Accessing Maine #259

Lucas St. Clair:

highlights from this week's program, but I think a lot of it is fear of the federal government and fear of change and the unknown because there hasn't Maine has so little public land. Federally owned land is like 4% of

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

the state of Maine.

Lucas St. Clair:

The rest is private. So when you compare that to Western states, Washington, Oregon are over half federally owned.

Susan Corbett:

We are committed to making sure that every home and business here in Maine has connectivity. Right now there are about 2% of homes that have zero access to broadband connection. That comes to about maybe 20,000 or so homes based on U.S. census. And then if you think about all the homes that are not included in U.S. census, like our seasonal homes, we're probably doubling that number.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Lisa Bellio and you are listening to Love Maine radio show number 259, accessing Maine, airing for the first time on Sunday, September 4th, 2016. How do we help people live, work and play in Maine? By providing improved access to the outdoors and virtual connectivity to the greater world? Today's guests are helping create this access. Lucas St. Clair is proposing a new national park on land that his family's foundation will donate. And Susan Corbett, President and CEO of Axiom Technologies, is bringing broadband to the most rural parts of our state. Thank you for joining us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Today on Love Maine Radio, we have with us Lucas St. Clair. Lucas was born and raised into a subsistence living family in the Northwoods of Maine. With no running water or electricity for most of his childhood, he left that lifestyle to attend a boarding school in the western mountains of Maine and went on to study abroad. Pursuing a culinary arts degree at Le Cordon Bleu in London, Lucas worked in the beginning of his career in the restaurant and wine industry in New York City, Maine and Seattle. In 2011, Lucas took over his family's operating foundation, Elliottsville Plantation, Inc. EPI owns 125,000 acres of timberland in northern and central Maine that they have been purchasing since 1998. They have been managing the land and adding infrastructure for recreation over the last several years. The goal is to create a national park and recreation area with the land by donating it to the National Park Service and passing legislation to authorize it. Thanks so much for coming in.

Lucas St. Clair:

Thanks for having me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You actually have a really interesting story and there's so many places that we could pick up on in this Part of what I'm really interested in is this whole subsistence family that you came from.

Lucas St. Clair:

Yeah, so my parents were living on the west coast in California. My mom went to art school at the San Francisco Art Institute. And they in the late 60s, started reading about Helen and Scott Nearings living off the land here in Maine. And my grandfather, my father's father was a steel salesman for Bethlehem Steel and his territory was northern New England and in the early 50s built a camp on Parker Pond in the Belgrade Lakes. And so my dad as a young boy would come up and spend time there. And so there was this connection to Maine and they weren't sure whether they wanted to leave the West Coast. They had a couple thousand dollars to buy land. They wanted to live off the land somewhere. Looked at California and Oregon and Washington was too expensive. So they went to Vermont and a real estate agent in Vermont said, you know, for a couple thousand dollars to buy land, the only place you can really do it is northern Maine. And so that's where they headed and built a cabin in the woods In Piscataquist County. My twin sister and I were born there. And it was quite an existence. I mean, it was very rural and rustic and they lived like that for 13 years. But it was a great place to grow up and a great way to grow up. You know, we didn't know any. We didn't know about television, we didn't know about electricity. So we didn't miss it, you know, and so we just got to spend a lot of time outside and it was very healthy. You know, we ate very well and we got to spend a lot of time outside playing. And really it's the best, best way to grow up, I think.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Were you homeschooled?

Lucas St. Clair:

No, we went to public school for a bit. We went to sort of like a co op school that's friends of my family's friends. And they all started together and they sort of bounced around schools in Piscataquis County. My parents were divorced when I was 4 and so that sort of. We sort of split up then until high school. And then I went to Gould out in western Maine.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So what was that transition like?

Lucas St. Clair:

It was a little strange. I mean, going from rural Maine to. I mean, staying in rural Maine, but exposed, you know, my freshman year I went to the dorm and my roommate was from Hong Kong and was still learning English. And, you know, it was quite a transition, but it was great, you know, it was great exposure to a much more diverse group of people. The school also had a lot of emphasis on being in the outdoors. And so I really was able to continue like this passion for being outside and hiking and camping. And I loved being at Gould.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So how did this interest in food and the restaurant industry and wine, how did that enter into all of this?

