Sea change | Collaboration overtaking rivalries in the development of two Midcoast towns
Photo/David A. Rodgers
New Camden-Rockport-Lincolnville Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Dan Bookham is looking to enhance the region's business attraction
The attractiveness of two neighboring Midcoast towns was once summed up in a single phrase: “Camden by the sea, Rockland by the smell.” The saying juxtaposed the quaint, picturesque character of Camden against the gagging odor that blanketed Rockland in the 1980s courtesy of a fish waste processing plant. Camden had schooners, Rockland had fish guts. But today, Rockland is recognized as the “Schooner Capital of the World,” and gives Camden a run for its money as one of Maine’s well-known tourist attractions. But with the economy faltering, the longstanding rivalry between the municipalities has many thinking cooperation instead of competition. Promoting Camden’s yuppie-friendly atmosphere and Rockland’s working-class roots as distinct but regionally tied assets seems to be the talk of the towns.
One fresh perspective, in a region populated with fourth- and fifth-generation residents, is Dan Bookham, a 35-year-old British expat who on Jan. 5 took over as executive director of the Camden-Rockport-Lincolnville Chamber of Commerce. An interim director filled the slot after the somewhat mysterious departure last year of the previous director, Claire Adams. Talk persists that the chamber could merge with the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce, which is headquartered in Rockland and still led by an interim director. But Bookham is focused on helping the area prosper through steady and sustainable economic growth. “Chambers of commerce, town government, even state government, really works best when we lay the groundwork and create the atmosphere for businesses to succeed,” he says. “We shouldn’t be trying to determine what shape it will take.”
The Camden Select Board recently formed a panel, the Camden Community and Economic Development Committee, to guide the town’s economic development strategy. It’s a consolidation of sorts after a boom of business groups in town, which also include the Camden Downtown Business Group and Camden Area Futures. “When you see them proliferate is when the economy gets weak,” says Jack Williams, a senior vice president at Camden National Bank. Rockland’s success has revved up the “competitive juices” in Camden, and a regional cooperative spirit is beginning to take hold, he says. Boston Financial Data Services Inc. in June announced plans to expand to Rockland Harbor Park on Water street, one of many recent successes in the region, Williams said. “I just think that we’re beginning to overcome the parochialism of the past,” he says. While such groups focus on the microscopic details of economic development, the Knox-Waldo Regional Economic Development Council has stepped in to promote the overarching attributes of the region, says Williams, a member of the group, which also represents Belfast. Another breath of fresh air has arrived in the form of Rosemary Kulow, he says, who started as Rockland’s city manager on Jan. 20. She’s learned few details of the longstanding rivalry between the towns, Kulow says. “It’s better not to know, isn’t it?” she quips, adding that a regional approach to development is high on her new agenda.
People often mention vacant storefronts when discussing the business health of Rockland and Camden. Careful to avoid one-upmanship, Bookham points out that Rockland has seven empty storefronts between the Farnsworth Museum and the ferry terminal, while Camden has six vacant sites along a similar distance on Main Street. “You’re talking about bringing businesses in to relocate when the economy has been through a meat grinder,” he says. Bookham points to recent successes including development of the Camden Snow Bowl and progress on exposing the attributes of the former Apollo Tannery site, which the town acquired six years ago through a tax lien foreclosure.
In Rockland, economic development types are eager to talk about expansion at seafood processor Oak Island, the city’s bid to be included in the Main Street Maine downtown revitalization program and its neck-in-neck race with Owego, N.Y., to be named America’s Coolest Small Town by Budget Travel magazine. Rockland was ranked first but just dropped into second place by 100 votes. “Oh no!” Lorain Francis, the chamber’s event and visitor center manager, exclaimed as she viewed the online tabulations. “We’re going to have to do something about that.”
In its most recent newsletter, the Camden chamber encouraged readers to cast their votes for Rockland, under the heading “Support our neighbors, support our region.”
It’s a long way from “Rockland by the smell,” the put-down that even Frank Isganitis, a New Jersey transplant who arrived in the area only five years ago, knows well. A secretary on the chamber board and co-owner of the LimeRock Inn in Rockland, Isganitis describes himself as a “big, burly cheerleader for collaboration.” He reels off a list of economic development successes, including attracting cruise ships, Hyannis-based Cape Air’s new flight service from Rockland to Boston and healthy ridership on Maine Eastern Railroad. Rockland shares with Camden and Belfast an “authentic” Maine coast that tourist-heavy Bar Harbor just can’t offer, he says.
A strong sense of collaboration has emerged under the weight of economic turmoil nationally, Isganitis says. “It doesn’t matter whether I’ve been here five minutes or five generations,” he says, “we’re all looking for economic development for the region.” What little relevance parochialism once had is eroding with the recession, Isganitis says. The property boundaries of each town will continue to blur as today’s economic development efforts gain traction, he says. “It’s all of us recognizing that the impact is going to go far beyond our geographic boundaries.” That narrow vision is giving way to a new horizon of collaboration, Williams says. President of the Rockland chamber in the early ’80s and a 27-year veteran of Camden National, Williams has witnessed the evolution of the two towns. “Even our chambers are starting to talk about cooperative ventures,” he says. “It is beginning to take hold.”
Jackie Farwell, Mainebiz staff reporter, can be reached at jfarwell@mainebiz.biz.
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