SANFORD — Democrat gubernatorial candidate Elizabeth “Libby” Mitchell didn’t talk much when she met with the Sanford Regional Economic Growth Council Wednesday. What she did, for the most part, was listen.
Mitchell is the fourth candidate for governor to spend time in Sanford recently, meeting with the growth council to get a flavor of Sanford’s economic development plans and hear the community’s needs to advance plans for a thriving economy.
Later, she spent about 20 minutes with the Journal Tribune and Sanford News, talking about education and Sanford’s plan for the Great Works Technical and Career School and about the town’s quest for a connector to I-95 to help boost development.
Sanford is the state’s sixth largest community, according to the 2000 census, and could well be in fourth place once data from the 2010 census is out, growth council business development chief Paul Levesque told Mitchell. The town is smack-dab in the middle of York County, the fastest growing county in the state. The town has a long manufacturing tradition that continues, he said, but as school superintendent Betsy St. Cyr pointed out, the county’s largest manufacturers ”“ Pratt & Whitney, General Dynamics and others ”“ are on the look-put for trained workers.
St. Cyr said students and employers have both been short-changed when it comes to vocational and technical education. She advanced the community’s plan of a new school to provide an able, trained workforce.
Sanford Regional Vocational Center currently provides education to its own students and seven other districts in two, two-hour sessions daily. While the programs are successful and popular and there’s a waiting list, the two-year vocational offerings still fall short, she said.
Sanford has been working toward a four-year program for the last several years.
“The 1972 facility is inadequate to train students,” St. Cyr said.
Mitchell, speaking to reporters after the session, said the proposal is intriguing. She pointed out that school spending is currently at 2004 levels and said the focus on consolidation to save administrative costs seems to have overshadowed school construction. Mitchell didn’t make any promises, but said St. Cyr’s plan could be a model state-wide.
Bradford Littlefield, the town council’s representative to the growth council, said a connector to I-95 and the Maine Turnpike is vital for Sanford.
“We need better access to the turnpike,” said Littlefield, pointing out that companies eyeing Sanford often look elsewhere, where better access is available. Routes 111 and 109 just don’t cut the mustard, he said.
Growth council Chairman Robert Hardison said that available land for industrial expansion in York County is west of the turnpike.
Mitchell acknowledged Sanford’s isolation by not having a connector and said she was excited that the town is planning ahead.
“I understand the importance of getting goods to market,” she said.
Hardison, who has long been a trustee of Goodall Hospital, currently the town’s largest employer, said the next governor has to do more to pay the debt the state owes to hospitals statewide for providing care to MaineCare patients.
He said so far this year, 800 hospital jobs have been lost in Maine.
“Some day, the services will start to hurt,” he said. “The state has to recognize its obligation.”
“Fair enough,” said Mitchell, but she pointed out that over the last four years, the state’s debt to hospitals has been “pared down,” while at the same time there were cuts to municipalities.
Also on health care issues, Mitchell advocates immediate adoption of a provision in the new federal initiative due to go into effect nationally in 2014. The program would allow purchasing co-ops across state lines for health insurance to make it more affordable, particularly for small businesses.
Statewide, she said, what she’s hearing is the jobs issue ”“ from those who have lost a job to those who are still working but fearful.
She pointed out that Maine is not alone in the economic downturn.
“I hope people can keep hope,” she said.
— Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 or twells@journaltribune.com.
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