March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Kennebec Valley leader steps down after 30 years

FAIRFIELD – The man who made the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments a regional leader is leaving after three decades.

W. Elery Keene, who has led KVCOG for nearly 31 years, announced during the agency’s annual meeting Wednesday night that he plans to retire at the end of June 2001. The delay will allow time to find a successor.

“He started the organization from the ground up. That’s exemplary,” Philip Roy, a director from Fairfield, said Thursday. “To stay in an organization for 30 years – especially in this day and age – is unbelievable.”

Roy and other directors called Keene’s decision timely. After three decades, they said, it is time to bring in someone with fresh ideas and a new approach.

“It’s an issue of needing new direction,” Roy said. “It was his decision.”

On Thursday, people within and outside the agency praised Keene’s commitment to Kennebec and Somerset counties. He and his staff have helped communities obtain grants worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for business parks and a variety of other public works projects.

Keene also has promoted the idea of regional cooperation to build the economy. He was an early proponent of creating a regional office park to attract growth. FirstPark, which has drawn financial backing from two dozen communities, calls for 22 lots in a campuslike setting along Interstate 95 in Oakland.

“He’s created a better place for us all in mid-Maine through the work he’s done,” said Edward Gagnon, town manager of Winslow and a member of the agency’s executive board for 22 years.

Keene was traveling in Vermont on Thursday and unavailable for comment.

KVCOG was born in 1967 as the Northern Kennebec Regional Planning Commission. Early on, it worked with communities to build regional sewage treatment plants.

Keene, a former civil engineer who holds a master’s degree in urban and regional planning, became executive director in November 1969. Under his direction, the agency added staff and broadened its services.

KVCOG now oversees an annual operating budget of roughly $900,000, which comes from a variety of sources, including membership dues and government grants.

Each year, staff members help municipal officials draft and tighten ordinances dealing with everything from shore-land zoning to suburban growth. They also manage roughly $5 million in revolving loan funds that enable businesspeople to secure the money needed to save and create jobs.

In 1994, the organization absorbed communities from a defunct planning agency in southern Kennebec County to become the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments.

Despite his success in promoting the region, Keene has drawn criticism.

In recent years, federal economic development officials and a small number of directors have called for new leadership. They said Keene’s hands-off management style has fostered a lack of accountability that has hurt the organization.

Most recently, the agency became involved in a dispute with the town of Fairfield over a small-business loan fund KVCOG managed. Town officials wanted the $500,000 fund returned to their control, but the transfer took months longer than anyone expected. Agency officials, at the time, said the delay had stemmed from a misunderstanding.

Although the agency enjoys wide support in Kennebec County, its base in Somerset County has eroded. Of the county’s four largest towns, only Fairfield remains.

Michael Byron of Manchester, a former executive board member who last year had called for Keene’s departure, said the agency now has a chance to regroup and reach out to those communities that have left.

“On balance, [Keene] deserves a lot of credit,” said Byron, who left the agency’s board last year. “But in the past few years there’s been a weakening on the part of some communities to continue without more aggressive leadership.”

Still, Keene’s supporters said he has done a good job of holding together such a diverse organization in trying times.

John Piotti of Unity, the agency’s vice president, said KVCOG’s planning efforts place the region years ahead of other areas, including the growing mid-coast.

“It’s a testament to his tenacity, but it’s also a testament to his ability to get things done,” Piotti said, adding that Keene leaves a “rich legacy.

“He’s been easy to work with,” he said. “He’s a straight shooter, and he’s got a good head on his shoulders.”


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