruise passengers — and local residents 3. Maine tops US list of home price increases over the past 5 years 4. Trout pond, grand entryway and colossal tent in the works as LLBean redevelopment continues 5. Bangor Savings Bank names SVP and controller 6. UMS grad school center in Portland's Old Port plans to expand next door, doubling space 7. Maine fashion brands call Portland their new home 8. Bath looks to build nearly 200 housing units along little-used corridor 9. Aroma Joe's opens location on Maine college campus 10. 49-unit workforce housing proposal in Falmouth heads to planning board Waterville's Main Street has seen an enormous amount of growth in recent years, helped by investment from Colby College and an influx of private capital. bernsteinshur.com Meet Josh. Josh negotiates some of the most sophisticated and complex technology and outsourcing transactions for clients of all sizes, including financial institutions, universities, software companies and cloud services providers. We're attorneys. But we're people first. Joshua T. Silver, Shareholder From Main Street to solar farms, central Maine is heating up 1

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