| Calais: On the Edge
By Gail Wahl, Site Coordinator
A burned out and vacant building in the heart of the historic business district before restoration. |
Public spaces and pedestrian walkways in the revitalized downtown area. |
The City of Calais, ME, is on the banks of the Saint Croix River, the border between the United States and Canada. Calais is the largest city in rural and geographically isolated Washington County; with a population of 3,447, it is a retail and service hub for approximately 15,000 people. Calais was once an economic powerhouse, but things have changed.
With 32 wharves along its waterfront, lumbering and shipbuilding were once two of the most prominent activities in the city. Calais thrived in the “age of sail” when ships built here brought cargos of lumber and granite to the ports of a growing nation. As the shipping base declined in the 1920s so did the waterfront, and the wharves were abandoned. Calais has experienced an inexorable economic decline ever since. It took Weed and Seed, and a lot of hard work, to turn things around.
Calais is a classic example of a remote rural area with natural resource-based economies. The resource base is declining, and the remaining manufacturing is at risk and downsizing radically. There has been an out-migration of the more prosperous middle class families as mills closed, and the unemployment rate is high. The pattern of intergenerational poverty is profoundly difficult to break.
In 2002, when the city experienced the highest crime rate in the state due to an epidemic of prescription drug abuse, residents were compelled to act. In preparation for a Weed and Seed application, residents were surveyed about what they thought was the city's greatest problem. The vast majority agreed that the poor economy was the root of many of the city's ills.
Calais is now reinventing itself. Residents are working to preserve the city's historic core, document more than 6,000 years of human history, develop a creative economy, and promote sustainable and experiential tourism in the area. Development of the downtown and the riverfront areas is an essential element of the plan.
In 2003, residents prepared a conceptual Master Plan for the Calais Waterfront. In 2004, the city obtained a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Downtown Revitalization Grant of $400,000 and a Municipal Trust Fund Grant of $500,000. The funds were used to remove burned out and vacant buildings in the heart of the historic business district. In addition, more public spaces, more parking, more green space, and pedestrian walkways from Main Street to the Downeast Heritage Museum and the Saint Croix River were created.
In 2005, the city obtained $125,000 in CDBG Community Enterprise funds to complete the landscaping of the green space, bury utilities, and build retaining walls and accessible pathways between Main Street and the river to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act. Also in 2005, a combined $20,000 in city funds and $30,000 from the Small Harbor Improvement Program (Maine Department of Transportation) was used to construct transient docking facilities on the waterfront. These facilities provide docking and water access for recreational and commercial vessels as well as for an emergency boat and Homeland Security vessels.
Since 1991, volunteer groups have built, improved, expanded, and maintained the almost 2 miles of waterfront walkway, and they continue to do so. The volunteers' hard work to reclaim the riverfront from trash, abandoned cars, and garbage was the “seed” of the residents' waterfront plan which led to the revitalization of the downtown area. Parts of this plan will require substantial funds, but volunteers will complete other parts in partnership with businesses, local service clubs, public works, the community college, and local schools.
The Calais Comprehensive Plan— which encompasses improvements to Calais 's industrial park, Pine Tree Zones, roads, and playgrounds, etc., in addition to the waterfront — has just been presented to the City Council and downtown businessmen, and building owners are working on the Calais Downtown Marketing Plan. Of course, the Weed and Seed site will work with these documents as it plans and implements new strategies for further neighborhood restoration.
The Saint Croix River was once the lifeblood of the community; Calais residents think it is crucial to develop the potential the river holds. Just one look at a map shows that the city is definitely “on the edge” of both the state and the nation, but it is also on the edge of possibilities.
For more information, contact: Gail Wahl
Calais Weed and Seed Site Coordinator
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