The Joint Economic Development Committee on Tuesday, May 1 discussed some of the details of its possible transformation into a nonprofit. In past meetings, the JEDC discussed using the 90s era Boothbay Region Economic Development Committee (BRED) as the vehicle to see the region’s economic master plan through.

JEDC co-chair Abbe Levin proposed members keep in mind an interim strategy may be needed to keep the JEDC working. Levin said the last thing the committee wants is to allow projects to fall by the wayside.

Members cited one example, housing. They have been surveying and reaching out to community groups such as the Rotary Club of Boothbay Harbor, which has shown an interest in helping on the master plan key goal, Boothbay Harbor member Jon Dunsford said.

“I don’t see regular JEDC meetings happening,” said Levin. “I see housing meetings happening and forming-the-new-entity meetings happening. Maybe once a month … the full JEDC will come together and those two groups will inform (each other).”

Boothbay Harbor member Mike Tomko asked what is supposed to happen in the meantime with other key goals like downtown development and transportation. Levin said as housing is the “hot item” for the communities, those efforts should continue, but the JEDC needs to deal with issues without dividing its attention.

Said Levin, “We have come up with pretty much everything that both boards of selectmen have asked us to do – to provide recommendations for economic development in this region. We have the Camoin plan and now we have to carry this stuff out.”

Levin said she does not see success without an entity that can seek grants and funds. Boothbay member Dan Bryer agreed, saying the more fractured the group becomes and the thinner it spreads itself, the less effective its efforts would be.

Boothbay member Steve Malcom reiterated his past point that the group needs to decide whether or not to create a nonprofit. “"I think that we could flounder. We have some really good initiatives started … but – what is the structure in those areas and how do they move forward without you doing 90 percent of the work?”

Boothbay Harbor member Jeff Teel said a core organization could reaching out on a regular basis to community partners tasked with handling one issue at a time.

“Nobody is saying they don’t want to do this,” said Dunsford. “Nobody is saying they want to do it, but nobody is saying they don’t. Stop looking for somebody to say ‘no,’ is my recommendation.”

Malcom suggested they go around the room on the question. All members present favored the change, though no vote was held. Levin suggested a consultant to advise the JEDC on how it can and should move forward. “One of the things we don’t want to do is think this thing through so much and have it so well-defined that nobody from the outside is going to want to step into it because they haven’t had a piece of being involved in it.”

Teel said access to grants and other outside funding was the only thing he could foresee that would get more people involved and on board with the idea of a nonprofit seeing the master plan through. He said hiring an economic planner with tax dollars would be a hard sell to voters, but being able to fund that job with grant money would alleviate that burden.

“We’re either on board or we’re going to wait another year,” said Teel. “I just want to get this thing moving and I agree that we’re going to have some hiccups, but we’ve spent this money, we’ve spent this time and I think we should go forward.”

Boothbay member Dawn Gilbert said the one thing that must come out of the JEDC is a stop to the regional in-fighting and name-calling. “This is something that we have really got to work on and it would be great if it came from this group … We all have to learn to live together and do business together and this is something that bothers a lot of us.”

The next JEDC meeting is at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 15 in the Boothbay Region YMCA’s upstairs conference room.