BERLIN - From providing fresh produce to handling mortuary services, there will be plenty of entrepreneurial opportunities when the federal prison opens later next year.
And already, city officials are fielding phone calls not only from corrections officers considering a transfer to the new facility, but people answering what they consider the knock of opportunity.
"I got a call yesterday from someone who doesn't live here, but who is interested in starting a business," said City Planner Pamela Laflamme.
Over the next several days, a series of forums and informational meetings will be held in Berlin to apprise residents, community leaders and business owners about opportunities the new prison will bring and how to be positioned to take advantage of them.
"We've met several people from the Bureau of Prisons considering transferring up here," said Mark Belanger, manager of the Berlin office of the Department of Employment Security. "We're starting to get inquiries, the chamber of commerce is starting to get inquiries and they're sending out relocation packets."
Information from the BOP describes such needs as quality child care, recreational opportunities, multi-cultural personal items in local stores and entertainment in a community where a federal prison is located.
When it opens, officials say, the prison will employ a younger generation; one requirement for corrections officers is that they can't be older than 37.
"These people do shift work, so there is going to be an opportunity for a business providing childcare outside of the normal 8-5," Laflamme said. "Someone just starting out may get the late-night shift and serving a shift population is one of the specialty businesses that's going to be needed."
Other suggestions, she said, include a specialty clothing store.
"With two prisons in town, there's going to be a need for things like uniforms and specialty boots," she said.
In the late 1990s, when construction on the natural gas pipeline was taking place across Coos County on its way from Canada to the Maine coast, the city saw some of these specialty businesses pop up temporarily, including a shop that sold hard hats in the shape of a Stetson. The local dry cleaner learned how to starch jeans, as requested by workers from Texas.
Just as Berlin saw its population swell a century ago when French-Canadians, Norwegians, Russians and Scandinavians came to work in the paper industry, officials say the city will see people coming again from all over to work in the prison.
"Our culture is going to become much more diversified," Belanger said, and there is going to be a need for things like ethnic foods and products.
There will also likely be new spiritual needs, Laflamme said.
"Berlin and Gorham have a lot of worship opportunities," she said, but they may not meet the needs of people coming from other parts of the country.
The BOP lists a number of services and products it needs at the facility, including fresh produce and dairy, bread and bakery items, as well as office equipment repair services, waste removal, vending machine services and funeral services.
"This will all have a ripple effect on the economy," Belanger said.
