Lewiston: Economy

Major Industries and Commercial Activity

Once known mainly for the manufacture of shoes and textiles, Lewiston and Auburn today possess a diversified economic base in both the manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors. Androscoggin County has transformed itself to a progressive tourism and high-precision manufacturing powerhouse. Health care is the largest industry in the Lewiston-Auburn area, providing more than 6,800 healthcare-related jobs. Textile manufacturers have diversified their products to include industrial, commercial, and construction fabrics, while shoe manufacturers now produce lower volume but higher quality products.

The food and beverage industry is another growing economic sector in Androscoggin County, with major companies like Poland Spring Bottling Co., White Rock Distilleries, Lepage Bakeries, and Angostura International, Federal Distributors, Central Distributors, and Seltzer & Rydholm having facilities in the area.

Other companies in the Lewiston area include Formed Fiber Technologies, an auto parts manufacturer for companies such as General Motors and Toyota; Tambrands, a Procter & Gamble plant that makes feminine hygiene products; Panolam Industries, which makes laminated countertops and other surfaces; and Diamond Phoenix Corporation, a company that manufactures carousels, sorting/picking systems, and robotics for companies such as Boeing, Hallmark, and Lockheed Martin. In addition, retail company L.L. Bean has a telephone operations center in Lewiston, and Giger, one of the nation's largest privately owned promotional products companies, continues to print its annual Farmer's Almanac.

The Maine Department of Economic and Community Development reported that in 2002 the Lewiston-Auburn area led the state in economic development activity, and placed second in job creation. Both cities are a travel center for their section of the state and benefit from tourism.

Items and goods produced: shoes and textiles; electrical, food, metal, plastic, and printed products; ductware; dampers; high power radio frequency components

Incentive Programs—New and Existing Businesses

Both Lewiston and Auburn have track records in assisting companies with various programs and incentives, depending upon the number and quality of jobs retained. The Lewiston Economic Growth Council acts as a local liaison with local and state development agencies on behalf of interested businesses. The council also offers site search assistance by helping companies locate appropriate buildings and/or land, in conjunction with local government, real estate brokers, and private developers. Lewiston's Economic and Community Development Department also extends a variety of services to local businesses, including commercial financing, streamlined review and permitting processes, and municipally owned business park sites.

Local programs

The Lewiston Auburn Economic Growth Council offers a number of services to local businesses, including technical assistance, commercial financing, site searches, and marketing. Since the council's inception, it has leveraged almost $45 million in new local investments through financing programs. Its Economic Stimulus Loan Pool provides eligible businesses with loans up to $150,000 to be used for site purchase and development, construction, machinery and equipment, and working capital. The Micro-Enterprise Loan Program, for businesses with five or fewer employees, offers loans up to $25,000 for site purchases, construction, and equipment purchases.

State programs

The Finance Authority of Maine (FAME) assists economic development by providing capital for business, industrial, and natural resources enterprises through a wide variety of programs, including loan insurance grants, targeted lending, and taxable and tax-exempt bonds. FAME's Economic Recovery Loan Program offers subordinate financing to assist businesses in their efforts to remain viable and/or improve productivity; loans of up to $200,000 are available.

Job training programs

Through the State of Maine's Governor's Training Initiative, local businesses are eligible for partial reimbursement of training costs incurred through recruitment, assessment, workplace safety, workplace literacy, and technical training. The Maine Quality Center, in conjunction with the Maine Technical College System, provides training for workers at qualified Maine businesses. The center offers trainee recruitment, employer-specific training programs, and pre-employment screening. To participate in these programs, businesses must create at least eight new jobs which are at a high skill and wage level.

Development Projects

In recent years, Lewiston has seen a number of development projects come to fruition. With healthcare playing a vital role in the area's economy, local healthcare facilities continue to be expanded and improved. Central Maine Health-care launched its multi-million dollar Central Maine Heart and Vascular Institute, a cardiac care center providing open-heart surgery and angioplasty procedures. Other infrastructure investments at Central Maine Medical Center include a parking garage, office expansions, and a new home for its nursing and radiology schools. St. Mary's Regional Medical Center recently built the Corinne Croteau Lepage Women's Health Pavilion; the $6 million facility is the first of its kind in Maine.

