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Since its founding in 1988, the Maine Island Trail Association has depended on a fleet of workboats to carry out the group's mission of caring for more than 250 natural sites along the Maine coast.

Now the Island Trail Association finally has a permanent home for those workboats.

The 2,400-square-foot building at 36 Prout Road in Freeport will provide winter storage and maintenance for the boats. The former garage/warehouse will also serve as the first official headquarters for the association, a nonprofit membership group aiming to develop a water trail to Maine’s wild islands.

The nonprofit bought the building, on a 1.1. acre lot, for $431,400. The property was listed at $575,000 and appraised at $430,000. Financing for the purchase was through a conventional mortgage through Bangor Savings Bank. 

“Having a dedicated facility for our fleet is a real milestone for MITA,” Executive Director Doug Welch said in a news release. “We have relied on a combination of member generosity and leased space for our boat storage needs in the past. However, there were never any guarantees from year to year.”

The association uses eight aluminum workboats in its stewardship efforts at more than 250 island and coastline sites. 

The metal building was constructed in 1986 and initially housed a home auto body and trucking business, the association’s program director, Brian Marcaurelle, told Mainebiz.

Then it was used by Fine Lines Construction Inc. for a number of years followed by Location Services LLC, which sold it to the association. 

“For years, we begged for and borrowed fleet storage space from generous MITA members, volunteers and staff,” Marcaurelle said. “As the number of boats in our fleet swelled and as we became more attentive to boat maintenance, we decided we needed a more stable solution that provided access to the boats in wintertime.”

In 2019, the association began leasing hangar space at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station. But last winter, the group was told the hangar space would no longer be available. The association turned to the Dunham Group, a real estate firm in Portland, for help locating new space for lease or for potential ownership. 

“The Dunham Group had helped us find new office space in Portland in 2017,” said Marcaurelle. “We gave broker Sam LeGeyt a list of criteria and he searched for compatible listings between Portland and Wiscasset. Sam was the person who presented 36 Prout Road as a possibility.”

“We have a list of things we'd like to do to prepare the space for our intended uses as a boat storage location, a boat maintenance facility and as a workshop for our stewardship operations,” he said.

"We have already invested in new water filtration equipment and a garage door to replace one that had been removed by the prior owners. Additionally, we anticipate site work to improve drainage on the property and interior modifications including revamping the HVAC system.”

The fleet consists of eight 18-foot aluminum Lund skiffs on trailers, three towing vehicles, and an 8-foot by 12-foot cargo trailer. During the summer, the skiffs are staged in various locations along the coast between Portland and Machias to be used by the association’s staff and volunteers to care for the islands on the Maine Island Trail. 

The focus now is on renewing components of the fleet that are pushing up against their life expectancy. 

“We tend to put much more wear and tear on our boats, engines and trailers than the average user, so we try to be strategic about planning for replacement,” he said.

Volunteerism with the association has remained consistently strong in recent years, with over 1,000 people volunteering on the trail annually, he said. In 2021, the association conducted almost 1,700 stewardship visits and removed over 1,400 bags of trash from island shorelines. The volunteers put in a total of 7,110 hours. Over 500 were first-time volunteers. The time put in included 68 organized group service days that included workplace and youth groups.

Originally comprised of 30 islands, the Maine Island Trail now has over 250 island and mainland sites and spans the coast from New Hampshire to Canada. The association has developed handshake agreements with public and private landowners to provide stewardship.

In the 2021 fiscal year, the nonprofit had operating expenses of $1 million and an endowment of $1.7 million, according to financial data on its website. 

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The Giving Guide helps nonprofits have the opportunity to showcase and differentiate their organizations so that businesses better understand how they can contribute to a nonprofit’s mission and work.

Work for ME is a workforce development tool to help Maine’s employers specifically target Maine’s emerging workforce. A free guide to job and career opportunities in Maine’s essential industries.

The way we do business can change in a moment. This Mainebiz podcast series features conversations with Maine business owners who found their life, their business, or their world suddenly upended in one day. 

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