Boothbay region native and new business owner Bill Livingston celebrated partnership between his business Repair Concepts and Boothbay Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce Feb. 18 in a ribbon cutting ceremony. This is the third ribbon cutting since the Chamber began the tradition mid-January to highlight new businesses.

Chamber Executive Director Lisa Walby and members Alyssa Allen, Julie Roberts and Joanna Breen held the ribbon, presented Livingston his welcome bag and talked about the benefits of being a Chamber member. Said Walby, “It puts your business information on our website and in our guide and shows you're an active member of the community. And (there's) of course advertising …”

Said Roberts, “Some people might say 'Oh, I'm busy enough and I don't need any more business.' But for me, it's like being part of the community and it's about keeping all of us together … Boothbay Harbor is a brand and by … our businesses and nonprofits and all that coming together, it makes us who we are.”

Livingston said after graduating from Boothbay Region High School in 2007, he attended Ford’s engineering program at Central Maine Community College in Auburn where he also had the opportunity to work at Wiscasset Ford. He said working for a dealership was not cut out for him so he started as Boothbay business Freedom Auto Care’s first employee when it opened in 2009.

“I worked there for 11 years before I went to Gamage Shipyard where I was the foreman of the boatyard. Then after that I said, 'I'm going to do my own thing.'”

Livingston works on medium-size and heavy-duty trucks and construction equipment. “I do marine diesel as well. It's kind of the one people don't know I do … I've always been around it. My father did marine and construction equipment for 30-something years, he was in the Coast Guard for 25.”

The Chamber will be a good way for Repair Concepts to get attention, said Livingston. Though he said he does not currently work for anyone he does not know, the exposure through the Chamber’s extended community will help newcomers know about his services. “There's been a pretty good response to it. I wish I could offer more, but there's only one me.”