I just got back from the ATV festival, which certainly brought a crowd to the region. Estimates ranged, but I heard as many as 700 people yesterday, 900 today. I’m not sure if that’s accurate, but there were certainly a lot of people enjoying the trails, the mud pit, the demo rides and the helicopter tours.

I also stopped by Mayor Grenier’s house to get an update on the Fraser mill. He’s hoping a plan will move forward that can save the 240 jobs, though the project has hit a snag. I’ve been hearing a lot of rumors that suggest it’s dead in the water, but no definitive proof one way or the other. It’s a big deal, 240 jobs, and hopefully something good will be announced soon.

I saw a post on Facebook this morning about how the farmers’ market is the only bright spot in Berlin’s otherwise bleak economic picture. It was from a local merchant, who said she’d seen too many $0 days. She implored residents to shop local, to support Main Street businesses so they don’t all go the way of JC Penney. That heartfelt plea is ubiquitous, but it seems to fall on deaf ears. Walmart never has a lack of customers, even when Main Street does. But it is encouraging what impact an event like market can have. It livens the downtown and brings people out in a way no other Berlin event I’ve seen does. Too many events are after closing time, so people can’t go in and support local merchants.

But what a distance a little ingenuity goes. How much could WREN have spent on this project? I’m sure not much. And yet it has an impact. Thank goodness they took the plunge, but why does it take a group from away to make these things happen. There is creativity and spirit in Berlin. The city just has to figure out how to put it to work.

I’m about to launch into a bit of writing for this week’s paper, but I wanted to post some images from the weekend. I went to the coast of Maine to visit my wife’s family, and when we left we happened upon a fantastic sunset.

Not bad, although it’s no sunset in the mountains.

The Bureau of Trails announced last week they will not turn a section the Presidential Rail Trial, or PRT, into an ATV trail for now. The announcement caused an audible sigh of relief in Randolph, where residents organized to protest the proposal. The proposal didn’t include opening up the PRT beyond Jimtown Road in Gorham, but Randolph residents said they were concerned riders would continue beyond the legal boundary. Many said they already do.
The clear divisions about this issue, depending on where people live, make for an interesting picture of the challenges that will face the North Country in the future.
In November Berlin opened city streets to ATVs, and there was a lot of celebration that this effort finally bore fruit. A few months later Randolph residents celebrated with a similar enthusiasm, but their’s was because they succeeded in keeping the trails closed to ATVs. What a difference 10 miles makes.
Residents consider the North Country a region, but in the typical New Hampshire sense—not united enough to impinge anyone’s freedoms. Protecting all those individual freedoms, however, has it’s communal costs, which the region has experienced for decades.

I used to work at an ambulance service as an EMT. The bulk of the community we covered was two towns geographically comparable to Berlin and Gorham. There was a distinct distrust between the two towns I could never understand, to the point where fire departments were reluctant to call each other for aid. The ambulance and school systems were integrated, but not the fire or water department, and I could never understand why. I was 19 or 20 at the time, but even then it seemed more was wasted than gained in such a rivalry. Memories that went back further than mine seemed convinced this was the only way to do things; I was never so sure.
Someone told me Berlin/Gorham is in many ways more attached to Maine than New Hampshire. The mountains formed a barrier, they said, and the river acted as a highway when the communities were young. The Lewiston Sun Journal used to report heavily on what happened in Berlin/Gorham some time ago, backing up that claim. It makes sense: as you go north from Brunswick along the Androscoggin you hit mill town after mill town. Berlin would have been one more along the line.
I grew up in Maine and went to college there, though I’ve lived in the Conway area for the last seven years. The differences between the two states are pretty stark, and so understanding which had more influence on the region is critical to understand how to attack the problems facing it. New Hampshire is about the individual. Live free or die does not imply disparate communities banding together, impinging upon their individual freedoms, for the common good. The mill mentality, however, and the isolation Berlin has endured for a century, have always stuck me as much more willing to pull together for the good of the community. Someone told me in an isolated region like Berlin you don’t have the privileged of ignoring your neighbor, so you learn how to get along.
But how far does that extend? Driving from Lancaster to Errol makes it hard to consider Coös County a cohesive unit. The distances aren’t huge, but the terrain is, and all of the sudden lumping solutions into one big initiative becomes daunting.
But the alternative is for many communities to fend for themselves. Groveton and Errol don’t have many of the assets the Berlin/Gorham corridor has; what will become of them if such efforts are abandoned?
But what is most troubling is the inability for communities minutes apart to reach a consensus on what they are going to do to survive. Berlin, Gorham, Randolph, Shelburne, Milan and Dummer are a region unto themselves. They are the Androscoggin Valley, and what ensures the survival of one ensures the survival of them all. The socioeconomic disparities may convince some people they can divest themselves of this connection, but as Randolph residents are learning with the closure of the Gorham Rite Aid and Shaws, even if their community isn’t in decline the ramifications of the valley as a whole affects them. For wealthy residents it means they have to travel to Berlin or Lancaster to fulfill their prescriptions; for poorer residents it might mean they lose their job.

