After the three hour hearing last night about the proposed Laidlaw biomass proposal I have to admit I was more depressed than I've been in a very long time. I'm normally the ultimate optimist, but after listening to the comments of the nearly two dozen people who addressed the committee, I felt like every shred of home and excitement I've felt about Berlin had been sucked out of me. The opposition comments generally went like this: We need jobs, there's nothing happening in Berlin so this sounds like a great idea.
They are just SO wrong.
First of all, there ARE jobs in Berlin. We've added four people since November, including one who worked at the Groveton mill. No, they are not construction jobs, or mill worker jobs. They are desk jobs, with health benefits. Jobs that are on the cutting edge of communications, so my employees can take their skills and work anywhere in the world.
And I'm not the only company that is growing in the area. There's also my friend Tom Masiero who runs YoParts out of his place in Berlin. Okay, we're not very visible. We don't need smokestacks, or big buildings. The only ingredients we need to run successful businesses are good smart people and a broadband connection, both of which we've found in Berlin. Because we can run our businesses anywhere, we chose pretty places, with clean air and water, safe streets, and beautiful mountains. Take those amenities away or put a big industrial park where there is now a beautiful view, and we'll pack up and go somewhere else. Our business and our employees can work anywhere, we just chose to be in Berlin because we love it.
There was a lot of talk last night about jobs for "young people" –the sons and daughters of the people in favor of the plant. I wonder if they've really asked their offspring what kind of jobs they want.. I know that most of the young people who work for me aren't looking for 9 – 5 jobs in a power plant. They want to use their brains not their brawn. They want opportunities to travel, to increase their knowledge, to make a difference. And they want flexibility to see their children's plays, to go to doctor's appointments, and have some balance in their lives. Companies like mine and Tom's are already creating those jobs, so the notion that "nothing is happening" is simply not true.
Then there was all the talk about the decay of the community. Yes, are there still some derelict buildings around. But most of them have been cleaned up. I must have looked at two dozen buildings while trying to find a place to settle, and almost all of them no longer have for sale signs in front of them. Instead, they have fresh paint jobs, and new windows, and tidy flower beds in front. Like it or not, new people have moved to the area, attracted by the recreation, the views, and the fact that Berlin is just a wonderful town to live in. I worry that those people may not find the town so wonderful when there are 200 trucks a day barreling thru town and a smokestack belching its vapors into our view.
The really sad thing is that by the time that Laidlaw hires its first worker, many of those in the room hoping for those jobs, will have either found other careers, moved, retired, or will simply be too old for Laidlaw to even consider them. And if they get their way, the legacy they leave to their children will be the same that their parents left them. An industrial wasteland, with one major industry, totally dependent on one company for survival. And what happens if that company doesn't make it. Is it only me that wonders if Laidlaw is the "Fairpoint" of the power industry – biting off more than it can swallow?
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