Common Ground forum focuses on attracting residents to Park

LAKE PLACID | While in the process of moving from Boston to a decaying mill town in 2009, Jessica Masse and her husband would attempt to conduct business over a dial-up internet connection that, in most of modern America by then, had already gone the way of the Model T. "He'd send a file before he went to bed at night and we'd cross our fingers that it would make it by morning," Masse said. Short of that, the next best option was to hand off a flash drive to a citybound bus driver. But the lesson wasn't just that rural communities need broadband to thrive. It's that an infusion of fresh blood can turn a community around, raising the fortunes of newcomers and native residents alike. Masse and two other citizens of Millinocket, Maine, (courtesy of a broadband video connection that now serves the town) shared their experiences March 25 in a forum sponsored by the Common Ground Alliance, whose diverse membership has the goal of improving life in the Adirondack Park. The Alliance, formed in 2007, develops an annual Blueprint for the Blueline, which this year focused on attracting a new generation to the Adirondack Park whose economies and ideas would cross-pollinate with those who already call the mountains home, creating a new vibrancy for all. Millinocket, a town of about 4,500, peaked a half-century ago when the Great Northern Paper Company's mill churned out nearly a fifth of the nation's newsprint. But the company filed for bankruptcy in 2003, leaving a discouraged populace unsure of what to do next. There are echoes of Millinocket in the Adirondacks, where a wave of mill and mine closures began in the 1970s. The Adirondack Park has attracted its share of newcomers, but they have tended to be of retirement age, bringing wealth but not commerce or growing young families. Recent surveys by the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism (ROOST) have indicated that younger people would be happy to move if they had the opportunity for work — which the pandemic just might have provided, as many jobs have by necessity become transportable. Millinocket has successfully rebranded itself as "Maine's Biggest Small Town" and the gateway to Mount Katahdin, bustling with opportunities for recreation, solitude and the opportunity to do things differently. Masse described the local watering hole as at times resembling the bar scene from Star Wars, with a variety of artists, writers, anglers, hikers, and adventurers rubbing elbows and exchanging ideas. Millinocket transplant Matt DeLaney felt stifled by the bureaucracy of Wester New York Libraries, so the opportunity to revive the Millinocket Memorial Library, which had gone to seed as patrons and funding dwindled, was a chance to make a difference. Many urban people who end up in places such as Millinocket are outdoor adventurers at heart, the chief difference with the native population being their ability to write grants. DeLaney brought the library back from the dead, where it now lends not just books, but boats, bikes, and backpacks. Lucy Van Hook, Director of Community Development for the nonprofit group Our Katahdin said a common purpose is critical to uniting people of different backgrounds and philosophies. "We had a lot of oars in the water, but we were spinning around because we didn't have a common goal to work for," she said. Van Hook and Masse stressed the need to understand and work with local residents, many of whom were damaged both economically and emotionally from losing the mill and their way of life. "It took a lot of listening on our part," Masse said. "For them, every time change came around the corner it meant loss. But listening and being inclusive goes a long way."

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Common Ground forum focuses on attracting residents to Park

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