City officials are also planning for a $20 million downtown project anchored by Oxford Networks, Northeast Bank, and a campus of Andover College. The project will see the creation of two new office buildings, a new parking garage, underground utilities, new sidewalks, new streetlights, and new landscaping. The project will serve as the central hub for a state-of-the-art fiber-optic telecommunication system that will serve both Lewiston and Auburn.

Another upcoming development project in the Lewiston area is the creation of a new $45 million Wal-Mart Distribution Center, which will employ 150 to 400 people. The center will service Wal-Mart grocery stores in northern New England.

Economic Development Information: Lewiston Auburn Economic Growth Council, 95 Park St., PO Box 1188, Lewiston, ME 04243; telephone (207)784-0161. Lewiston Department of Economic and Community Development, 27 Pine St., 3rd Fl., Lewiston, ME 04240; telephone (207)784-2951. Finance Authority of Maine (FAME), 5 Community Dr., PO Box 949, Augusta, ME 04332; telephone (207)623-3263.

Commercial Shipping

Lewiston-Auburn is conveniently situated on the Maine Turnpike; exits 12 and 13 provide direct routes into the area's industrial parks. Several trucking companies operate with both interstate and intrastate authority. Rail service is available through the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad, which operates a double-stack intermodal transportation facility in Auburn. In addition, Guildford Rail runs a regional rail system with daily switching service and loading dock facilities. The Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport provides charter service to locations in the U.S. and Canada; the area is also only 38 miles away from Portland International Jetport. Portland Harbor, 40 minutes away from Lewiston, accommodates large ships with roll-on, roll-off docks and container handling capability.

Labor Force and Employment Outlook

The local labor force boasts a strong reputation for skill and commitment with access to superior educational resources. Industry Week magazine once named Lewiston-Auburn the strongest manufacturing area in New England, based on productivity, specialization, and employment. Thanks to Lewiston-Auburn's central location, local employers are able to draw upon a talented workforce from the surrounding area—nearly 50 percent of the state's population is within a 30-mile radius.

The area provides many opportunities for workers to pursue education and job training—local options include six colleges, a hospital-sponsored nursing program, and an adult education program. The Maine Quality Center provides employer-specific training programs and trainee recruitment, while Auburn's Central Maine Technical College offers courses to employers at the worksite or on campus.

The following is a summary of data regarding the Lewiston-Auburn metropolitan area labor force, 2004 annual averages.

Size of nonagricultural labor force: 48,000

Number of workers employed in . . .

construction and mining: 2,700

manufacturing: 6,200

trade, transportation, and utilities: 9,900

information: 800

financial activities: 3,000

professional and business services: 4,900

educational and health services: 10,000

leisure and hospitality: 3,500

other services: 1,300

government: 5,800

Average hourly earnings of production workers employed in manufacturing: $16.97 (statewide average)

Unemployment rate: 5.5% (February 2005)

Cost of Living

The average price of a single-family home in Lewiston ranges from $78,000 to $100,000.

The following is a summary of data regarding several key cost of living factors in the Lewiston-Auburn area.

2004 ACCRA Average House Price: Not reported

2004 ACCRA Cost of Living Index: Not reported

State income tax rate: a graduated income tax rate from 2.0% to 8.5% of federal adjusted gross income with modifications.

State sales tax rate: 5.0%

Local income tax rate: None

Local sales tax rate: None

Property tax rate: $27.70 per $1,000 of assessed valuation (2004)

Economic Information: Lewiston Auburn Economic Growth Council, 95 Park St., PO Box 1188, Lewiston, ME 04243; telephone (207)784-0161

Lewiston: Recreation

Sightseeing

A stroll through the 109-acre campus of Bates College offers the sightseer a view of lawns, gardens, and ivy-covered buildings; one path leads to the summit of Mt. David, providing an aerial view of the Twin Cities and sometimes a glimpse of the White Mountains 50 miles to the west. Lewiston Falls and Dam are best viewed from North Bridge.

Bird fanciers visiting the area may wish to explore Thorn-crag Bird Sanctuary, a 310-acre wildlife preserve for birds and small animals. The Mt. Apatite recreation area in Auburn features beautiful wooded hiking through an area once known for tourmaline mining.

