ECONOMIC ACTIVITY REPORT
February 2008
This is the last of my reports that will be prepared from Florida as I plan on being back in my Berlin office on April 7, 2008. While here, I continue to study a variety of methods used by local communities and the State of Florida in dealing with their community and economic development issues. I hope that some of the lessons learned will be useful in addressing some of the issues we're facing in Berlin and the North Country.
Regardless of location, the weather seems to play an important role in our daily lives. Here in Florida I've experienced severe weather conditions through three tornado warnings and encouraged the local emergency management team to take into consideration the special needs of a mostly elderly population spending the winter in this campground. While involved with weather issues here, I was receiving emails from Concord about the danger of several feet of snow accumulating on industrial buildings in New Hampshire. I took these State warnings very seriously and contacted many of our businesses in Berlin, suggesting that they remove snow from the roofs of their buildings.
I'm happy to report that Moonlight Machining has entered into negotiations with another New Hampshire machining company to do subcontract work for the military. This effort began last November as a result of suggestions made by DRED and a phone call I received from a Newport New Hampshire machining company asking for a possible partnership with a Berlin machining operation. At that point I submitted the names of all four machining companies in Berlin along with the names of the owners and phone numbers. After several phone calls, the Newport company scheduled a visit to Moonlight Machining and I should hear from Ray Godbout about the outcome of the visit within a week.
Last summer I became aware that one of the challenges facing companies in our region is the one way delivery issues faced by truckers and other transportation systems. Known as "dead end deliveries", our local companies often pay higher transportation rates to have product brought in because truckers can't find payloads going back south. In extreme cases, our local companies can't find any trucking companies wishing to come this far north without charging double the rate in order to compensate for the empty ride back. It was during such a conversation with a local company who receives products in shipping containers that I came up with the idea of the possibility of returning a local product in the empty containers. The company owner became fascinated with the concept and we both agreed to work on the idea of
shipping product out of the region on returning empty shipping containers. I suggested wood/wood products and began looking at availability and product. The company started looking at wood species, sizes and other considerations in foreign markets. After almost a year, I'm happy to report that we're close to having a deal where hardwood lumber from this area may be heading to a foreign country in what are now empty returning containers. I hope to have more details about this effort before summer and I'll be more than happy to share the information with the BIDPA Board of Directors once I clear the information with the company.
Norman Charest
Economic Development Director
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