Lubec works to get chamber back on track after two-year hiatus
Photo / Maureen Milliken
Lubec's downtown, seen in September; the town is making an effort to get its chamber of commerce back on track.
An effort is in the works to get the Lubec Chamber of Commerce up and running again, two years after the chamber dissolved.
The chamber’s newly reconvened nominating committee will meet today to nominate board members. A second meeting is scheduled for April 14 to elect the new board, interim president Heather Henry Tenan told Mainebiz.
“We’re moving full speed ahead,” she said.
While chambers of commerce in Maine are frequently lean in staffing, in the case of Lubec, the previous chamber was highly dependent on volunteers.
Tenan, co-owner the Eastland Motel in Lubec, is the last standing board member of the previous chamber. The chamber’s last president was Gale White, owner of Lubec Brewing Co.
“He has lots of energy,” says Tenan.
But when White twice tried to call meetings two years ago, nobody showed up, she said.
“Then he called me and said, ‘I can’t run the chamber by myself,’” she said. “Everyone is so busy here. It’s a tiny town and there’s a handful of people who are on every single committee. It’s hard to get people to volunteer in a community like this where the poverty rate is through the roof and most people work two or three jobs. Everyone is just trying to survive here.”
Without people to form a new board, the chamber “just kind of fell apart,” she said.
In the meantime, though, she kept the chamber’s Facebook page going.
“A lot of tourists follow that page and I didn’t want to lose that,” she said. “So any time anything of interest came up, I posted it.”
One last shot hits mark
A month ago, she put up a post and received a message from a local businesswoman who was curious about the chamber’s status.
“I said, ‘We need to have a chamber. We’re falling behind,” Tenan recalled.
Tenan pointed out the Lubec area’s many “claims to fame.”
“Lubec is the easternmost in the U.S. We have amazing lighthouses, Campobello [Island, across a short bridge, in Canada], an adorable downtown. I don’t want to let it all go. So when this woman posted, ‘What’s up with the chamber?’ I said I’ll give it one last shot.”
Tenan contacted a former chamber president, Jody Grimes.
“Jody took the ball and ran with it,” she said. “She and I coordinated a meeting with business owners about three weeks ago. We had almost 40 people show up. It was quite impressive. And those people said, ‘We’ll help. Let’s get it back up and running.’”
Despite the chamber’s inactivity, Tenan said Lubec has continued to receive recognition from publications.
“We still get a lot of press,” she said. “People still come here. Travel writers come here all the time.”
That success has resulted in new businesses opening over the past few years, including Morano's Authentic Pizza, Downeast Dragonfly Bar & Grill and HD & Sons Seafood.
The town’s economic development committee and board of selectmen have also been active in rehabilitating the downtown, which at one time had a number of dilapidated buildings, she said.
“So the downtown is cleaned up,” she said.
Tourism has expanded over the years, and her motel and other lodgings are often full through the summer, she said. Business owners in general direct tourists to other businesses around town.
“We don’t consider each other competitors. We‘re partners,” she said. “We need to capitalize on that with the chamber.”
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