Arts and Culture

With the cooperative spirit that now characterizes the relationship between Lewiston and Auburn, the two cities formed L/A Arts in 1973 in order to increase the number of cultural amenities in the area. In cooperation with local educational institutions and community organizations, the group sponsors hundreds of performances a year by artists, authors, actors, and others in the community and the schools. Nationally recognized artists regularly perform at the Olin Arts Center on the Bates College campus. Each summer, the college hosts the Bates Dance Festival, a conglomeration of showings, performances, workshops, and discussions for students, performers, educators, and choreographers. The college's Department of Theater and Rhetoric stages several theater and dance productions annually at its three campus theaters.

The Androscoggin Chorale was formed as a community chorus in 1972. In 1991, the Chorale joined with the Maine Chamber Ensemble to form the Maine Music Society. The society has since offered several successful years of performances throughout the state, including operatic performances, classical music concerts, and holiday performances. The Public Theatre, a fully professional Equity operation which has presented comedic and dramatic performances to the community for more than 10 years, was recently voted the best theatre company in Maine for the second year in a row.

The Lewiston-Auburn College/USM Atrium Gallery presents exhibitions of paintings, sculptures, and photography from artists across the state. It also hosts the annual Area Artists Exhibition and annual L/A Arts Exhibit and Auction. The Bates College Museum of Art at Olin Arts Center is home to one of the region's finest collections of masterworks on paper, including the Marsden Hartley Memorial collection. More than 40,000 square feet of space at the Creative Photographic Art Center of Maine in the historic Bates Mill Complex is dedicated to photography and other related arts. Genealogical literature, historical exhibits on the Native American culture, and Civil War artifacts are on display at the Androscoggin Historical Society Library and Museum in Auburn.

The Franco-American Heritage Collection at Lewiston-Auburn College/USM provides a significant collection of documents, photographs, artifacts, and audiovisual material relating to the area's Franco-American community. Opened in 2000, Lewiston's Franco-American Heritage Center at St. Mary's was created to preserve the area's Franco-American heritage. The center serves as a museum, performance hall, and learning center.

Since 1940, Auburn's Community Little Theatre has been producing musicals, dramas, comedies, and benefit concerts each year in the Great Falls Performing Arts Center. The Pleasant Note Coffeehouse is a combination restaurant and concert venue that presents a variety of artists ranging from up-and-coming locals to internationally known folk and jazz performers. Because of all these activities, the Lewiston-Auburn area has been designated as one of the best small arts towns in America.

Arts and Culture Information: L/A Arts, 221 Lisbon St., Lewiston, ME 04240; telephone (207)782-7228

Festivals and Holidays

Summer is festival time in Lewiston-Auburn; the season is inaugurated by the Maine State Parade, the largest such event in the state, held each May in Lewiston. In June, the Great Falls Canoe Race highlights the Androscoggin River. The Liberty Festival on July 4th draws thousands of visitors for live entertainment, food, and a fireworks display. Lewiston celebrates its French-Canadian heritage each summer with the Festival de Joie, a celebration of traditional food and music from all around the world. In mid-August the skies over Auburn and Lewiston fill with the colorful sights of the Great Falls Balloon Festival; 45 balloonists from across the Northeast take part in the event.

Sports for the Participant

A wealth of summer and winter recreational activities is available in and around Lewiston and Auburn. The proximity to mountains, forests, and lakes offers opportunities to skiers, skaters, campers, boaters, hikers, and anglers. Bicycle tours of the back roads of the region are very popular. Just north of Lewiston is the Hebron-to-Canton Rail Trail, an abandoned railroad bed turned pedestrian and bike route—a 36 mile round trip overall. For watersports enthusiasts, Lewiston plays host to the Great Falls Canoe Race each June.

The Twin Cities maintain dozens of parks and playgrounds, a supervised beach, skating rinks, and ball fields and courts. The Ingersoll Arena in Auburn is available for public skating, skating instruction, and hockey from early October to mid-March. Sunday River Mountain Bike Park in Bethel is served by two ski lifts, and offers sixty miles of marked and patrolled trails. The Lost Valley ski area features downhill and cross-country skiing in the winter and mountain bike trails and paintball facilities in the summer. A number of golfing facilities are also located in or near Lewiston.

