The Idexx TIF is a wonderful opportunity for Idexx and Westbrook to work together. Obviously, more good paying jobs in our city is a good thing. Increased tax revenues generated by Idexx’s development will help take the pressure off all of us residential taxpayers.
This also presents a unique opportunity for our students. As we were finalizing the TIF language, I asked the administration to arrange a meeting for me with representatives of Idexx to discuss their increased involvement in our schools. I thank the administration for helping to arrange that meeting. I also thank Superintendent Stan Sawyer, Assistant Superintendent Jan Breton and the science teachers for their excellent suggestions about how Idexx could work with our schools.
My message to Idexx was simple: we need you. We need you to show our students what is possible if they study math and science. We need you to fire their imaginations. We need you to help us develop the next generation of mathematicians and scientists, some of whom, we all hope, will come back to Westbrook. I am pleased to report that Idexx is as excited about this opportunity as we are.
Idexx, the schools and the city are in the process of working out the details of this cooperation. The broad outlines of what I suggested to them were mentoring at the high school and junior high school levels and age-appropriate science modules in the K-5 grades. Idexx also mentioned a scholarship for a high school student, which is a wonderful idea. We are also considering creating a biotech program at Westbrook’s vocational school. Since we have received the good news that we will receive state aid for a new or renovated junior high school, I would love to see a center for innovation at a new junior high school. We lose so many students at that age. A hands-on opportunity to learn and experiment would help make a new junior high a true jewel. We can do it, in partnership with Idexx and our other science-based companies in Westbrook.
A center for innovation would also help us attract new tech and bio-tech companies to Westbrook, which brings me to the final benefit of the TIF: further economic development. We hear from many of our businesses that they want to be clustered with similar businesses and even with their competitors.
One of the things I told Idexx is that they know the players in their field. We don’t. Tell us whom we should contact and help us prepare the materials necessary to go to them and convince them that they want to be a part of what’s happening in Westbrook. In this coming budget, we need to fund a marketing budget, including marketing targeted to specific business fields, like tech and biotech. This new partnership with Idexx should not be the last step. It should only be the first step in attracting cutting edge businesses to Westbrook while also growing our own.
I look forward to working with Idexx and the other science-based businesses in our community to accomplish these goals. We also have wonderful opportunities to work with our citizens and businesses in other areas, too. Just one example is working with the talented artists and writers in our community to foster the creative arts in our schools and a creative economy in our city. But I’ve taken enough of your time for now!
Brendan Rielly
Westbrook City Council President
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