As a child of a military family, Eric Tarbox is from everywhere. He eventually settled in Kentucky after leaving the military and beginning a career with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). After more than a decade in varying roles, Tarbox was presented with the opportunity to move to Maine and lead the Pine Tree Council. Tarbox and his wife likened Maine to the art of Norman Rockwell. He now oversees a council that serves over one million Mainers in a region that spans from Jackman to Camden and south to Kittery.

Host of TideSmart Talk with Stevoe, Steve Woods, welcomed Scout Executive, Eric Tarbox and Communications Director, Tucker Adams (at right).

Joining Tarbox for this interview was Tucker Adams, an Eagle-Scout-turned-employee from Lewiston. Adams is the Finance and Communications Director for the Pine Tree Council. Tarbox and Adams spoke to the importance of scouting in youth and how it affected them both growing up. The Pine Tree Council works hard to provide scouting opportunities for boys in Maine. Boys are encouraged to join soon in order to be eligible for the Pinewood Derby in February and March.

To find a local pack or troop, visit beascout.org. If there is no opportunity nearby, Adams encourages parents to contact him or anyone at the Pine Tree Council to look into starting a new pack/troop.

Stevoe joked with Tarbox that he would have been an Eagle Scout, but failed to complete his final project (required of all scouts before earning the “Eagle Scout” title). The BSA have created a new title for those who fulfilled all other requirements, but missed earning Eagle: The Bald Eagle Award. Stevoe is hopeful that someday he will be lucky enough to be granted the title (but maybe not until he himself is bald!).

Tarbox’s biggest achievement since joining the Pine Tree Council in 2012 has been a deal negotiated with the Pentagon to utilize the facilities in Maine. While the military will be using the Pine Tree Council’s camps for training, they will also be renovating and rebuilding them as practice. This is a mutually beneficial deal where future scouts will be able to better use the facilities. The Pine Tree Council is the only council within the BSA to have this arrangement with the Pentagon.

Another point of interest for Tarbox and Adams is their upcoming “Scout-A-Rama” on 14 May 2016. This is a joint event with the Girl Scouts of Maine at L.L. Bean’s Discovery Park. The scouts will camp out overnight and during the day they will be participating in the event which includes outdoor activities, the scouting shop, and a Pinewood Derby race.

To hear more about Tarbox and Adams (and about their Eagle Scout projects), the deal between the Pine Tree Council and the Pentagon, the Pine Tree Council’s stance on LGBT inclusion, and other upcoming events, visit pinetreebsa.org or listen to the interview below.

Eric Tarbox [ 53:53 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

With a great idea born from an unfortunate experience, Leslie Morissette founded Grahamtastic Connection after her son, Graham, lost his batter with cancer. She and over 70 volunteers now help to provide technology to children who are sick and hospitalized with no internet connection. With her help, these children are able to attend classes with their peers, communicate with family, and research support groups.

Leslie Morissette (at right) receives a donation from Steve Woods, host of TideSmart Talk with Stevoe.

Since 1997, Grahamtastic Connection has gifted over 1,200 laptops/tablets to children in need. The newest piece of technology provided is VGo robots. These allow the children to control a robot from their tablet and attend classes with their peers, “sit” with them at lunch, and, in one case, attend a Portland Pirates hockey game. The foundation currently has 5 robots in available and in use in Maine, but Morissette hopes to acquire several more since they are such a valuable tool.

While Morissette is the only actual employee, she has a tremendous amount of help from local vocational school students in Westbrook and Sanford. The teachers at these schools have altered their curriculum to help Grahamtastic Connection clean the technology inside and out and to prepare them to be donated. It is a mutually beneficial situation where the students are learning, Morissette saves time and money, and the children in need get the technology in great condition. Grahamtastic Connection is also helped out by Moody’s Collision Center locations where anyone can drop off any technology they would like to donate with their name and address and Morissette will mail a form for tax purposes.

To learn more about Grahamtastic Connection, please visit their website: grahamtastic.org and listen to Leslie Morissette’s interview below!

Leslie Morissette [ 53:53 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This week on TideSmart Talk, we focused on housing and homelessness in Maine. In this two-part show, Mark Swann from Preble Street joined us to describe what he, the staff, and over 6,000 volunteers do to help serve 600,000 meals annually and to people and to combat homelessness and poverty. Dana Totman of Avesta Housing described how over 3,000 seniors in Maine are seeking affordable housing, but Avesta is only able to help ~300.

