The other day, I saw an application for the Joint Economic Development Council on the Boothbay Town Office website, so I decided to apply.
When I delivered my application to the Town Office, I was told that the JECD was no longer in operation, which was consistent with my impression that they disbanded during Covid. I said I am submitting it anyway because the municipal ordinances being enacted by the state need to be addressed.
Since the former JECD was naught but dismissive of me when I approached them, the fact that they had officially disbanded was good news. It is an opportunity for a different economic development council to form.
(Maine constitutional) Home Rule means local authorities have control over matters local and municipal in character. Maine could serve a wider diversity of people and cultures if we were governed by our Constitution instead of the centrally managed economy that is being implemented as a ubiquitous class-structured grid over all of Maine.
I am used to receiving no response when I approach institutions and organizations, and, likely, my application will once again receive no repsonse but if others submitted applications as well, it would be more likely to receive a response.
The last council was composed of the Town selectmen and some other standard pillars of local leadership. The Town selectmen in Boothbay have an established history of hostility toward the small business person and of laying out the red carpet for anyone with concentrated wealth. I won’t go into it, but several of the projects advanced by our local oligarch are failing in ways that will cost the public a lot of money. It’s a good time for a different sector to have a voice in community development.
Individual and small business voices have been systemically excluded from state-sponsored economic development forums for years! The Foundation for Community Development will not permit individuals and small businesses to submit proposals, so there is a void that needs to be filled by a forum.
My plan is local, designed for a specific local community, which is what Home Rule means in practice. Every Maine community is unique. State management cannot grasp that! Communities can create unique identities and opportunities.
This is the application form, which oddly says it is for the Town of Bristol at the top of the page, but is identified as the Town of Boothbay on the Form.
These are the Questions on the Form and how I answered them.
Please describe your interest in serving on this committee:
I am interested in advocating for the Boothbay TIF zone, defined as serving economic development purposes, to be designated as a small business development zone that permits businesses in a home, excepting short-term rentals, which would be prohibited in the TIF Zone going forward. The TIF Zone already includes the Industrial Park, and so this designation is consistent, but it needs a stronger definition.
The recently enacted State-municipal ordinance, LD997, states
Municipalities shall allow residential units within buildings located in an area zoned for “commercial use”, including, but not limited to, buildings that are vacant or partially vacant retail property, except when a municipality determines that flooding or other natural hazards in the zone makes a building located in an area zoned for commercial use unfit for residential use. For purposes of this section, “commercial use” means the use of lands, buildings, or structures the intent or result of which is the production of income from the buying or selling of goods or services. “Commercial use” does not include a home-based business, the rental of a single dwelling unit on a single lot, or incidental sales of goods or services as may be allowed by permit or standard.
Since the state municipal ordinance excludes businesses in a home (other than STRS, which are permitted in “commercial” zones by LD 997) and since LD 997 excludes makers of goods from the same provisions permitted to businesses that buy and sell goods, there is a need for an economic development zone that permits the same allowances for designer-makers of products as LD 799 extends toward businesses that buy and sell products.
The “economic development use zone” excludes neither businesses that buy and sell a product, nor businesses that make products. The reason for excluding STRs is that they drive up the cost of housing and make it difficult for the working classes to find affordable spaces to start and operate their own businesses. There has been a significant movement of workers breaking away from corporate culture. Banning further short-term rentals from the TIFF Zone would make housing more affordable in the district and attractive to that movement, which is perfectly scaled to a small rural Peninsula environment.
The “Priority zones” mandated by state-municipal ordinances cater to large developers who have produced undersized units that do not provide enough space in a home for a small office, where a remote worker can find the peace of mind needed to do remote work. The economic development zone would favor the development of spaces that cater to the entrepreneurial demographic of the middle class.
I am also promoting the formation of a non-profit organization called “Land to Individuals” which would purchase land to be sold at affordable prices to the individual occupants who develop the land themselves, which would be made affordable by cutting out the middle man (the large developer who does not themselves live on the developed land), This approach is consistent with the historical New England lifestyle.
Thirdly, I am promoting the establishment of a Museum of American Designer Craftsmen in the region, which might also be located in the TIF zone, where it would function as a community center for the designer-maker community. Museums are educational institutions, but are not funded by property taxes, and so can take the burden of funding industrial job training in the public school system, off of local property taxpayers.