Shopping and Dining

The downtown areas of Lewiston and Auburn lost most of their retail trade to shopping centers in the 1980s but made a comeback as significant commercial centers in the late 1990s. Both Auburn and Lewiston have shopping malls, featuring major department stores, and Freeport—home of L.L. Bean, the outdoors outfitters—is about 30 minutes away from Lewiston. Nutcracker Sweets is an old-fashioned candy shop featuring hand-crafted chocolates, and Orphan Annie's Antiques in Auburn offers a large selection of Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Tiffany, Steuben, and other prominent French and American art glass.

Western Maine is home to many small inns where fine dining and sometimes spectacular views are available to the public. Restaurants in the Lewiston area range from inexpensive spots such as Bill Davis Luncheonette and Gipper's Sports Grill, to the international fine dining available at places like T.J.'s Restaurant and Eli's Restaurant at the Turner Highlands Country Club. Regional seafood restaurants and ethnic spots for Mexican, Chinese, and Italian cuisines are also abundant.

Visitor Information: Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce, 179 Lisbon St., PO Box 59, Lewiston, ME 04243; telephone (207)783-2249; email [email protected]

Lewiston: Education and Research

Elementary and Secondary Schools

Lewiston takes great pride in its education system, which has gained national attention for its innovative programs that have incorporated arts into the classroom, fostered business partnerships, and started after-school programs. Lewiston students regularly score at or above national and state averages on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and the Maine Educational Assessment. More than 70 percent of Lewiston's high school graduates continue on to postsecondary education.

The following is a summary of data regarding the Lewiston public schools as of the 2004–2005 school year.

Total enrollment: 4,600

Number of facilities elementary schools: 6

junior/high middle schools: 1

senior high schools: 1

other: 1

Student/teacher ratio: 19:1 (elementary school)

Teacher salaries average: $43,749

Funding per pupil: $6,546

There are four parochial schools in Lewiston, including St. Dominic Regional High School, Holy Cross School and St. Joseph's School, and St. Peters, which together serve approximately 1,300 students. Several private Christian schools are located in the area as well.

Public Schools Information: Lewiston Public Schools, Dingley Building, 36 Oak St., Lewiston, ME 04240; telephone (207)795-4100

Colleges and Universities

Lewiston is home to historic Bates College, a highly selective liberal arts school founded by Maine abolitionists in 1855. Located on a 109-acre campus, Bates offers arts and sciences programs plus majors in anthropology, speech, and theater. The school offers a low student to faculty ratio, making close collaborations in the classroom and laboratory possible. Two-thirds of Bates's students typically study abroad, and more than two-thirds of recent graduates enroll in graduate study within 10 years after graduation. Recently, U.S. News and World Report recognized Bates as being among the top 25 liberal arts colleges in the country.

The University of Southern Maine's Lewiston-Auburn College is the fastest growing campus in the University system. The college's 1,700 students can choose between four-year degree programs in arts and humanities; natural, applied, social, and behavioral sciences; nursing; and leadership and organizational studies. Master's degree programs are available in leadership studies, literacy education, and occupational therapy.

Between them, St. Mary's Hospital and Central Maine Medical Center offer nursing, radiologic technology, and anesthesiology schools. The Central Maine Institute for Health Professionals offers degree programs through the Clark F. Miller School of Radiologic Technology, the School of Nuclear Medicine Technology, and the CMMC School of Nursing.

Auburn is home to Mid-State College, which offers degrees in accounting, business, medical support, computer applications, tourism and hospitality management, and early childhood education. The college also offers certificates in medical transcription and therapeutic massage. At Central Maine Technical College, the school offers industry-specific courses and associate's degrees in Arts General Studies or Liberal Studies. It also boasts the lowest tuition rates in the state.

Libraries and Research Centers

Lewiston maintains one central library holding 123,000 print and audio-visual volumes housed in the original granite 1902 Carnegie Library Building. The library maintains special collections on Franco-American heritage, French literature, genealogical information, and local history. It also has an active children's program and outreach program.

Among the special collections at the George and Helen Ladd Library at Bates College is the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library, a collection of rare books, records, manuscript collections, and papers of the U.S. senator. Central Maine Medical Center maintains the Gerrish-True Health Sciences Library, a center for information relating to patient care, patient education, personal health, research, staff development, and wellness promotion.

