Elbridge Russell: Bottling plant would be a resource-based business – Conway Daily Sun

To the editor:

The Fryeburg area historically has been a natural resource-based economy. Having lived here for 50 years, I have seen six lumber mills close (two in Fryeburg) within 15 miles of town, and most of our local farms have stopped farming. These businesses had provided real estate taxes to run our schools and towns. These mills and farms provided many good jobs and employment for trucking operators delivering raw materials and picking up finished products. It has been very disheartening to see my three children and many of their friends choose to leave our communities to find good-paying jobs with benefits elsewhere.

A possible Poland Spring bottling plant is a resource-based business with up to 80 good-paying jobs with benefits. This really translates to 80 families being supported with income and healht insurance. That could be up to 400 people plus independent contractors and suppliers.

These are good permanent jobs that would keep and attract young people to our communities, jobs that cant be relocated because you cant move the natural resource.

We should invite companies that bring new dollars from outside the state to set up shop with us, especially when they offer clean long-term employment. The water they would bottle is replenished by rain and still ends up in the Atlantic Ocean Basin. With a railroad system nearby they could reduce the amount of traffic on our highways.

Some discussion has been made that Poland Spring is owned by a multinational corporation.

Some of our best companies, like Dearborn, are now owned by multinational corporations. Hunting, a multinational, and Harmac Steel are now owned by people from away.

If a spring water bottling plant was built here, it couldnt just relocate and go away. Currently, Poland Spring is permitted and allowed to extract water in Freyburg. So, they will use this water either by trucking it to another bottling site or establishing a new bottling plant here and bringing security of jobs and income.

I would look forward to having a new, sustainable business in town that offered young people a future, a company that would contribute to our tax base with real estate and business property taxes which would help fund our schools and towns.

Elbridge Russell

Fryeburg

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Elbridge Russell: Bottling plant would be a resource-based business - Conway Daily Sun