Lucas St. Clair:

It was from the outdoors. So I did a lot of hiking and camping, climbing, kayaking post high school. So I hiked the Appalachian Trail. I took a knoll semester in Patagonia. I paddled the Northern Forest Canoe Trail. And during all of those trips, everything revolved around food and people's attitudes were better when the food was better. And it became such an integral part of group dynamic. And so I thought, wow, if I could learn how to cook well, this would be a good thing. And in between trips, I would work in restaurants and bakeries and, you know, as prep cook or making muffins in the morning and things like that. So I decided I'd go to culinary school and sort of hone the craft and did that. And once I started working in kitchens, I recognized I was such an extrovert I really wanted to be out where the customers were and being with them and having the interaction because I like watching people enjoy food. I like that more than I liked actually preparing food. And so the entry point for that was wine was I knew a lot about food and I knew living in Europe, I got to wine is like a condiment and so that you really learn about how to pair it with food. So I started working as a sommelier and then got into wine distribution and importing. So it was sort of a little bit of an unusual segue into the wine industry, but it makes sense to me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So how did you segue your way back to the Elliottsville plantation?

Lucas St. Clair:

That was. So I lived in Seattle for eight years and my wife and I had just had our first child and we were thinking I didn't want to work in the restaurant industry anymore. It's just, it was, you know, all working nights and my wife and I were just sort of passing in the. You know, we'd see each other at 4 o' clock in the afternoon when she was leaving and I was going to work. And so I was starting to think about what I wanted to do next. And my mother was working on the national park project here in Maine and. And it was getting. It was really frustrating. You know, it was like becoming personal attacks and it was very controversial. And so I thought that it would be a fun thing to work on with her, just provide cover for her. You know, being from. Being from Maine, being a sportsman, I felt like I could relate to people in a different way. And so I started working part time in 2011, and then by a year into it, by the sort of summer of 2012, thought, if we're really going to move the needle on this, I have to move back to Maine. Because I was flying from Seattle to Washington D.C. and then going to northern Maine and I was like, this is not going to work from the West Coast. And so in 2012, the fall of 2012, my wife and I decided, we moved back and moved here to Portland. And then I've been working on it ever since. And it's been an unbelievable learning curve. Learning about public policy and, you know, how our congressional delegation operates, the forestry industry, land management, all of, all of those things have been a really interesting, dynamic learning curve, but it's been great fun. I mean, I just absolutely love it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So as I'm listening to you talk about your mother getting attacked for taking this position and you saying, I thought it'd be fun to jump in there and do that that's interesting to me. Some people shy away from that sort of conflict. It sounds like you kind of have embraced it in some ways.

Lucas St. Clair:

Yeah. I mean, I also recognize that every national park that's been created happened under the same. They're always controversial. You know, David Rockefeller was attacked for creating the Tetons. The same happened in the Smoky Mountains. The same thing happened to George Dorr when he was trying to create Acadia 100 years ago. They're always met with tremendous opposition. So I thought, well, we're probably on the right track if people are opposed to this and it's controversial. And, you know, I have a thick skin and I wasn't going to take anything personally. The Katahdin region is going through massive transition right now, and they have been really for a long time, since the thousand people were laid off from Great northern paper in 1986. And it's been a slow, steady decline until 2013, where the mills finally closed for good. And now they're being torn down and the population has shrunk by about half. Unemployment is really high. So people are going through a really tough time. A lot of change. And change is never easy because we're talking about something new and different that embodies that change. We can be the target for some of the uncomfortable transition that people are having to make. But I don't, you know, I don't take it personally. I know, and I know that what we're trying to do in the end will help those communities. It'll provide long term traditional recreation. It will bring people to the region that haven't been there before. It'll provide jobs. So, you know that all that feels like the right thing to do.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So what types of opposition are people coming to you with? What is it that they don't like about this idea?

Lucas St. Clair:

A lot of it is misguided. I mean, a lot of it is because people don't have experiences with national parks. So they've read in other national parks that snowmobiling wasn't allowed or hunting wasn't allowed or. And they assume that that's the case for all national parks. But parks can be tailored to certain communities in certain environments. They're all very different from one another. But I think a lot of it is fear of the federal government and fear of change and the unknown, because there hasn't. Maine has so little public land. Federally owned land is like 4% of the state of Maine. The rest is private. So when you compare that to western states, Washington, Oregon are over half federally owned. So we just don't have that understanding here. And so there's this education that has to go on. I mean, I certainly had to go through it myself. Like, what are the different land management agencies in the federal government and what do they all do? They're all. They all do different things. Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife, National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, they all do have very different practices and motives. But the Park Service feels like the right thing for me and the right thing for the region. It was created. The legislation that created the Park Service says to conserve unimpaired for future generations, enjoyment. So it's really about conservation, but conservation for people. And that's what I think is really important in the Katahdin region, because people love the outdoors. And there's a long tradition of being outside and hunting and fishing and horseback riding and hiking and everything that happens at Acadia. Rafting on and on and on. So I feel like the Park Service is the right. Is the right agency to. To own land in the Katahdin region and really across the country. That's what is the driver for rural economics. Look at all the gateway communities around the country near national parks, and they're just thriving. We don't have to look any farther than Acadia. 2.7 million people visited Acadia last year. Bar Harbor's existence relies on that park. So in a place like Millinocket or Patton, which has been slowly shrinking and jobs going away, a boost like that would be really helpful.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Having spent quite a bit of time in northern Maine and driving back and forth to northern Maine and having been to Millinocket and Katahdin, it takes a while to get there. I mean, it's a hike.