Host of TideSmart Talk with Stevoe, Steve Woods, welcomed Executive Director of Preble Street, Mark Swann (at right) with Valerie Hamilton of Promerica Health.

Preble Street‘s Executive Director is no stranger to TideSmart Talk, but he joined us recently to discuss the state of their programs in 2015. This is Preble Street’s 40th anniversary and it has been 10 years since they opened Logan Place and started practicing a “housing first” method of getting folks back on their feet.

About 400 people stay in Portland’s emergency shelters every night, but 80% of those people only need temporary help (2-3 weeks). The remaining 20% of those in need are what Swann calls the “stereotypes” and those who need the most help. People in this 20% generally have mental illness, addiction or medical issues, and have trouble finding a job. Swann says until recently, Mainers have been sympathetic towards the homeless in Maine, but have recently started experiencing “compassion fatigue” – something he’s seen in other states before. Now, it seems Mainers are less likely to help the homeless and more likely to look negatively upon them.

Preble Street is always looking for support in any form: volunteers, monetary and in-kind donations. To help, please visit preblestreet.org.

Host of TideSmart Talk with Stevoe, Steve Woods, welcomed President and CEO of Avesta Housing, Dana Totman (at right).

In 2000, Avesta Housing had 40 employees managing 700 units. In the last 15 years, they have grown to 120 employees managing over 2,200 units. Some of their biggest challenges lie with senior citizen and where small, affordable units close to cities and peers are scarce. According to Avesta’s CEO, Dana Totman, they are trying to improve communities by building affordable housing for seniors, low-income, and middle class residents. Aside from building apartment units, Avesta also offers first-time home-buyer assistance, and housing advocacy.

Avesta just benefited from a recent bond question to support affordable housing where the bond passed with 69% supporting. According to Totman, this was one of four housing bonds to pass with voter support in his memory. People in Maine (and especially greater Portland) are feeling the need for affordable housing and Avesta is doing everything they can do provide.

For more information, visit avestahousing.org, visit them on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter ( @avestahousing ).

Mark Swann - Dana Totman [ 53:53 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The Portland Symphony Orchestra‘s (PSO) Executive Director, Carolyn Nishon was an in-house hire after an extensive nationwide search. She has been with the PSO since 2008 and became the Executive Director earlier this year. She joined us recently to discuss the ins and outs of the PSO and to share this season’s calendar highlights which include classical performances, educational shows for children, and collaborations with the Portland Ballet.

Host of TideSmart Talk with Stevoe, Steve Woods, welcomed Executive Director of the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Carolyn Nishon (at right).

With a $3.3 million budget, the PSO is a non-profit organization that focuses on community enrichment and education. They do fund-raise for their educational programs, but otherwise break even at the end of their fiscal year. The concerts and programs include Discovery Concerts, Youth and “KinderKonzerts.” The PSO also offers shows for people ages 21 – 40 where the cost of the ticket includes an alcoholic beverage after the show and an opportunity to mingle with the other concert-goers.

In addition to their “traditional” shows (which this year includes three Beethoven symphonies), the PSO is working with the Portland Ballet for a show on 10 November called “An Alice Symphony” (based on Alice in Wonderland) where the costume designers are students from the Maine College of Art. They will also be collaborating with Cirque de la Symphonie, an acrobatic group (a la Cirque du Soleil) that performs alongside symphonies for a more exciting, visually aesthetic show.

For more information about the Portland Symphony Orchestra, please visit portlandsymphony.org.
Tickets to any of the PSO performances can be purchased at porttix.com.

Carolyn Nishon [ 53:53 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Baxter State Park‘s director, Jensen Bissell, is responsible for managing and maintaining the park’s over 200,000 acres in accordance to former Governor Percival Baxter’s wishes. Baxter worked unsuccessfully to establish a state park during his time in office. He then purchased a series of land tracts and donated them to the state in the 1960’s as a trust with a specific set of rules and a fund to maintain the park. Jensen Bissell has been the director of the park since 2005 and was recently the center of a controversy with Appalachian through-hiker and world record setter, Scott Jurek.

Host of TideSmart Talk with Stevoe, Steve Woods, welcomed Baxter State Park Director, Jensen Bissell (at right).

Baxter State Park is not actually part of the Maine state park system. The land was donated to the state for Mainer’s use before the park system was established. Former Governor Baxter privately purchased a series of land parcels between 1930 and 1962 and donated them all to the state of Maine. Bissell explained how the park is a “Quasi-State Agency” due to its 3-pillar organization: It was donated by an individual (Governor Baxter), Its board of trustees manages the park by the rules Baxter laid out in his donation intentions, and It will be funded by the endowment fund established by Baxter before his death.

