Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

October 22, 2012

Little city, or big town? Sanford asking voters

To change its fortunes, Sanford must change its image, officials say. That's no small task in a town that values its historic identity.

By Gillian Graham ggraham@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

SANFORD — The town that refused to die is at a crossroads.

Once described as such for its resilience in the face of textile mill closures, the town of Sanford now is poised to become a city.

Residents vote Nov. 6 on a proposal that would change its designation to a city, create a mayor's position and eliminate the representative town meeting held annually since 1935.

Sanford, at the heart of York County, is the state's largest town, with about 22,000 people. Built along the Mousam River, it has 10 miles of retail space stretching from south Sanford to the village of Springvale, a hospital, an airport, a large residential base and brick mills being redeveloped for commercial and residential uses.

Supporters of the change say the town is ready for further economic development.

But it needs to change its image.

"The problem is we don't get looked at by the outside world," said Brad Littlefield, a town councilor who served on the commission that spent 18 months developing the proposed charter. "We have the infrastructure of a city. We have the labor of a city. We have the schools of a city. What we don't have is the municipal government of a city."

Now is the time to capitalize on what Sanford has to offer by recognizing it for what it is, Littlefield said.

Others aren't sure that being a city would really accomplish anything.

"Businesses won't flock here just because we're called a city," resident Tom Cote said last week at a Town Council meeting.

If Sanford does become a city, it would be the first Maine community to do so since Caribou in 1967. The city of Sanford would be the seventh largest in the state in population, placing it ahead of Augusta and behind Biddeford.

Six years ago, more than half of Sanford residents voted to change to a city when the population reaches 30,000. The smallest city in the state is Eastport, population 1,331.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

There are residents of Sanford and Springvale, especially lifelong ones, who feel there is a lot to be said for being part of a town.

Jim Drummey, a Springvale businessman, opened his first store in Sanford 30 years ago.

"I did it because of the small-town atmosphere where people know each other. In a city you lose a lot of that," he said. "Right now we don't really capitalize on this, but we are the largest town in Maine. Maybe we ought to do that. It sounds more friendly, whereas a city is big and impersonal."

Alberta Sevigny, a lifelong resident, is worried that the new charter might change the village atmosphere of Springvale.

"I want to save the identity of Springvale," she said. "It has historical value."

The history of Sanford-Springvale dates to 1739, when the area was first settled and used for agriculture. In 1768, Massachusetts granted a charter to incorporate Sanford as a town. Agriculture continued to be the focus for years, until the first manufacturing industry -- the printing of designs on cotton fabric -- began in town in 1829. Soon, a textile mill was built in Springvale and was followed in the 1840s by the arrival of shoe manufacturing, said Town Historian Harland Eastman.

As the mills grew, so did the town.

In 1887, there were 2,700 residents; 23 years later, the population hit 9,000. A third of residents worked in the mills, manufacturing fabric for upholstery, blankets and suits. Over time, Sanford eclipsed Springvale as the industrial center of the community as the Goodall family built mills near downtown Sanford, Eastman said.

(Continued on page 2)

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