Lucas St. Clair:

Yeah. I mean, I went there yesterday morning and I spent the whole day on the East Branch, the Penobscot. I drove the loop road in the proposed park, did a small hike, and then drove home. And I was back by 8:30.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So you don't think that being that far north should be any sort of impediment?

Lucas St. Clair:

No. I mean, national parks by nature are in rural places, but it's, you know, to drive to Acadia from here takes the same amount of time that it would take to drive to the proposed park. And when you think about where we are situated in the country, there are 90 million people within a day's drive of the Katahdin region. So that's a quarter of the population in the United States. And then you think about where people come into the United States from Europe, especially Boston, New York, Washington, D.C. those are points. And so to have national parks very close to those areas, I think would really draw people to northern Maine. The park service gets about 20 million visitors a year from Europe alone. And so that's. If they fly to the east coast, they would very likely come to northern Maine. And when you look at a map of where national parks are, there's Acadia, and there isn't another one until the Shenandoahs. So all the way down in Virginia in this very dense part of the United States. So while it feels like a long day drive to shoot up there for the day, if someone's on vacation, a family's on vacation, they decide to go to Acadia, they're likely to go to Bangor, and an hour to Acadia and then an hour to the north woods seems like a trip. So that's going to keep people in Maine longer, in Penobscot county longer. So I think that people will certainly go.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It seems like there's an actual process that I guess communities go through when you're proposing a national park and. And getting to the place where the community buys in. But there's also a process that you have to go through that's very logistical.

Lucas St. Clair:

Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It has to do with the federal government. Describe that for me and what that's been like for you.

Lucas St. Clair:

So there are two ways to create units of the National Park Service, and there are, I think, almost 30 different units of the Park Service. There's the national parks, but those are national seashores. There's national monuments. There are national historic parks, battlefields, reserves, preserves, and they all have various different areas that they protect. There's two ways to create those units. One, the President can do it or the Congress can do it. So for a long time, we worked on a bill, a piece of legislation that would be introduced by our congressional delegation and passed through Congress. And we worked on that for several years. We drafted a drafted piece of legislation, we worked with our congressional delegation, and we worked with people in the Katahdin region to say, are we addressing your needs within this piece of legislation? And as we addressed more and more of the concerns and the needs, more and more support grew, and our congressional delegation became more interested and intrigued by the idea. In the end, we wanted to do something to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, which is here this year, 2016. So we were putting pressure on our delegation saying, you know, 2016 is the year we really want to want to have the introduction of legislation then. And they weren't Ready. They weren't willing. So, you know, we worked on that last fall, in the fall of 2015, with them. And when we got signals that they weren't going to introduce the legislation, we started to have conversations with the White House and said, okay, well, if we can't do it this way, we'll go to the President and see if he will do it. And in order to have the president do it, he can use the 1906 Antiquities act, which creates a national monument, and it can be administered by the Park Service. And so that's what our goal is now. And about half of the national parks that were created were initially created as a national monument. So Acadia was done. Woodrow Wilson, President Wilson, in 1916, used the antiquities act to create Acadia, or it was called Sur Lamont Monument, National Monument. The Grand Canyon, Zion, the Olympic Mountains, all of the big parks in Alaska, they're all created by being a monument first. And oftentimes then it's followed up with a piece of legislation that creates the national park. So that's the path that we're on now, hoping that the President will use the 1906 Antiquities act, create a national monument. We will transfer the land that we own to the National Park Service, and we'll also provide a $40 million endowment for operations and maintenance of the park. You oftentimes hear about a backlog of maintenance, and the parks can't pay for themselves. And it's a challenge that we saw that needed to be addressed. And so the foundation will donate that $40 million to take care of the operations and maintenance, so it'll essentially pay for itself. So we are hoping that support continues to grow. Senator King has had a public meeting, and almost 1300 people came to it. There was about 12 or about 1100 people in support of it. It was a great showing of support. Congressman Poliquin had a congressional field hearing in east Millinocket. About 60 people spoke at that, and 47 of them were in support, including elected officials in the local towns. So both King and Congressman Poliquin have heard that there is support, more support than opposition in the region. And so they're sort of moving into a more comfortable space. But in the end, it will be the President's decision. And we're getting signals from people that work for him that this is. That it's positive and we're moving in the right direction, but we don't know anything definitively yet.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Is there a bit of a time crunch, given that he is an outgoing president?