Berlin, Gorham, Randolph, Shelburne, Milan and Dummer don’t have to agree on everything. ATVs are clearly more divisive in some communities than others, and it wouldn’t be in anyone’s best interests to shove a solution down an adjacent community’s throat. But the Androscoggin Valley has to unify enough to approach the problems it faces head on, with every municipality on board. The future of the Gorham mill, with it’s 200 plus jobs, is uncertain, and the region can ill afford to let the petty differences derail their future for the next century.

I skipped the Berlin city council this evening to attend a public hearing in Gorham about expanding ATV trail usage to include some of the rails to trails land in Gorham, creating a corridor to Success. The conversation got heated at times as Randolph residents and several Gorham residents voiced their opposition to ATVs sharing the multi-use trails.
I couldn’t help but laugh watching the two camps, with divisions that go far beyond their preferred method of motorized or non-motorized recreation. It was a civics lesson but also an economics lesson. It was also a discussion Berlin should be watching.
Advocates for the plan want Jericho to connect to Success via Gorham, because they see potential for economic benefit in Gorham. They are betting a direct trail from Gorham will keep the ATVers sleeping and eating in Gorham, even if the Berlin allows ATVs on city streets.
If the infrastructure is already in Gorham and that trail opens, what will be the incentive to open a hotel or restaurant in Berlin? What will be the incentive to stay or eat in Berlin? Maybe there will be so many ATVers that the region will have to build excess capacity, but if not Gorham certainly has less to do to make itself the next ATV destination: it merely has to open a trail. Berlin has to build a tourist infrastructure, and that could take years instead of days.
But then there are the Randolph residents. I didn’t see one under 40, and they were not ATV riders. They talked about hiking and biking and snowshoeing and skiing, about how wonderful it is to hear the snow melt off trees on a winter’s day, and about how much they detest ATVs and snowmobiles noise. They were worried the trail might one day continue west from Gorham along the rail to trail property on U.S. Route 2, and they have been circulating emails for more than a week discussing how they can protect against such development. They have contacted representatives and senators and the executive council, and they have been amassing supporting organizations to their corner.
They were a different people talking a different language.
It goes back to the conversation I was having before, about seeing the other person’s perspective. The ATVers in the room didn’t have any appreciation for the fact that ATVs are annoying to people who don’t ride ATVs, and the non-ATVers didn’t have any appreciation for the fact that ATVers have a right to ride. Everyone just complained about the other side, while I tried not to laugh. (I feel comfortable laughing in Berlin council meetings—I know everyone there pretty well now—but this was Gorham, where I don’t know anyone.)

Berlin has something unique on this front: a lack of naysayers. In the months I’ve been covering the ATV issue I’ve heard one person speak out against it. In Gorham tonight there were 25 people that spoke against it, and 50 people came to the meeting. The room only had seats for 40, so people were standing against the walls and crammed in the doorway. It is a different issue in Gorham than it is in Berlin—the contingent of hikers and cyclists is larger there, and their perspective might make this a fight. One woman put it well, saying ATVing and other sports don’t go together well. They don’t have to be separated, she said, but it helps. In Berlin, it isn’t much work to separate the two, because there aren’t people doing other things. In Gorham, it’s much more an issue, and something that will likely inspire more debate. Randolph is like Berlin, but only the other side of the issue, so again there isn’t really a fight.

Berlin and Gorham may soon be competing for the ATV dollars, and Gorham has a head start. The ATV park may be in Berlin, but there aren’t lots of places there to spend your money if you come up for the weekend, and that will take time to change. In the meantime Gorham might take the thunder out of Berlin’s efforts to become the ATV capital of the state, simply by opening a trail.

One final thought: some people (including Chris Gamache from the Bureau of Trails) spoke of regionalization. I’ve heard that term a lot lately, from talking about schools to local government to economic development. But then, back at each town hall and city council chambers, I hear councilors and selectmen talking about how they want the businesses in their town to benefit, that they don’t care about the community down the road. The Grand Hotels, Grand Adventures initiative argues the region doesn’t have a critical mass to draw people in any one town, but as a region they do. But the region isn’t a region; it’s like Afghanistan or Africa—carved out of a map by people disconnected from its past, its future, its economy and its people. Gorham doesn’t like to be associated with Berlin, and Berlin resents Gorham’s success. No one there talks to Lancaster or Errol, and Colebrook is off by itself. Grand Hotels, Grand Adventures is an effort to make this appear a cohesive unit outside Coös County, but there is no effort to make it a cohesive unit within Coös County. It would be a shame if Gorham scoops the ATVers away from Berlin, if for no other reason than it will heighten the animosity between the two. The two communities will continue fighting each other, instead of cooperating to make each other stronger.
Mayor David Bertrand said in an interview today the current council thinks outside the box, something past Berlin city councils haven’t done. But when it comes to regionalism, this council is in step with past councils. Provincialism runs deep, and it seems to be a box the region can’t find its way out of. In a city and a region searching for useful answers to complex questions, it’s a shame to see so much animosity directed at people stuck in the same boat.