Bissell joined the Baxter State Park staff in 1987 as the Manager of the Scientific Forest Management Area after a decade on the west coast working in forestry in Oregon. The park has approximately 22 full-time employees, including Bissell, who maintain over 200 miles of trails over 18 peaks, including Maine’s tallest: Katahdin. The park also hires 5 rangers who work in conjunction with Maine Game Wardens to ensure the rules of the park are followed and that park visitors stay safe.

Mount Kathadin and Baxter State Park mark the toughest section of the Appalachian Trail (AT). Recently, ultra-marathoner Scott Jurek set a new record for fastest completion of the trail, finishing at Katahdin in 46 days, 8 hours, and 8 minutes. This otherwise wouldn’t have been a big deal to Bissell and the park, except the party and film crew awaiting his arrival broke some of the rules Governor Baxter put in place over fifty years ago. According to Baxter, the park “…shall forever be retained and used for state forest, public park and public recreational purposes… shall forever be kept and remain in the natural wild state…shall forever be kept and remain a sanctuary for beasts and birds.” When Jurek’s celebration included alcohol in public, a film crew without the proper permit, and a large group of people, the ranger on duty cited Jurek for breaking Baxter’s rules.

Northern Terminus of the Appalachian Trail: Mt. Katahdin (photo from Bruce Crosby via alltrails.com).

Bissell says that he and the park have no interest in moving the northern terminus of the AT, but their job is to protect the park by the former governor’s wishes. If that means discouraging the ever growing number of hikers (AT hikers and others), then they will do so, but the board is currently working with other agencies and groups to achieve their mission while still leaving Baxter and Katahdin open and available for all to enjoy.

To learn more about Baxter State Park, visit baxterstateparkauthority.com.
To learn more about Jensen Bissell, please listen to the audio below.

Jensen Bissell [ 53:53 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Mark Vannoy became a Mainer like many of our other guests “from away”: For the love of a woman. He is a Pennsylvania native and a Naval Academy graduate who went into Ocean Engineering. After a career in engineering at Cianbro and Wright Pierce, Vannoy was appointed to the Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) in 2012 and became chairman at the end of 2014. His focus now is regulating “electric, natural gas, telecommunications and water utilities to ensure that Maine consumers enjoy safe, adequate and reliable services at rates that are just and reasonable for both consumers and utilities.”

Host of TideSmart Talk with Stevoe, Steve Woods, welcomed Chairman of the ME PUC, Mark Vannoy (at right).

The Maine PUC began in 1914 to avoid monopolies of utility providers. Because there are such a high barriers of entry into these markets, the PUC acts as a “competitor” in order to keep prices affordable. It’s also a way to regulate competing companies by making sure one isn’t able to offer prices the other can’t compete with. This creates fair opportunities for both providers and consumers.

Maine doesn’t have enough buying power on it’s own, so to purchase electricity, we are part of a buying group with the other New England states. This means that ideally, we get discounted prices, but that we’re also at the mercy of the other states. Of the electricity we get in Maine, Vannoy estimates that 20-25% of it comes from nuclear plants. He says the power comes from plants in New Hampshire and Massachusetts (and Vermont, until recently when the Vermont Yankee plant closed).

While nuclear energy generally has a bad connotation, Vannoy says it fits nicely within the regulations of the government’s Clean Power Plan. Nuclear power has lower carbon dioxide emissions compared to other power sources.

The PUC oversees more than consumers probably realize. Aside from the obvious utilities such as electricity, water, and heating sources, they also oversee the Casco Bay ferry service, the 9-1-1 emergency services, and Dig Safe. They are also starting to oversee alternative energy sources such as solar, wind, and tidal power with the help from the federal Department of Energy.

For more information about the PUC, or if you have questions about your own utilities (or any of the other services), visit maine.gov/mpuc.

Mark Vannoy [ 53:52 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Jon Jennings has done a lot with his career so far and he’s dabbled in many different industries. He’s been a basketball coach in the NBA, worked with Senator John Kerry in the White House, co-owned a professional sports team, opened a Red Mango franchise, and now he’s running Maine’s biggest city. His experiences in these different industries have prepared him to take on his newest role as Portland City Manager.

Host of TideSmart Talk with Stevoe, Steve Woods, welcomed Portland City Manager, Jon Jennings (at right).