I believe that the economic development goal of a water-challenged peninsula should target slow to moderate growth, which can be achieved by appealing to small entrepreneurs rather than a large corporate culture. I am very pleased that a bill has been introduced in the Maine Legislature to impose a moratorium on new data centers that use more than 20 megawatts of power, lasting until mid-2028 until a study is completed that identifies strategies to protect electric ratepayers, grid resilience, and the environment from potential negative impacts, such as high water usage for cooling and increased electricity rates.
We need a similar approach locally, particularly with our water supply. The solution has been floated to hook up with the water supply in Bath, but a data center has also been floated for Wiscasset. Data Centers require enormous amounts of water and would pose competition for the Peninsula’s access to the water supply in Bath. Therefore, slow and moderate is a much more sensible approach in this great transformational era in world history.
Large shifts in the job market are looming in response to AI, which is also standing on wobbly ground itself due to massive overleveraging. No one knows where this will lead. This time around, the industrial revolution is targeting the “cognitive” industries. For example, coding can now be done by AI, which can even design its own next evolution. Jobs that were once paths to a secure and stable income are being shed, but one industry AI can’t do, by definition, is handmade manufacturing. Those entering educational institutions or repositioning themselves in the job market will be assessing which opportunities have longevity in an era when technology changes the job market at lightning speed.
Please provide any background information that would be of interest to the Town when considering your application, including previous service or other relevant experience.
I was raised on the Boothbay Peninsula since 1952, when my parents, Weston and Brenda Andersen, established a ceramic art, design, and slip cast production company operating as a business attached to the home. In those days, the enterprise was called Ceramics by Andersen. It was the first ceramic studio in the Boothbay Region, around which a cluster industry emerged. The business produced its products from locally sourced raw materials, developing original ceramic bodies, glazes, decorative techniques, and forms, including two lines, functional form line and a line of wildlife sculptures. The Andersens taught the skills of ceramic making, on the job, to the women who formerly worked in the fish packing industry.
Andersen Design, as the enterprise came to be called, developed a national and international wholesale and retail market across the USA that included individual collectors, main street gift shops, museum stores, department stores, and Toyota in Japan, and a department store in Denmark as well as producing many items used as rewards in non-profit fundraisers, numerous catalog accounts including the Smithsonian in which the Gentle Sandpiper was a number one seller for over thirty years.
Despite this, as a small-scale production, Andersen Design never oversaturated its market.
Situated in East Boothbay, Andersen Studio was the first location that many members of the Ocean Point community would visit when they came to Town, so they told us. The public started collecting Andersen in the 1950s and passed the collections down through the generations. The market viability still exists, but the production facility does not.
Andersen Design revolutionized the production process by individualizing it, using the unique quality of the artisan hand to create a line in which no two products were alike, and this is why a network of small, individually owned production studios is a better environment for producing the Andersen product than a large factory.
As the sole custodian of the productivity assets of Andersen Design, I would like to place the original molds, body, and glaze recipes in a trust with established legal terms of agreement so that the line can be produced by individually owned studios, which can be in or attached to a home or as independent structures. This would help others to establish ceramic-making businesses, as the Andersen Design brand can provide an income stream to designers and makers, mold makers, and marketers.
Establishing such a community would be a draw for many types of skilled makers, in many types of mediums, young and old, especially if the museum is established as the focal point of a 21st-century cottage industry village.
Ceramics have fascinated humanity since the dawn of civilization. Ceramic technology is also used in emerging technologies. It will survive.
Andersen Design’s assets can uniquely position a community that hosts a ceramic network in these uncertain times.
Are you aware of any conflicts that may arise, affecting your service on this committee?
As stated, I have a special interest in placing the assets of Andersen Design, but I have also experienced discrimination against Andersen Design, mainly due to being a small, privately owned free enterprise. In my experience, there is no one on the Council representing the interests of my industry and the broader small entrepreneurial community that is not specifically in the tourist industry. The Council description says it includes business owners, which should be inclusive of the full range of businesses on our Peninsula, including those that make products.
For context: I previously approached the JECD about supporting the Museum of American Designer Craftsmen, which was fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas and would serve as an educational institution and community center. As a local property taxpayer and business owner, I was told the JECD “can do nothing to help individual businesses” and to “get help from your own peer group.” I’m applying because I believe the JECD should represent the full range of businesses on the peninsula, not only those aligned with large-scale development interests. If there are concerns that my participation would create conflicts, I’m happy to recuse myself from votes related to Andersen Design specifically while contributing to broader economic development policy discussions.
Are you able to commit to regular attendance?
Yes
Posted online HERE
Should anyone respond to this Call to Action, It would be appreciated if you provide a link to your application in the comments so that the group that is potentially forming can be visualized.