Lucas St. Clair:

Yeah, yeah. I mean, when we have a new president, there will be a new Secretary of Interior and a new director of the Park Service, and all the people at the Council for Environmental Quality, which is the environmental arm of the White House, will be new. And so there'll be a massive re education that would have to happen then. So we've said we'll work on this project through 2016, and if we don't get it done, we'll decide something else to do with the land. But we felt like we had to have a deadline in order to keep things on pace. But the President has done this a lot. He's used the Antiquities act, I think, 21 times, and he seems comfortable doing it. He's put almost 270 million acres into conservation. He brought his family to Yosemite over the weekend, which is. And spoke about there's more work to be done. So hopefully he's talking about Maine. That's what he's considering.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I'm not sure if you know the answer to this, but percentage wise, of the proposed parks, monuments that go into parks, how many generally are successful?

Lucas St. Clair:

Oh, I'm not sure what a percentage, but there's a long list. You know, I was at a, at a celebration that the Pew Charitable Trust had in Washington D.C. the other night, and it was all the monument proposals around the country and all the grassroots organizers and, and there were a lot of people there. And there's a national monument proposal in El Paso, Texas, and one in Oahee Canyon in Oregon that I'd never even heard of. So he can't do them all. And I think in a lot of ways it's really about his legacy and the President's what he wants to have as sort of the body of work of the conservation work that he has completed. And a lot of what he's worked on are places of cultural significance. You know, Cesar Chavez is home. Pullman in South Chicago, where the first black middle class existed and the labor movement started. They built Pullman rail cars. And so a lot of it has been cultural and part of heritage sites. So I think there's a desire to do a landscape sized park. And this is an ecosystem that's not represented in the Park Service. It's northern hardwood forest. The parks are a lot of rock and ice, a lot of canyons, a lot of glaciers and big mountains. And there's not a lot of forest, especially northern hardwood forest. And so this is appealing, I think from that standpoint, it's just a unique ecosystem within the system.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

If you were to be successful with getting this piece of land to be considered a monument and then ultimately considered a park, what would this look like? You know, what would your ultimate national park look like at that location?

Lucas St. Clair:

It would be somewhat similar to Acadia, probably not quite as designed as Acadia is, But there would be loop roads and visitor centers and kiosks and campgrounds. There would obviously be rangers there, places to get information about what to go and visit. Scenic vistas, hiking trails, biking trails. More amenities than exist there now. But I also imagine an infrastructure growing in the local communities and towns of Patton right now. There's, you know, they have what they need to get by, but not much beyond that. I can imagine a lodge of some sort there and more visitor services that would begin to grow. I mean, imagine Bar Harbor 100 years ago, when Acadia was created, didn't have a lot, and it's grown to meet the expectations of visitors. And I can imagine the communities around the proposed monument doing the same thing. But for the most part, I think the beauty of the landscape would speak for itself. It would still be similar to what it looks like now.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

In the time that I've spent hiking Katahdin, I've noticed it's actually a fairly busy mountain for the size of it and for the remoteness of it. Do you have any concerns that if we were to bring a large number of people up in that area, that it could negatively impact the environment or.

Lucas St. Clair:

No, I don't. I mean, Baxter is designed in a very specific way, and there are very specific rules that Percival Baxter set up in order for that to maintain its wilderness characteristics. And so it'll be that way forever. And the rangers that work for the state park and the rangers that would work for the national park service would have a great cooperative agreements and working relationships to make sure that the resource and Baxter is protected and protected the way it was mandated by Percival Baxter. You know, about 90% of the visitors that go to Baxter want to climb Katahdin. I think by having a monument or, you know, national monument next door would bring people that way, and it would also bring people and sort of distribute them a little bit more evenly throughout. And the. The north entrance of Baxter, for example, gets very, very little attention. And, you know, the traveler range and the brothers and South Turner and all those mountains are so spectacular, no one really goes there. So this, I think a monument could perhaps spread people out a little bit more. But if you think about what Acadia is like, I don't feel like the Acadia national park is an unspoiled landscape. And they get two. They got 2.7 million visitors last year and you could fit almost two and a half Acadias within the proposed monument. And Baxter is even bigger. Baxter is 209,000 acres. So it's, there's a lot of space and it would, it would. The management plan that would be put together would make sure that all of the resources are protected. And they have a, they have a mandate to do that. You know, in the legislation that created the Park Service is conservation first and foremost. So it would make sure that the resource is, is protected.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I know that this is not the only thing that you do. You also have an interest in other various organizations around the Portland area and around the state of Maine. Really? What are some of the other things that you really feel passionate about?

