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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z G R E AT E R B A N G O R / N O R T H E R N M A I N E Dean Hospital in Greenville and Mayo Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft about 35 miles to the southeast. "We have to be very creative to retain our staff here." To build its local medical team, the hospital has joined forces with Mayo to create free in-house training programs for both certified nursing assistants and nurses. Participants become part-time employees during the program so they can hit the ground running later as new hires. Recent "Earn to Learn" gradu- ates include Amy Phillips Breton, now employed as a full-time nursing assistant helping patients with daily tasks such as bathing, getting dressed and walking. Open to a future in nursing, she says that "I love it all" and appreciates that "anyone who works here loves to teach and explain." Nikki Chadwick, vice president of education and preparedness at Dean and Mayo hospitals, believes that that being small is a selling point to job candidates. Even compared to Mayo, Dean is much more of a community where everyone knows everyone "and it's very easy to embed yourself and feel part of the cul- ture," she says. With around 35 registered nurses on staff, CA Dean will soon no longer have to employ travel nurses — which, due to agency fees along with transportation and housing stipends, can be three times as expensive. "at's going to be really exciting." Vienneau says. Dean Hospital is fully staffed despite challenges recruiting physicians in primary care as well as for specialties such as general surgery and orthopedics. To overcome the shortages, the hospi- tal sometimes calls on specialists from other institutions in the Northern Light system. It also offers telehealth services in behavioral health and dermatology and offers mammography screenings to women across the region via a $1 million mobile unit launched last year. Cuts in Medicaid funding for the entire sector could cast a cloud on finances going forward — one think tank estimates that Maine hospitals could lose as much as $66 million. "We are very concerned about what future cuts will bring, but we have certainly been challenged finan- cially and are making changes across our system," says Vienneau, who will take up a new role as president of Northern Light Mercy Hospital in Portland in early October. Housing pipeline Behind the hospital, a project is under- way that promises to help ease the local housing crunch. e $12.5 million plan calls for building 28 homes on 5.5 acres owned by the Northern Forest Center, a New Hampshire-based nonprofit active in the area for more than 25 years. While developers are still working out the mix of singles and duplexes and price points, the goal is to produce year- round homes that average wage earners can afford to buy or rent. "We see a lot of communities, as home prices go up and there's more demand for second homes, at risk of being hollowed out," says Mike Wilson, senior program manager and a founding member of the organization, which has grown from three to 25 staffers. "We're interested in trying to address the need for the long-term sustainability and viability of Greenville's community as a place where people live, raise fami- lies, have kids in the schools and engage in civic life – not a place that becomes only a place for second-home owners." Backers include CA Dean, which Wilson anticipates will be able to use the infrastructure the project is creating for additional construction on its property when the time is right. Trees for the Spruce Street Housing Project were cleared in a matter of hours in late July, save those that Wilson marked with orange tape that morn- ing. e plan is to get formal bids and contracts in place by this winter, start building next summer and wrap up in 2027, Wilson says. In an ideal world, Town Manager Mike Roy would like to see older resi- dents wanting to downsize to relocate to Spruce Street, freeing up larger homes for households with children. "We need young families to come with students to support the school, and we need workers," he says. Some extra snow plow drivers would come in handy, too. Renee Cordes, Mainebiz deputy editor, can be reached at rcordes @ mainebiz.biz Greenville at a glance Incorporated: 1836 Estimated 2024 population: 1,677 Location: Lower end of Moosehead Lake Fun fact: Henry David Thoreau chronicled his three visits to Greenville in "The Maine Woods," first published in 1864. F O C U S 13 A U G U S T 2 5 , 2 0 2 5 P H O T O / J I M N E U G E R Mike Wilson, senior program director of the Northern Forest Center, tags a tree for preservation on a tract in Greenville for the planned Spruce Street Housing Project. Construction is slated to start next year. Marie Vienneau, president of Northern Light CA Dean Hospital in Greenville and Mayo Hospital in Dover- Foxcroft, in a patient room in the Greenville hospital. P H O T O / J I M N E U G E R

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