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Summer Towns Wake Up

May 27, 2009 - OLD ORCHARD BEACH — Bob Scott was doing his best to slap a coat of tangerine-colored paint on the deck chairs in front of Sheila's General Store.

But the cell phone in his pocket wouldn't stop ringing, and customers kept pulling in to ask if the seasonal variety store was open for business.

"Everyone's rushing to get open," said Scott, dropping his brush to ring up sales of cold beer and bodyboards. "Supposedly we're going to have a lot of Canadians coming this year."

Fresh paint glistened, power saws whined and women dragged vacuum cleaners into motel rooms up and down East Grand Avenue as Memorial Day closed in last week.

The holiday weekend marks the unofficial opening of summer in Maine, when floodgates part on the New Hampshire border and waves of tourists descend on the coast, mountains and lakes.

It's a season that could be measured in numbers: the 17.4 million vehicles that traveled the Maine Turnpike in 2008; $6.7 billion spent by U.S. tourists in Maine in 2006; the 2 million yearly visitors to Acadia National Park.

Figures like these will spell the difference between prosperity and struggle this year for thousands of Maine businesses and the people they employ.

But the season is more than just economics.

It's also a kind of high noon on Mainers' inner clocks, a time that imposes changes on the pace and texture of life as residents make room for the hordes that descend on the beaches, lakes and shopping outlets.

"I love it," said Sheila Lauzon, who works at the public library, just a block or two from the surf in Old Orchard. "It's like living in the suburbs and then living in an urban area all in the same place."

Summer seemed to be getting ahead of itself in southern Maine last week.

Temperatures leaped into the 90s, and the village square in Old Orchard teemed with shirtless young men in low-slung bermudas and women in bikinis and halter tops.

Most of the cars pulled up to the curbs bore Maine plates, and the throngs on the sidewalks were a pale imitation of what will happen in town in July and August, when tens of thousands will swarm in from Quebec province.

James Mitkonis, whose father owns the Moby Dick Motel and variety store, noted that many places will open their doors only on weekends until July arrives.

Still, Moby Dick's was gearing up, as delivery trucks parked out front and drivers shouldered their way inside with racks of milk jugs and fresh loaves of bread.

"It's crunch time," said Mitkonis, as he cleared shelf space for boxes of doughnuts. "Even if it isn't good weather, people just want a vacation."

Around the corner at the Sandpiper Motel, yellow plastic "crime scene" tape fluttered in the breeze, protecting a freshly striped section of asphalt as owner Denis Rioux cleaned rooms inside.

Rioux keeps the motel open all year, hoping to cover the winter heating-oil bill with off-season rates that draw a few lodgers who come to southern Maine for work projects.

For July and August, though, Rioux's motel ledger is chock full of names, evidence that his business – and all of Old Orchard – will soon be transformed.

"It's totally different," said Rioux. "It's like being in a different place."

The same can be said of other Maine summer towns.

"It's like a switch flips and we go from hibernation to high energy, we sort of have to shake ourselves and say it's time to wake up, it's time to come alive," said Marty Gleason, a Boothbay Harbor native who runs Gleason Fine Art gallery on Townsend Avenue with her husband, Ned.

Barbara Freeman, who moved to Boothbay from the suburbs of Philadelphia 18 years ago, says she and her husband gauge the coming and going of summer by the boats they can see in the harbor.

Last week there were maybe three, but she knows in a few weeks there will be hundreds.

Summer traffic requires an adjustment for folks in Boothbay Harbor, Freeman said. She probably wouldn't do a lot of driving during a big summer event in town, such as Windjammer Days.

In Bar Harbor, the commercial center for Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park, hardware store owner Paul Paradis sometimes complains about the summer traffic.

But when Paradis, who grew up in Bar Harbor, takes a big-picture look at his town, he says he feels "blessed" to live in a small community that has the amenities of a much a bigger place.

Those include a college, classical music performances, a movie theater, a ferry to Canada, international visitors, and activities to keep young people engaged and active.

"My daughter is 12 and she really looks forward to things opening up, because there's so much to do," Paradis said. "College of the Atlantic has a great camp program, we have a very good YMCA. We wouldn't have the quality of things we have if it wasn't for summer (tourism)."

Summer puts a dent in the morning fishing habit savored by John Bohill of Naples. He and his wife, Susan, moved to the Lakes Region west of Portland in 2004 so he could be near a fishing area.

The couple opened the Black Bear Cafe, not far from the causeway at the end of Long Lake, and in the summer, there's too much breakfast business for him to get away. But when the slow times come, and they do, his dream of living and working in a summer town comes true.

"John drops a line in whenever he can," said his wife. "We call his car the tackle box."

Back in Old Orchard, carpenter John Clarke had mixed feelings about the impact of the season. Warm weather brings jobs like the one he had last week, extending a deck on a summer rental property.

But Clarke said it's impossible to get around town once all the tourists arrive. He lives near East Grand Avenue, the strip where traffic congeals every summer.

"If you're in a hurry to get anywhere, forget it," he said.

Scott, the general store owner, takes the season in stride. He said he's hoping for a good summer this year and knows the onslaught will be over come September.

"Right after Labor Day," he said, gesturing over his shoulder at the strip, "you could put a couch out there and not get hit."

By DIETER BRADBURY and RAY ROUTHIER, Staff Writers, Portland Press Herald, May 24, 2009


Lakes:
Regions: Sebago, Sanford, Mid Coast, Downeast


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