2021 challenged Maine businesses, and not just because of COVID
Courtesy / Britannica
In 2021, Portland landed on a list of the 50 worst U.S. cities for rat-control needs.
The ongoing pandemic underscored the bulk of the news for 2021, but other headlines spelled out challenges for Maine businesses too. Here's some of that not-so-good news.
COVID cancellations
With limited ticket sales and changing safety requirements for the pandemic, the Maine State Music Theatre canceled all of its shows this season except for one. The drama company called off productions of "Cinderella," "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Rocky Horror Show" at the Westbrook Performing Arts Center.
In addition to many indoor events like these, some outdoor events were scaled down, went virtual or canceled outright. The casualties included the Common Ground Country Fair, which was to be held Sept. 24-26 in Unity, and the Maine Whoopie Pie Festival, scheduled for Oct. 2 in Dover-Foxcroft. The events usually draw thousands of attendees and provide an annual boost for local economies.
A club no one wants to be in
Maine frequently appears on national quality-of-life rankings, but there’s the occasional numerical notoriety that no one wants to see.
Portland ranked No. 38 among U.S. cities requiring the most rat control services from a national vendor. Portland also ranked as the third-rattiest city in New England, after Boston, No. 13, and Hartford, Conn., No. 21.
In another unwelcomed ranking, Central Maine Power Co. scored lowest in a study measuring “the amount of trust customers have with each utility,” according to a Michigan human analytics firm, Escalent. The ranking showed customers had less trust in CMP than in 139 other utilities throughout the U.S.
By another measure, Maine also came up short.
Venture capital funding in the state totaled $18 million for 2020, down from $110 million during 2019. Maine’s 2020 total ranked No. 45, or the sixth-lowest, among those for all 50 states, and was the lowest in the Northeast.
Tough blows
Global food conglomerate Danone S.A., which owns the Horizon Organic brand, said in August it would not renew its contracts with any of the 14 Maine organic dairy farms that supply the $30 billion company. Danone later extended the contract date to Feb. 28, 2023, and offered some concessions. But the final decision to end the contracts remains the same.
In October, WEX Inc. (NYSE: WEX) and the town of Scarborough officially scrapped the $2.25 million tax break that helped forge the deal for a $50 million operations center. The plans for the center had been on pause for a year, but the death knell officially rang.
Meanwhile, climate change is an imminent reality to many coastal towns, with $645.5 million in York, Kennebunk and Wells properties shown to be at risk from rising sea levels.
The towns were seen as “highly vulnerable” to climate related property devaluation, according to a new report called “Tides, Taxes and New Tactics,” that looked at the effects of coastal flood hazards and suggested ways communities could improve their climate preparedness.
Fines and sentences
A Plus Truck Sales Inc. of Windham agreed to pay a $75,000 fine to resolve allegations of federal Clean Air Act violations, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in November. The fine closed the EPA's investigation of claims that the used-truck dealership tampered with emission controls on diesel vehicles from 2017 to 2019 by selling and installing aftermarket parts known as "defeat devices," in violation of federal law.
In April, a Dutch maker of so-called plugs used to grow plants agreed to pay a $137,294 penalty to settle charges by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that it violated chemical accident prevention rules at its former South Portland manufacturing site. Quick Plug SA, based in the town of Monster in the Netherlands, stopped operating in Maine in December 2020.
A former employee of Bath Iron Works was sentenced in October to three years of probation for filing a false document in relation to a workers' compensation claim. The defendant, 63-year-old Michael Collins of Scarborough, pleaded guilty to the charge in June. Besides the three-year probation, he was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge D. Brock Hornby to pay $12,683 in restitution to BIW.
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