Public Library Information: Lewiston Public Library, 200 Lisbon St. Lewiston, ME 04240; telephone (207)784-0135

Lewiston: History

Permission to settle the tract of land along the Androscoggin River where Lewiston and Auburn now stand was granted by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1768 to agents of a group referred to as the proprietors. Under the terms of the grant, fifty families in as many houses were to settle in the area, which was to be called Lewiston, by 1774. It is doubtful that these terms were complied with; the first settler, Paul Hildreth, did not build his log cabin until 1770 on the east bank of the river. Although Lewiston opened its first woolen mill in 1819 and its first cotton mill in 1844, it and neighboring Auburn grew very slowly. It is said that Auburn took its name from Oliver Goldsmith's poem "The Deserted Village."

The growth of the Twin Cities, as they are often called, began in 1836 with the exploitation of the water power of the Androscoggin River. Lewiston grew up as a textile center, Auburn as a shoe-manufacturing center, and both cities attracted workers of French-Canadian origin to work in the factories. By the 1870s several large textile mills were operating in Lewiston, and Auburn's twenty-one factories were turning out more than two million pairs of shoes annually. Friction between the two cities broke out in 1937 during a bitter shoe strike. Many residents of one city worked in the other, and during the strike police sought to prevent strikers from crossing the bridges that connect the two cities.

By the 1960s the economy of the two cities was still dominated by the textile and shoe industries, but mills were beginning to close and shoe shops were being badly hurt by foreign competition. Into the late 1970s the cities engaged in a rivalry to attract new businesses until it was recognized that cooperation would be beneficial to the development of both. During the 1980s Lewiston and Auburn experienced a building boom; the cooperative spirit that grew up between them was marked by such factors as the sharing of economic development councils, a newly rebuilt hydroelectric facility, and the tax revenues generated by the development of industrial land. Lewiston's vitality and cultural richness were factors in its selection as the national headquarters of the forum Francophone des Affaires, an international trade group of French-speaking nations. Today Lewiston continues to be a city enriched by a strong cultural heritage, diverse economy, active artists' community, and beautiful natural resources.

Historical Information: Androscoggin Historical Society, Court Street Door, County Building, Auburn, ME 04210; telephone (207)784-0586

Lewiston: Population Profile

Metropolitan Area Residents

1990: 93,679

2000: 90,830

Percent change, 1990–2000: -3.0%

U.S. rank in 1990: 256th

U.S. rank in 2000: 268th

City Residents:

1980: 40,481

1990: 39,757

2000: 35,690

2003 estimate: 35,922

Percent change, 1990–2000: -10.3%

U.S. rank in 1980: 540th

U.S. rank in 1990: 664th

U.S. rank in 2000: Not reported (State rank: 2nd)

Density: 1,047.0 people per square mile (2000)

Racial and ethnic characteristics (2000)

White: 34,726

Black or African American: 561

American Indian and Alaska Native: 351

Asian: 384

Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander: 32

Hispanic or Latino (may be of any race): 448

Other: 262

Percent of residents born in state: 75.9% (2000)

Age characteristics (2000)

Population under 5 years old: 1,983

Population 5 to 9 years old: 2,122

Population 10 to 14 years old: 2,073

Population 15 to 19 years old: 2,631

Population 20 to 24 years old: 3,090

Population 25 to 34 years old: 4,596

Population 35 to 44 years old: 5,008

Population 45 to 54 years old: 4,539

Population 55 to 59 years old: 1,718

Population 60 to 64 years old: 1,588

Population 65 to 74 years old: 2,972

Population 75 to 84 years old: 2,374

Population 85 years and over: 996

Median age: 37.6 years

Births (2001)

Total number: 1,322

Deaths (2001)

Total number: 914

Money income (1999)

Per capita income: $17,905

Median household income: $29,191

Total number of households: 15,291

Number of households with income of . . .

less than $10,000: 2,552

$10,000 to $14,999: 1,380

$15,000 to $24,999: 2,800

$25,000 to $34,999: 2,232

$35,000 to $49,999: 2,343

$50,000 to $74,999: 2,441

$75,000 to $99,999: 902

$100,000 to $149,999: 403

$150,000 to $199,999: 59

$200,000 or more: 179

Percent of families below poverty level: 10.0% (59.3% of which were female householder families with related children under 5 years)

2002 FBI Crime Index Total: 3,322