Jennings ended up in Maine when he took the opportunity to help start a NBA-D League team in Maine. With his experience in both college and professional basketball, he joined Maine Basketball, LLC. and the Maine Red Claws. He also took on the role as Assistant City Manager in South Portland until the City Manager position in Portland became available.

As City Manager, Jennings says he acts like the CEO of the city. He is a non-elected official who has the power to make decisions that the mayor does not. While the mayor is the “Chairman of the Board”, with the ability to set policies, appoint members to boards, and set agendas, the city manager has control of the budget, the power to hire and fire employees (including positions like the police chief), and advises the mayor on all policies.

When interviewing for the position, Jennings told the hiring board that he had no interest in the position unless they were looking for a strong leader. He has a goal of investing more in the city’s employee morale. He also plans on offering more training programs to those eligible for promotions in order to have more educated, well trained managers.

Hear more about Jennings’s background, his stance on the city’s minimum wage increase, whats to come for Portland’s trash system and his papal history by clicking the link to the interview at the bottom of the page.

Fred Forsley is no stranger to the TideSmart Talk studio. He stopped by recently to promote Shipyard’s fall brews and to talk about the micro-brew industry in Portland. With the temperatures starting to drop and the leaves starting to change, we all know it’s Pumpkinhead season in Maine.

Host of TideSmart Talk with Stevoe, Steve Woods, welcomed Co-Founder of Shipyard Brewing, Fred Forsley.

Today, Forsley talks about a new (non-alcoholic) Shipyard product available to customers: Pumpkinhead Cinnamon Rimmer. He also discussed other seasonal brews that Shipyard will have coming up, including Orangehead, to go along with the “-head” line that includes Applehead and Melonhead (more info on the types of beers here).

After 23 years in the beer brewing business, Forsley reports that July 2015 was the busiest sales month ever. Part of their sales are coming from places as far away as Florida, where they have a Shipyard brewpub location. Brewers and breweries are working to find new ways to get customers to the brewery and brewpubs is becoming a more popular way to do so.

With new microbreweries popping up every day (over 4,000 licenses in the United States), Shipyard positions themselves as a leader in the industry by staying involved with the Maine Brewer’s Guild where they lobby with other brewers for the marketing and promotion of all Maine beers.

The Guild’s biggest promotional event is Portland Beer Week. The members picked the time of year where hotels have the most vacancies (early November), hoping to keep the “tourist season” busy and to bring more people to Portland. This year, the event is November 1st – 7th and they’re hoping to attract over 1,000 attendees.

Jon Jennings | Fred Forsley [ 53:52 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

John Rooks is an author, a TEDx speaker, a blogger, and the CEO of Rapport IO/Founder of The SOAP Group. He has been sustainability focused since his childhood and now helps other companies become more “authentically” sustainable. A Massachusetts native, he ended up in Maine for the same reason as many others: lifestyle change. He and his young family moved to Maine, Rooks re-focused his sustainability interests and created The SOAP Group (Sustainable Organization Advocacy Partners).

Host of TideSmart Talk with Stevoe, Steve Woods, welcomed CEO of Rapport IO & Founder of the SOAP Group, John Rooks(at right).

Rooks’ story (and the beginning of his TEDxDirigo talk) begins with whales. And Greenpeace. He remembers being young and having Greenpeace members knock on his parent’s door and he was enthralled. As he grew up, and (eventually) worked his way through school and into his career, Rooks found himself doing marketing in Boston. After a few years of monotony, he decided it was time for a change. He taught English at the University of Southern Maine and started consulting with The SOAP Group. His best example of his work comes from Interface Carpet where in 1996, a company goal was set by the founder to have 0% environmental impact by 2020. About halfway to the deadline, the company realized it needed to work harder to achieve the goal. Rooks and his team worked with each department in each office and factory to determine how everyone individually creates a big, company-wide picture of sustainability.

Recently, Rooks started a new company called Rapport IO, “designed to help small and mid-sized businesses realize the benefits of sustainability.” Rapport is a software that is used to capture data that can help to make smart, sustainable business decisions. The software company goes hand-in-hand with The SOAP Group’s sustainability consulting.

Rooks has been active in many facets of sustainability marketing. He’s written a book called More Than Promote: A Monkeywrencher’s Guide to Authentic Marketing, he has a blog called Ecohegemony, and he’s participated in TEDxDirigo with a talk called, “The Lost Art of Authenticating Real.”

John Rooks [ 53:52 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Mainers will forgive WCSH TV6 Meteorologist Todd Gutner for being “from away” – the Connecticut native knows that Maine is “the way life should be.” After studying meteorology and changing his career focus to on-air media, Gutner has found a home, on the air and off, in Portland, Maine. While he believes that “variety is the spice of life,” Gutner has no plans on switching careers; Meteorology – and Portland – is where he wants to be.

