Berlin NH Article with a few references to Millinocket

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peakbagger

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Interesting article from the southern Maine newspapers on Berlin's transformation and speculation that it could be a possible future for Millinocket

http://www.pressherald.com/2016/10/...rism-holds-potential-lessons-for-millinocket/

It is a bit of a "puff" piece. They forget to mention a newer state prison (that was built as the mill declined), a new federal prison which has brought quite a few well paying federal jobs with federal benefits and numerous spin off jobs, the biomass plant which also has plenty of support jobs and a major expansion of sawmill in Milan NH.

The ATVs definitely have given the tourist businesses a boost in the area as in combination with the winter snowmobile trade it allows folks to cobble together a year round business. It definitely has brought some vitality back to the area. I had not been to the Jericho Lake facility for a couple of years and the development to date has been down well, the facilities that have built are higher quality and better maintained that a lot of state of NH facilities that are typically under maintained. Jericho Lake is completely undeveloped with only the park. Actually a pretty nice place for family camping. A new high end campground on RT 110 is on tap for the spring. Luckily there isn't a lot of overlap between the hiking trail network and the ATV network so conflicts are minimal except for the Coos Trail.

By the way someone did nice video on the area https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...3953782B4BF7549371333953782B4BF7549&FORM=VIRE

There is still more housing then residents and there is legacy of absentee landlords who would rather let the places rot then fix them but the city has made a effort since the federal prison provided seed funding to actively force owners of deteriorated buildings to maintain them and the city has torn down 200 plus of the worse buildings. The city and state also have been rebuilding the major roads through town. RT 110 is complete a major improvement compared to its old alignment and cleaned out a blighted area at the same time while RT 16 is under major reconstruction north of downtown Berlin.
 
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