Morgan presented an extensive amount of information on various grants that were available through the state of Maine for residential, municipal and business development. He outlined which loans were relatively easy to obtain and which were more difficult. According to Morgan, more and more grants are requiring matching funds from businesses and municipalities.
"It's typical that businesses will supply matching funds," said Morgan. "Typically, the matching funds do not come from municipalities."
Town officials were already aware that Berwick qualified for the Environmental Protection Agency's Brownfield grant program, which would apply to sites like Prime Tanning that present an environmental risk factor. However, there were several other possible grant programs that were brought to light at the June 18, meeting.
Many of the grants Morgan spoke about were part of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program.
One such program was the Maine Economical Development (MED) program, which invests in Maine's high-growth businesses. This program starts around $30,000 in possible grant funds. These grants are used to established venture capital funds that have a plan to retain or create jobs in Maine. At least 51% of the jobs created under this program must be filled by low to moderate income persons.
"With all the towns that I have worked with, filling that quota has never been a problem," said Morgan.
Morgan used Kennebunk as an example of a Maine town that benefited from the MED program. Kennebunk used this program to extend water and sewer lines to new businesses.
Other CDGB programs Morgan spoke about included the Micro-enterprise Assistance (MEA), and the Workforce Development Grant (WDG) program. The MEA grant offers a maximum of $25,000 to assist small businesses. The WDG program will award up to $100,000 to any business that creates a job training program which addresses the skill shortage faced by Maine employers.
"The beauty about the CDBG is almost every community in Maine is eligible for one of these programs," said Morgan. "However, most of these grants are very competitive and they have limited resources."
A program that came very strongly recommended by Morgan was the Pine Tree Development Zone program. This program works by greatly reducing state taxes for up to ten years for new businesses in Maine. In year 2011, there were over 300 Maine businesses that were part of this program. Eligible sectors included but were not limited to manufacturing technology, environmental technology, information technology and financial services.
"My personal feeling is every manufacturing business in Maine should be a part of this program," said Morgan. "It is available anywhere in the state and it's not a hard application."
However, not all the programs Morgan presented were grant programs. He also spoke about loan and bond programs from the Finance Authority of Maine and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"There is not as much activity in these programs because they are loan programs," explained Morgan.
The suggestion of Berwick taking on grants or loans to improve the downtown area, met serious opposition by planning board member Ken Poirier.
"Be careful about grants," said Poirier. "There is a town in Indiana that is in debt over the same thing Berwick is trying to do here."
Jessica Sheldon of the Downtown Vision Committee (DVC) was interested in exploring the idea of grants further and asked Morgan what steps needed to be taken to apply for these grants.
Morgan suggested that Sheldon and the other committee members obtain samples of applications to aid them in the process. Morgan offered to review any applications before they were submitted. He also advised the committee to do their home work, have data available and make sure of eligibility before going through the application process.
"These things take a lot of work," said Morgan. "So make sure you're eligible."
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Do you think Berwick faces this question?
I do think we face this question, with the closure of Prime Tanning we are already becoming a bedroom community, and taxes are rising because of the lack of business in Berwick. My comment to Mr. Poirer is that we need to change our thinking and take on some risk. I see that the possible gain for the community is worth it.
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