Host of TideSmart Talk with Stevoe, Steve Woods, welcomed WCSH 6 Meteorologist, Todd Gutner (at right).

In 1985, Hurricane Gloria slammed the East Coast; Gutner remembers the Category 4 storm’s winds taking down trees in his yard while he and his family stayed locked in the house until it passed. When the calm seemed to arrive, he went outside to assess the damage only to see another wall of dark clouds and wind approaching them again: the other side of the eye. Then and there, Gutner decided that he wanted to learn more about the weather. This interest carried him all the way through college where he eventually earned his undergraduate degree in meteorology from SUNY Oneonta.

Gutner’s next move was graduate school, but after one semester, he realized that it was too much time sitting behind a desk in front of a computer and not enough time observing the weather he was analyzing. Unsure of his next step – and worried about giving up everything that he had worked for – his mother gave him some advice (we should always listen to our mothers!). Instead of giving up his passion, why not try media meteorology and an on-air position with a television station?

WCSH 6’s Todd Gutner recently stopped into the TideSmart Talk studio (Sep 2015).

After some persistence and dedication, Gutner earned an internship at KGO-TV in San Francisco, California, spending a year and a half studying other meteorologists, learning to produce segments, and practicing his on-air talents…off-air.

Once Gutner felt like he had a worthy audition tape, he sent it around to some of the smaller markets in the US, the largest being Portland, Maine (television market #77) where the Executive Producer decided to give him a chance. Gutner took advantage of the opportunity to learn from the more seasoned weathermen at WCSH; Joe Cupo, Kevin Mannix, and Roger Griswold, spending seven years in Portland (during which time he married his wife, Rachel) before getting a call from the team at WBZ-TV in Boston (television market #7). The goal of any reporter in the competitive news industry is to move up to bigger markets, and this was one opportunity that was impossible to pass up.

After seven years at WBZ, Gutner, his wife and their twins returned to Maine, and WCSH welcomed him back to their weather team. The return to a smaller station has given Gutner the opportunity to focus not only on tracking and reporting the weather but also more time to do community and school events away from the studio, an aspect of his job that he loves.

Make sure to follow Todd on Twitter to receive his daily weather updates and so you don’t miss his next selfie.

Todd Gutner [ 53:52 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Greg Dugal is a Maine native, a graduate of a Maine college (the University of Maine Farmington), and has been working in Maine his whole life. He has a Political Science degree, but ended up in the hospitality/tourism field since his graduation. He spent 16 years at the Samoset Resort in Rockport where he worked his way up to become the Director of Group Sales until 1999. He is now the President and CEO of both the Maine Innkeepers Association and the Maine Restaurant Association where he facilitates a partnership between the two groups to provide a united front on many issues they both share.

Host of TideSmart Talk with Stevoe, Steve Woods, welcomed President & CEO of Maine Innkeepers and Maine Restaurant Associations, Greg Dugal (at right).

Dugal works with both groups individually, but his position at the top of both allows them to stand together in legislature. Dugal works with members of the associations to adjust to the ever changing legislation and to gain support from national restaurant and hotel groups. With an estimated 90 – 100,000 Mainers employed in the hotel/tourism industry (and twice as many in the restaurant industry), there are a lot of factors that affect these associations. There is also a lot of money in these industries: Almost $3.3 billion dollars was spent this year in tourism with $2.8 billion of that coming from restaurants. Dugal mentioned that sales in hotels and lodging are up 22% over last year and 15% more sales in restaurants.

He also shared some facts about the associations:
There are over 1,400 lodging licenses in the state of Maine, with ~500 of them members of the Innkeepers Association. Zero of the licenses belong to corporations, meaning that every single lodging facility in Maine is either privately owned or a franchise location. The largest hotel in Maine is the Westin Portland Harborview (the former Eastland Park Hotel) with 300 rooms. More than half of the establishments have 15 rooms or fewer!

There are 4,000+ restaurant licenses in Maine (and growing every day.) There are also ~500 members of the Restaurant Association. Members include everything from food trucks and carts to hospitals like Maine Medical Center. With Portland quickly becoming one of the “foodiest” towns in America, these numbers are expected to keep growing.

For more information about the Maine Restaurant Association, visit mainerestaurant.com and maineinns.com for the Maine Innkeepers Association.

Greg Dugal [ 53:52 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download