Lucas St. Clair:

Well, the natural resources of Maine are just so spectacular and they're so intact. And so I spent a lot of time working in conservation related activities. I'm on the board of the Maine Island Trails association. So I love spending time on the Maine Islands. I spent all weekend out there and it's just they're, they're so spectacular. So that's, that's a big interest of mine. And then I'm also on the board of the Maine Conservation Voters. So I spend a lot of time in the state House and working to promote good conservation laws and good conservation candidates to run run our state. It's a little bit more complicated right now. You know, we've had some tough times and some tough opposition, but I think because of the great work that Maine Conservation Voters and other environmental organizations have done, we've sort of held the line as much as we've. We can. And then, you know, just, I love it's, you know, I lived in Seattle for seven years and being back in, in Portland is. It's like a neighborhood of Seattle without traffic. And you know, it's just, it's such a fantastic place to live. And my wife, who's from Seattle has just absolutely loved it and it's great to raise children here. And it's such a dynamic state. We spend, we have a farm in Gouldsboro, Maine, up on the coast. So we spend a lot of time up there. And I really love the young organic agricultural movement that's happening here. We do a lot of work with mofka. So it's a dynamic state that I feel like is really on the verge of some really great stuff.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So why did you choose Portland?

Lucas St. Clair:

I spent a lot of time in D.C. so being close to the airport is Helpful. My wife, who grew up in Seattle, is like, we're not going to move to Millinocket right off. And. And she knew Maine a little bit, but the community of people that she got to know when we were living in Seattle were all in Maine. All my friends were all in Portland. And she also was finishing graduate school when we came here. And so she finished her program at usm, so that was part of the decision. But Portland's a great town, and it's easy to get out, really. I mean, that's a huge plus about Portland. I mean, a day trip to the east branch of the Penobscot yesterday didn't feel like that tough. And I can leave my house an hour before a flight to Washington, D.C. which is also really easy. And it's walkable. It's a really great town.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Why did your mother care so much about this? And why do you care so much about this?

Lucas St. Clair:

Well, you know, when she sold Burt's bees, there was a real sense of giving back. She moved the company to North Carolina in the early 90s and felt like because it was so successful, she could give back some of the money that she'd made into northern Maine. And land conservation seemed like the most appropriate thing to do because there was a real need and a lot of land was for sale. And for me, it's really. You know, this is. I grew up in northern Maine. I grew up. My dad worked in Millinocket. When I was a kid, I saw Millinocket thriving, you know, really at its peak. And. Well, not. Maybe not at its peak, but in the early 80s, it was doing really well, and it's really suffering. And so I feel like there's an opportunity to help the local economy and to really change some of the. Some of the hardships that they've experienced over the last 10, 20, 30 years. It's really more. It's about the people for me. You know, I want to have people be successful and live fulfilled lives there. And the question that you had about wellness, you know, wellness for me is about communities working well together and people really enjoying where they live and being able to be successful in the places they live. You know, that's super important.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah, well, I agree with you. And you're referring to a questionnaire that we have everybody fill out when they first come in to the radio show. And it's interesting that you said, striking the right balance between living and work, family and friends, community and self. If I can read your handwriting.

Lucas St. Clair:

Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And I. And I think that that That's a really important way to look at it that, you know, there's always going to be competing demands in every direction, but if you can try to find a way to be measured in your response to all these demands so that, I guess all boats will float.

Lucas St. Clair:

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I think it is. It's really hard to do in interior Maine, too. I mean, there's not a lot of obvious jobs, so a lot of people work a lot of different. A lot of different jobs that work close to the land. So I want people to be able to stay in those communities and still have a positive experience, so it's in balance. That balance is tough to strike, I think.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Lucas, is there anything else that you think people would like to know about regarding your hope of creating a national park?

Lucas St. Clair:

Well, I think first and foremost, I want more people from southern Maine to go to northern Maine and. And know how accessible it is and know how beautiful it is. You know, it's worth the trip. I see. I know a lot of people down here that have not been to Millinocket or not been to Baxter, not been to the east branch of the Penobscot. So I encourage people to make the trip and when they're there, encourage people to come here and see what Portland is like and see what southern Maine has to offer. Because there's this idea of two mains. Drives me crazy. We are one state. We're a big state. You can drive a long way and still be in Maine. But we need to understand each other and that what's happening in Jackman and what's happening in Millinocket and Presque Isle and Portland are all really different but worthy of happening and more of an understanding of all that I think is super important. So I encourage people to go up and check it out and come down and check Portland out and get to know one another, because it is. It's a great state with a lot of great things to offer.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I've been speaking with Lucas St. Clair, who in 2001, took over his family's operating foundation, Elliottsville Plantation, Inc. Which owns 125,000 acres of timberland in northern and central Maine that they hope to create a national park and recreation area with. I think that you've convinced me. I wasn't actually. I was kind of convinced before, but you've convinced me even more. And I really wish you all the best, and I hope that you are able to make this happen. And I appreciate the time you've taken to come talk to me today.

