About the INITIATIVE

Investments include seed monies for innovations at the health clinic and school; a new federal rehab facility; nearly fifty thousand acres of newly conserved and publicly owned lands; many thousands of acres of former paper company lands now in the hands of family owned (many with roots in the region and in Maine), community minded, working forest landowners; private cottage owners who invested life savings in upgrading dozens of lakefront cottages on formerly “leased land”; local business people who put at risk capital to diversify into much needed hospitality services; logging contractors and farm families who in the face of a declining economy continue to upgrade equipment, improve land and seek opportunities to diversify; and new owners of long held sporting camps wishing to carry on a lifestyle legacy. These are but a sampling of the underlying, unsung and, to a great degree, unplanned recent investments in the well-being and fabric of the Greater East Grand Region.

It is with a sense of urgency that we capitalize on these recent developments and take full advantage of prior investments and the region’s assets. Challenges and threats to the economic viability of the Region are real.

Confidence is high that our basic quality of life issues can be successfully sustained. State and federal decisions about critically important infrastructure, like high-speed broadband, demand that we must have a credible local voice of economic advocacy backed by a publicly approved platform from which to act. No one can do this for us.

As citizens of once flourishing settlements of loggers, farmers and entrepreneurs, we are reclaiming our rural heritage and true sense of community. As new-found pioneers, we are striving to build local and far-reaching partnerships in education and economic vitality to advance towards our 2030 vision.