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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 J U N E 2 9 , 2 0 1 5 For a daily digest of Maine's top busi- ness news, sign up for the Mainebiz Daily Report at mainebiz.biz/enews Get Maine's business news daily at mainebiz.biz and on Twitter (@Mainebiz). Below is some of the best from our online-only offerings: Featured @ Mainebiz.biz Feds give $2.7 million to Maine businesses The state recently announced that 13 Maine communities are receiving $2.7 million in federal funds through the Community Development Block Grant program. Learn about 11 of the businesses that will benefit and create new jobs as a result at mainebiz.biz/CDBG2015 Catch up on a big week for Maine startups The second annual Maine Startup & Create Week was held from June 21-28 in Portland, showcasing Maine's innovators, entrepreneurs and start- ups. Did you miss the conference or want to compare notes? Find all of Mainebiz's conference coverage at mainebiz.biz/MSCW2015 F or the past several years, Mainebiz has hosted events around the state under the umbrella of "On the Road." is year, "On the Road" will make six stops. is fall we'll be in Camden and Eastport. We've already been in Portland (granted, within walking distance), Biddeford, Bangor and, most recently, Houlton, four hours' drive from our offi ces. Houlton has great bones. So many towns, in Maine and across the country, are just a cluster of stores along a high- way. Houlton has a real downtown, the kind a movie direc- tor might choose for an "All-American" town. ere's the Gateway Bridge — a postcard-worthy, arched pedestrian bridge leading to the downtown. e downtown itself is on a plateau. Main Street is wide, the buildings are brick and substantial looking, as if the town center could weather anything. It refl ects a 19 th Century prosperity brought on by forest products and agriculture. Houlton's downtown reminds me of county seats in the Midwest with a broad Main Street and substantial brick buildings. Yes, they need more retailers downtown. Yes, there are fewer people to take advantage of a down- town. Yes, a weak Canadian dollar means fewer shoppers coming across the nearby border. But the makings of a great downtown are in place. A theme among Houlton businesspeople is that young people are leaving, saying they don't have any opportuni- ties in Houlton. While that's a theme throughout Maine, it is certainly more pronounced in an area that starts with a smaller pool of young people and is not attracting new residents. Houlton had 6,123 people and 2,556 house- holds in 2010, according to census data, down from 6,476 people and 2,677 households a decade earlier. Yet Houlton maintains a vibrant business community, as we saw in evidence at our recent "On the Road" event. Smith & Wesson, which is based in Springfi eld, Mass., has a plant in Houlton that has produced more than 9 million sets of handcuff s, as well as pistol parts, over the past fi ve decades, according to the plant manager, Scott F. Allen. e plant has 120 employees and has been refur- bished, including a state-of-the-art machine shop. Not surprisingly, some businesses are fi nding Houlton a good place to base a business, though that business may come from elsewhere. Kevin Brannen, who with his wife Kristi owns Spring Break Maple & Honey in Smyrna Mills, sells maple candies at L.L.Bean's fl ag- ship store in Freeport. He also stresses that, as with most maple syrup coming from Maine, much of theirs is shipped out to other states in 40-gallon barrels — in other words, to be packaged under a non-Maine brand name. Bison Pumps, a maker of stainless steel water pumps, does 80% of its business out of state and has dealers in Australia and Japan, says David Harbison, the Houlton company's president. Pleasant View Tree Farm owners Rob and Tammie Mulvey tell me the demand for Christmas trees con- vinced them to acquire a farm in Searsmont, nearly three hours south of their principal farm in Hodgdon. Among business leaders gathered at our "On the Road" roundtable, the theme came back again and again to keeping people in Houlton. Nancy Ketch, community development director for the town, said eff orts are under way to revitalize the down- town. She also mentioned the "Aroostook Aspirations" scholarship of $7,500 per student. Stan Meader, director of economic development for the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, said the tribe is off ering IT training among other job skills. And Jon McLaughlin, executive director of the Southern Aroostook Development Corp., talked about the need for companies and jobs to "get kids to come back." On that note, Dana Delano of Northern Maine Development Corp. in Caribou, cited Mainebiz's own "Credits & Debits" column as an example of how northern Maine sometimes thinks diff erently from southern Maine. " ings that might be a 'debit' down there might be a 'credit' here," he said, citing the recent debate over a bill that would have allowed for mining at Bald Mountain in Aroostook. " at might mean 350 jobs here." Peter Van Allen pvanallen@mainebiz.biz On the road again — and learning at every stop From the Editor Freeing the power of you. 207.623.1110 | www.allumbaugh.com Forget multiple insurance brokers, employee wellness programs, benefits, billing, regulatory compliance and COBRA. You simply want to be able to focus on what your business does best. The Allumbaugh Agency is a unique partner with a passion for the innovative looking to provide comprehensive, integrated benefit solutions, freeing the power of you. An inside look Get a digest of the state's largest commercial real estate transactions, industry movers and more in our weekly Real Estate Insider newsletter. Sign up at mainebiz.biz/enews.

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