Lucas St. Clair:

Absolutely. Maybe Next time we'll do it in the Katan region.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That sounds good.

Lucas St. Clair:

All right.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

pleasure today to spend time with Susan Corbett, who is the owner and CEO of Acxiom Technologies, a telecommunications and information technology company headquartered in Machias that has been creating and developing solutions for rural broadband deployment since 2005. Axiom has brought high speed Internet service to Washington county with over 90 access points, creating an umbrella of coverage over 2,500 square miles. Susan has been a public speaker throughout Maine and the United States advocating for rural broadband and is dedicated to the mission of bringing broadband to every resident and business. I actually paused when I was reading this. 2,500 square miles. That's a lot of distance. You're covering a lot of space.

Susan Corbett:

Sure. So Washington county, it takes four hours to drive from one side of the county to the other. I love when I speak in the United States States because then I will tell my audience and there are only two traffic lights and the closest one is one hour from my office. So that's rural.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That's right. There's not a lot of cars going back and forth there. So how did you come to be doing the work that you do?

Susan Corbett:

Well, thank you for inviting me to chat with you today and we always love to talk about broadband and broadband in Maine. In Particular. So I came to Maine in 1998. My background, I was an office nurse for 25 years and did practice consulting. So I was around when computers were first coming into physician offices. And for many, many physician practices, they would get a computer and then couldn't figure out how to get everything out of the computer. So I started doing consulting and eventually started doing consulting here in Maine and in Down East Maine in particular. So back in, I made the decision to make the move here and I had a billing service on the side and I had staff in Massachusetts and I relocated that to Jonesport, Maine. And in the height of the billing service, we had about 10 employees that worked either at the office in Jonesport or remotely. Our practices were from. Many were from the greater Boston area and spanned all the way through Maine right up to Down East Maine. So this is when I first started hearing about economic development because we were. I had local people that I hired in paying them Boston wages with all of those benefits because the money was coming in from the greater Boston area. So eventually the docs in Boston wanted to connect to us electronically. So I thought that might be easy. And I called the telephone company at the time and said I'd like a broadband connection. And of course they laughed at me because at the time there were only two towns in all of Washington county that had broadband. Machias and Calais. So I started searching and searching and eventually ended up with something called a fractional T1. And I paid $750 a month. My dad, who lived in Massachusetts and had Comcast, was paying $50 a month and his was faster than mine. At one point I talked to an engineer at the telephone company in Massachusetts. And my claim to fame is I stamped my foot and said, they have wireless in Taipei. Why can't I have it in Jonesport? And he said, well, you can, it's just that we're not going to help you. So the little light bulb went off. Eventually I met the engineers that put in the DSL and I pitched the idea of a wireless network in Jonesport and bought into the company in May of 2005. And in June of 2005, we put our first wireless access point in Jonesport. And that was my intention. That was all I was going to do. And then the rest of Washington county started contacting us and saying, well, help us with this. And so now we have these 90 access points all over Washington County. We do fiber, we do dsl, and we're working with communities throughout the state and helping them figure out broadband solutions and what's their plan going forward? So that's the background of how I came to be.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I think you very quickly went over the fact that you are 25 years as an officer nurse. So that's kind of, that's, that's kind of a big, big jump.

Susan Corbett:

Well, it is, but then when you think about it. So in the evolution of medical practices, they went from paper systems to electronic system. And that's not any different than any other business really. You know, paper ledgers, the old green ledgers with the pencils to, you know, programs like QuickBooks and Excel spreadsheets. So the jump from paper system to electronic, regardless of what your background is, is all the same. We all had to face that over a period of time. Certainly having the medical background, you know, you're driven by helping people and helping people get connected. Helping people learn how to use technology is really the big driver behind us. So in 2006 we hired an educator. And that educator worked with businesses and taught employers and employees how to use technology to become technology proficient. And that we have stayed true to that mission since 2006. In 2014, we started SPUN off a non profit side of the company called the Axiom Education and Training Center. We've moved all of our education programs to that side of the company. We oversee and manage the adult education throughout all of Washington County. We continue doing digital literacy training not only in Washington county, but throughout Maine. And our program is to recognize not only statewide, but nationally and internationally. In the past couple of years, we've had over 4,000 adult learners come through our programs and over 400 businesses have connected to us. So, you know, the connection. We have to have connection to every home and business in Maine. But teaching people and learning what to do with the technology is as important, if not more important. We can have the best system in the world, but if people don't know how to use it, then what good is the system?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It seems as though there's a hunger for this. It seems as though this desire for connection has really grown over the last, I don't know, I guess I want to say 20 years. And it's interesting to me that when you first asked about the ability to connect, the answer was just straight up no. But somehow you got around that.

