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Ronald
L. Phillips, President
P.O. Box 268
36 Water Street
Wiscasset,
ME 04578
Phone: (207)
882-7552
Fax: (207)
882-7308
cei@ceimaine.org ww.ceimaine.org
Counties
Served: Androscoggin,
Aroostook, Cumberland, Franklin, Hancock, Kennebec, Knox, Lincoln, Oxford,
Penobscot, Piscataquis, Sagadahoc, Somerset, Waldo, Washington, York
Incorporated:
1977
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Photos by Adam Fernandez
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Maine
is the land of rocky coastlines, nor’easters, solitary lighthouses, and small
fishing villages on the shore of the cold northern Atlantic. Maine is also a land of tradition. Families who have fished or logged forests
or worked in textile factories for generations continue to do so. Shipbuilding, whether for the whaling boats
of the past or the modern Navy, has also defined families.
However,
these traditional industries were not replacing their old methods with updated
techniques and technologies to remain competitive. Manufacturing jobs disappeared along with the companies because
of overseas competition. High wage jobs
were replaced with low-paying service-sector jobs. Maine’s unemployment rate is
consistently the highest in the region: 4.2 % in 2000, compared to 3.6% in Massachusetts and 3.4% in Vermont and New Hampshire. Added to this is the key concern of decent affordable housing,
because not only is Maine famous for its notoriously cold winters, it also has
some of the nation’s oldest housing stock and prized vacation and second homes.
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