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Updated: September 16, 2024 From the Editor

Editor's Note: From Main Street to solar farms, central Maine is heating up

By Peter Van Allen

For 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. The nonprofit Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. The co-op program “emphasizes entrepreneurship because it’s important for youth to understand what it takes to operate a business,” the founder tells Laurie. The center has forged partnerships 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 enormous 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 specializes in energy topics, looked at the growing trend of farmers leasing out acreage for installation of solar panels — often vast arrays, covering substantial 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.

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