Susan Corbett:

Well, perseverance. I don't like to take no for an answer. Our poor techs have to listen to that, you know, no, we can't connect someone. Well, you need to try harder. We are committed to making sure that every home and business here in Maine has connectivity Right now there are about 2% of homes that have zero access to broadband connection. That comes to about maybe 20,000 or so homes based on U.S. census. And then if you think about all the homes that are not included in U.S. census, like our seasonal homes, we're probably doubling that number. So making sure that every home and business has the ability to connect is extremely important for so many different reasons. Health care, education, business growth and development, economic development, connecting to the world. So it's one of. It's our prime, it is one of our missions. And then the second thing, the mission or the second, it's our mantra. You know, through with technology and education, we can change the economic status of a region. So we see that every day. We see that as we work with businesses, small businesses, home businesses, big businesses that when they can then sell their product worldwide, you know, and they can bring in. Go back to my billing service. I brought in revenue from outside of Maine. Well, it's the same thing when you can get a business up online and they can sell their product to anyone in the world. So it's a. It could be. It's a game changer for Maine and for the end for the United States.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So

Susan Corbett:

we just stay very focused on the importance of all of this.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Why Jonesport?

Susan Corbett:

Oh, it was so beautiful. It was so beautiful. So I first came up here consulting in December of 1995, and I came in on Route 187. So Jonesport, the road in Jonesport is like a peninsula. So you drove in on one side and I got down to the Beales Island Bridge and it was snowing lightly and there were boats in the harbor. And I thought, oh, my heavens, I've just stepped into a Norman Rockwell calendar. And they say that if you fall in love in Down East Maine in the middle of the winter, you are hooked. So the following summer I came up to do some more consulting and I stayed in a little cottage on a beach in Jonesport. And I woke up, I arrived in very dark, didn't know where I was, and got up in the morning and had a cup of coffee and kind of wandered down this path and came on this beach and the sun was rising and I thought, this is absolutely stunning, and bought a little cottage. This was back in 96, the fall of 96, bought a little cottage and used it as a retreat and eventually by 98, decided, this is where I want to live. Both my kids were in college. They were off to conquer the world. They weren't supposed to come back home. And that's what the whole idea of getting them out of the nest and giving them good education. And so I made the move to Jones Ford in January 1998 and have not looked back. It's been. It was the best decision I could make.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So you said they weren't supposed to come back home, did they?

Susan Corbett:

No, they didn't. They went on. They finished college, went on for master's degrees, one went into Peace Corps. They both have children. I have three beautiful grandchildren from them and I'm proud of both of them.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do they have your same affinity for Maine?

Susan Corbett:

They love to come visit. And the grandchildren, the two oldest, one will be 10 and one is 6. Love coming to nanny's house. Nanny camp. They can come play on the beach. They are, they love to, you know, is the tide coming or going? When the six year old was about, I don't know, three or four years old, he would tell his mom that, you know, his milk was either at high tide or low tide, depending on how full the glass was or the bath was at high tide or low tide. So, you know, there's a connection they have back to Jones Fort. They love to come and I love to have them.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It is interesting that what you're providing for down east is the ability for people to live in a beautiful place and be nurtured. Their souls really to be nurtured, to be connected. You talk about your grand grandchildren, their connection with the tides, but also earn a living. And that's really been, I think, somewhat of a bugaboo for the state of Maine for a long, long time. Is. It's hard to live and work here and have it be sustainable.

Susan Corbett:

So I think that as we work with communities across the state and in other rural areas in the United States, that is the discussion we have. How do you. You have quality of place, but can you survive? And when, if you're able. You know, think of my, my first business when I came here. My clients were from outside of Maine. So you know, I went, you know, my staff came to work, but we weren't working within those physician offices. We were working remotely and there are many businesses that can do that. I wish that when we started in 2005 that I had and I. It's sort of like you can look into the future. I wish I had started to figure out that when the seasonal residents would come and they would arrive and they, we would turn on their Internet and then they'd leave and we'd turn off their Internet and what I, and I see those emails come through, you know, through the support system. And I'll see, you know, we're here. Turn us on, and, you know, I'll. Okay, we're going. Well, that time period has gotten further and further apart. So what I feel is that they may have come up a Memorial Day and went home on Labor Day, and now they're coming up in March or April and they're staying until maybe Thanksgiving or Christmas. And so instead of the we're here for three months and someplace else for nine, we're seeing a lot of that reversal. And that is really economically impactful for communities. If we can keep our seasonal people here longer, that is a benefit for all of those local businesses that are sustaining them, whether it's the local supermarket or all the sports and recreation or anything that our businesses are doing to carve out a living. And so the reason that those seasonal residents are staying longer is because they can stay connected to their place of business. So if I'm traveling and I think back when my kids were little, can I go to camp for a month with my kids? And they can have a great month playing in the lake or doing whatever they're doing, but I can still work, you know, at the end of the day or at night or whatever. When my kids were little, I used to do that. So if we can do that, then people stay longer and supporting all of those of us that are making a living here in a very rural state.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

My medical practice is in Brunswick, and that's where I also went to college. And what I've noticed over time is a fair number of people who are retiring to the Brunswick area, and I think that's due around. Across the state. Has your business been impacted by people who are coming to the state of Maine and living here many months out of the year, sometimes to be near grandchildren, sometimes because it's where their family is from. Has this been something that you've noticed as well?

