Kathy Durgin-Leighton, Bowdoinham’s Town Manager and MCOG Treasurer, added, “While effective economic and community development certainly requires regional cooperation, the resulting impacts of such development always occur at the local level.  So we firmly believe that our municipalities are best suited to lead and set the policy for those regional efforts.”

Executive Committee member and former Chair, John James of Bath, found the council’s new direction particularly gratifying.  “We’ve been working since 1995 to grow this organization into a truly regional entity.  We’ve had many important successes along the way, but this is a significant milestone on that path and an expression of our commitment to both the need for regional cooperation and the principle of municipalities’ right to control and determine their own destinies.” 

New town signs up

The Midcoast Council of Governments is very proud to announce its newest member, the town of Boothbay.  Boothbay Town Manager, John Anderson has been elected to our Executive Committee. 

Anderson noted: “We recognize that joining forces with our neighboring communities to leverage the full benefit of all economic development programs strengthens each of us.  Our municipalities must continue to work together on meeting our regional economic needs and maximizing shared opportunities.”

Details of the new strategy

At its annual general assembly meeting on Thursday June 18th, the Mid-Coast Council for Business Development and Planning (as it was formerly named) enacted bylaw changes necessary for launching a new strategy to grow its capacity and strengthen its services.   The organization’s Executive Committee has devoted most of its efforts since the beginning of the year to establishing goals for a strengthened council of governments, including the following:

• Fully utilize the council of government model to establish a municipally-based and municipally-controlled structure for supporting and sustaining effective regional collaboration in economic/community development and planning.
• Expand the municipal services offered by the council of government to provide efficient, cost-effective solutions for the needs of member municipalities.
• Increase the number of municipal members to leverage regional resources and benefit from efficiencies of scale.

To do this, the organization enacted the following bylaw amendments:

• Expanded the council of government’s service region to the full extent of its jurisdictional area (known as the Southern Midcoast Sub-district of the Midcoast Planning & Development District) as established by various Gubernatorial Executive Orders.  This area currently includes the municipalities of Sagadahoc County, the municipalities of Lincoln County and the municipalities of Brunswick and Harpswell in Cumberland County.  
• Adopted a new name to reflect its new strategy and broader regional engagement:

Midcoast Council of Governments (MCOG

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