Portions of Aroostook County recently were designated by the Department of Agriculture as an Empowerment Zone, a designation that will afford the region millions of dollars in federal grants for social services and community redevelopment as well as tax and regulatory relief over a ten-year period.
The land area of Aroostook County is 6,672 square miles, and the restriction that the Empowerment Zone be limited to 1,000 square miles prevents all of Aroostook from benefitting from the program. Designating the remainder of the Northern Maine Economic Development District as a REAP zone will aid in the revitalization of all of northern Maine's rural communities.
NMDC is requesting that areas known as "non-zone census tracts" of Aroostook County, plus the adjacent towns of Patten, Mount Chase, and Stacyville and three unorganized townships in Penobscot County; another 19 unorganized townships in the northern part of Piscataquis County; and the town of Danforth in Washington County, be designated as a Rural Economic Area Partnership (REAP).
"Designating the remainder of The County and its adjacent towns as a REAP will guarantee that these areas will not be left behind as economic prosperity returns," said Senator Collins. "There is a great deal of merit to the proposal put forward by Northen Maine Development Commission and I urge Secretary Veneman to give it her attention and to act favorably on it."