Susan Corbett:

So in Jonesport, I really noticed it. There were many retirees, young retirees, many from professional backgrounds, that it became quality of place. They could find a place on the ocean, Pricing was reasonable. They could build their dream home. And so we started to see a lot of retirees, young retirees coming into the area, not only in Jonesport, but throughout all of Washington county, specifically around those coastal communities.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do you notice a difference between what people who are younger might want out of an educational experience with your organization versus people who are older?

Susan Corbett:

So we're, you know, so on our adult ed side, we are. We just graduated 18 students who received did high school completion. That's, you know, that's really exciting for the staff that's teaching them. We do college transition. So we're working with adults, all ages, that they may want to go back and maybe finish a post secondary or start a post secondary degree. On the digital literacy side, if you think about anyone who's over 35, they really were not computers, were not around when they were going through school. And so they've learned on their own. And they've learned because they've said, you know, hey, how did you do that? That's what I've done for years. And, you know, we should be pretty proud of the fact that we've been able to figure this out on our own. I like to tell people, walk into Best Buy and go on technology overload. What is all of this stuff? The take rate in Maine, which means that if there are a hundred available connections in a neighborhood, only 75 will subscribe. So Maine is on par with the United States. It's about a 75% take rate nationwide and 75% here. There are many reasons why people do not use technology. They may not be able to afford it. They may not be able to afford, may not be able to afford the connection. They may not be able to afford the equipment. They may have no idea what this is. Why do I need to do this? Why do I need to learn how to use a computer? So we are very dedicated to the digital inclusion movement. We are involved on a national level on that. Digital inclusion includes affordable broadband, affordable equipment, digital literacy training and public computer access. And so working with adults who are entering the technology world for the first time, there's typically a reason. What has sparked them to do that? They got a new Kindle. They got an iPad. Their boss said, you need to learn how to use. Use Excel. They what a Roku. I can go on and I can get movies on demand. How do I do that? And so that typically is the beginning. For someone who is just starting out on learning technology, there's something that's sparking them. And then once you have them in one of our classes, it then opens up their world to all of the other programs that are out there. Our director of educational services, Jane Blackwood has her. She's been known. What she is known for is that how we teach is more important than what we're teaching. So making sure that those classes and the environment is really comfortable and friendly and someone can take the same class over and over again, you know, that's really important. We also move classes around throughout different regions. So we utilize all the libraries. The library is a great place to hold classes. There is broadband at those with 100 megs at most libraries in Maine. Many of those libraries have public computers that people can go in and use technology. And libraries are just good friendly places. And so we partner with libraries in Maine and they're about 25% of our classes are held in libraries. So very, very happy with that relationship.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What does the future hold for Acxiom Technologies? Where do you hope to see your business going or what do you hope to offer to the state of Maine in the upcoming years?

Susan Corbett:

So almost two years ago I brought in a partner, Mark Oulet, who has very strong background in economic development and he has taken over the operations of Acxiom. And the goal is, and we are doing that now is to bring what we're doing statewide and across the country in rural areas. And that process began almost immediately after Mark came on board. We are passionate about helping communities figure out what to do for their community because there is no one answer. There's no one technology. Every community is different and they have different needs. So we're very excited about just continuing that work, helping people get connected, understanding why it's important to get connected, and just staying true to the mission of what we do. Every connection counts and we're committed to make sure that everyone has the ability to be connected.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I've been speaking with Susan Corbett, who is the owner and CEO of Acxiom Technologies, a telecommunications and information technology company headquartered in Machias. We will have a link to the Acxiom Technologies website on our Show Notes page. So for people who are interested in please do go and find out more. Susan, I'm so pleased that you are bringing this sort of connectivity to the state of Maine and I really appreciate your talking with me today.

Susan Corbett:

Well, thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have been listening to Love Maine radio show number 259 accessing Maine. Our guests have included Lucas St. Clair and Susan Corbett. For more information on our guests and extended interviews, visit Love Maine Radio. LoveMain Radio is downloadable for free on itunes. Follow me on Twitter as DrLisa and see my running travel, food and wellness photos as bountiful1 on Instagram. We love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of lovemain Radio. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also let our sponsors know that you have heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring Love Maine Radio to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. I hope that you have enjoyed our Accessing Maine show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.