COMPANIES HONORED FOR ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT
(LEWISTON) — The Cities of Lewiston and Auburn recently announced the winners of their annual Economic Achievement Awards. The Cities of Lewiston and Auburn present these awards each year to companies, organizations, or individuals who have made significant contributions in creating jobs, broadening the tax base, and/or investing in the local community in an extraordinary way.
Bisson Transportation, Building Solutions, LLC, and Maine Oxy were the winners from the City of Auburn, while Estes Express and Saint Mary’s Health System (formerly Sisters of Charity Health System) were recognized by the City of Lewiston. A special Joint Economic Achievement Award was presented by both cities to WGME-13.
Bisson
Founded in 1919, Bisson Transportation, Inc. is one of Maine’s oldest, largest and most diversified transportation companies. With facilities in West Bath, Auburn, Westbrook, Fairfield, Skowhegan, Jay and Rumford, Bisson employs or contracts with over 300 individuals. Bisson’s truckload freight, freight brokerage and yard services division is headquartered in a beautiful new 103,000 square foot building located in the Auburn Industrial Park.
From this location, 80 tractor trailers transport freight throughout the continental United States. Bisson also provides on-site yard management services at three of Maine’s largest paper mills. Through its affiliate LynxUS, LLC, Bisson provides commercial warehousing, shuttle and trans-loading (truck and rail) services, paper converting/re-winding and inventory management services to a growing list of clients.
Building Solutions
Building Solutions is a design/build firm providing total turnkey projects from planning, permitting, architecture, engineering, and construction to occupancy, including landscaping and specialty equipment installation.
Building Solutions has become popular with out-of-state clients who don’t have time to frequently stay on-site to manage a project. Over the past five years, Business Solutions completed major development projects for Western Maine Transportation, Toddle Inn, World Harbors’ sauce production expansion, and construction of two warehouses.
Maine Oxy
Maine Oxy was founded in 1929 under the name Maine Gas Service, providing sales and service to home propane customers. In 1935, Maine Oxy was incorporated as Maine Oxy-Acetylene Supply Company and began providing welding supplies and industrial gases.
Maine Oxy has expanded to a company with multiple sales and manufacturing sites and currently operates from eight locations in Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Further expanding in 1993, the Spec-Air Gases and Technologies division was established, leading the industry in replacing disposable calibration gas cylinders with refillables. The New England School of Metalwork is the company’s most recent addition, offering two core programs in welding and blacksmithing.
Estes Express
It’s difficult to travel on any major highway without passing one of Estes Express Lines’ 22,000-plus trailers. Established in 1931 with a single truck making deliveries in southern Virginia, Estes has grown into one of North America’s largest and most comprehensive trucking distribution companies, with over 13,000 employees and 200 terminals in all 50 U.S. States and Canada.
When Estes began to outgrow its Maine distribution center in Scarborough in 2006, they looked to Lewiston for a site for a new facility. Lewiston was particularly suitable because of its developable land near the Maine Turnpike and its centralized location to much of Maine’s population. Estes settled on a site along River Road for its new 37-door, 15,000 sq. ft. facility that opened in May 2007. The new facility brought 38 new full-time jobs to Lewiston.
St. Mary’s
Since the Sisters of Charity first arrived from St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, in the late 1800s to serve the needs of Lewiston’s early mill workers, the Sisters of Charity have been diligent stewards of the area’s physical and social well-being. Today, St. Mary’s Health System operates a state-of the-art medical facility offering a comprehensive range of medical services, including St. Marguerite d’Youville Pavilion, the largest nursing home facility north of Boston. Last October, St. Mary’s opened its Center for Joint Replacement, Maine’s first center dedicated to this increasingly important sector. This $1.7 million facility located within St Mary’s Medical Center features 16 modern, private rooms designed in part by previous joint replacement patients.
St. Mary’s also recently completed its new Nutrition Center in the former Wallace School in downtown Lewiston. The Center provides nutrition-related services for residents in the community and provides resources for others providing similar services across Maine. In the coming year, the Medical Center’s Emergency Department will double in size —the first such upgrade in 17 years—and the establishment of a new ambulatory center is slated in Auburn.
WGME-13
As evidenced by sponsorship of such events as the Great Falls Balloon Festival, the United Way of Androscoggin County’s Annual Campaign, the Androscoggin Business to Business Trade Show, and the successful “L-A: It’s Happening Here!” community branding campaign, WGME-13 intrinsically links its mission of providing TV programming with being responsible community citizens.
It has also increased its news coverage of L-A dramatically over the last five years, reporting on such trends as L-A’s economic renaissance, diverse job creation, and the community’s meteoric growth in arts and entertainment offerings. As a result, Maine has had a reawakening to L-A’s many attributes, and WGME-13’s viewership numbers have risen dramatically too.
The Economic Achievement Award winners were recently honored at the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council’s Annual Dinner and Business Forum.
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