President & Principal Owner CCB, Inc., Westbrook Based Construction Firm
Current 2013 Board President AGC Maine
Support our Working Waterfront
Press Conference, Sprague Energy Terminal, South Portland
Monday, September 23, 2013
“My name is Beth Sturtevant, I am the President and principal of Westbrook based construction firm CCB, Incorporated. I am also the current Board President of AGC Maine. Since 1945 CCB has worked in industrial facilities like the one we are standing in today. We need to protect our jobs and today’s report is telling, the WPO is a job killer.
Just two weeks AGC Maine hosted future constructors who earned scholarships from our education foundation. AGC Maine realized over two decades ago that we needed to do all we could to help young people succeed in engineering and technical construction careers. Industry statistics were telling us that the skills required for a career in the construction and engineering fields were going to be of a higher and more technical nature. The statistics were also telling us that the average age of a career construction worker in Maine would be problematic in the future.
Nowhere in that roadmap did we foresee the steep decline in the marketplace like we did in 2006. Retail stopped, industrial work slowed, and energy remained the only glimmer of hope. What does this mean to a company like mine? Many of our talented workers escaped to Boston and other parts of this country when the economy started the slow rebound … they went where the jobs were! We cannot afford to drive more jobs out of Maine, especially those that already exist.
The men and women working in our industry are important to everyone. Construction careers provide excellent jobs with good wages. The construction jobs translate into more financially secure families and more dollars going into the economy. Local construction projects are important to the communities where those projects are located. We buy lunch at neighboring sandwich shops, we shop in your stores, we buy construction materials from area vendors, we buy fuel and those dollars spent locally translate into stronger schools, and parks and recreation facilities. Each time we take a “not in my backyard” approach we lose opportunity for everyone. The fuel currently stored and delivered from these shores keeps our construction equipment running, buildings heated and homes warm. South Portland is not just important to the construction industry, but to every industry in Maine.
The facts we heard today tell the story. Maine has a very long history of working waterfronts. Our working waterfronts up and down the coast of this great state have changed over the centuries, but the piece that is common to them all is the “WORKING” piece. Working to provide benefit to the neighborhoods and towns just like South Portland, and to the State of Maine and those benefits include needed jobs created by the businesses that are part of these working waterfronts!
Let’s keep our waterfront working for the benefit of all. Thank you.
Chartered in 1951, the Associated General Contractors (AGC) of Maine is the state’s largest construction industry trade association. The Association maintains an office in Augusta and has more than 200 members statewide. Member companies include general contractors, sub-contractors, and service and supply providers. For more information visit www.agcmaine.org.
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