As editor of Mainebiz, I get the opportunity to meet businesspeople from, we like to say, Kittery to Fort Kent. Recently, Mainebiz held the fifth of its “On the Road” series of networking events and roundtables, this time in Farmington.
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As editor of Mainebiz, I get the opportunity to meet businesspeople from, we like to say, Kittery to Fort Kent.
Recently, Mainebiz held the fifth of its “On the Road” series of networking events and roundtables, this time in Farmington.
Farmington has a nice downtown with good bones, as they say — with stately brick buildings, bustling retail establishments, lively night life. It is on a major thoroughfare, so anyone going to Sugarloaf likely passes through Farmington. The surrounding landscape mingles orchards and farms with 4,000-foot peaks. Farmington also has a University of Maine campus with 1,800 students and an energetic president, Kate Foster, and a payroll of $20 million. Farmington is a hub for Franklin County.
Yet, as we found during our day in Farmington, finding qualified employees in Farmington and a wide circle around the area can be challenging.
At our Mainebiz networking event, held at the bustling Homestead restaurant downtown, Robin and Jim Jordan, who own Robin's Flower Pot in Farmington, told me they struggle to find employees at their busiest times. Twice a year, in planting season and at harvest, they have to rebuild a team.
David Mitchell, a senior account executive from J.S. McCarthy Printers, said the firm is in constant need of help. It has a Bonney staffing agent embedded onsite in Augusta. It also recently hired four workers from Puerto Rico — not as cheap labor, as some might assume, but because they had applicable printing skills; they'll live in company housing.
In Wilton, down the road from Farmington, big employers like Barclays struggle to find qualified employees for call-center work, said Rhonda Irish, the town manager.
John Witherspoon, president of Skowhegan Savings Bank, says while many employers in Franklin County set out to find skilled workers, the sad fact is they will settle for anyone who can show up and pass a drug test.
That's not the first time I've heard that — and it's unfortunately a refrain that's heard throughout the state, perhaps more so the further north you go. We certainly heard it in Fort Kent, where we had an On the Road event in June, and at events last year in Houlton and Eastport.
So how can we resolve this?
Back to Kate Foster.
There may have been a time when university presidents shut themselves off from the outside world — hence the term “ivory tower” and the proverbial town-gown split.
But, as the Mainebiz team has seen at our On the Road events this year, we have had active participation from a number of college and university presidents, as well as leaders of community colleges. They are taking an active role in talking to us and getting the message out to our readers that they are engaged in workforce development, training students for specialties and working directly with companies to find out what's needed. Kate Foster is just one of the leaders making a difference.
With input from the business community, Maine's network of universities, colleges and community colleges will be a key part in resolving the issues we have in rural areas.
