Visitor booth opens in Sherman

By Elna Seabrooks
Staff Writer
    SHERMAN — Planning and community involvement have paid off for the Northern Katahdin Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce with their first of five information booths.
    A volunteer team managed to pull together a donation of supplies and labor to build an eight-foot by eight-foot freestanding log cabin. It is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week with business cards and brochures about local businesses in addition to tourist information about places to visit. The booth is located in Sherman at Kelly’s Shell gas station on Route 158 off exit 264 of I-95. 
Contributed photo
TEAMWORK — These unidentified volunteers started working on the Sherman tourist booth over the summer and completed work in October.
    Heidi Rigby, president of the Northern Katahdin Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce, said although the chamber had an office in Island Falls with computers and a phone, it was unmanned. “We were able to do things remotely. But, all the tourist information was there and visitors did not have access.” Now with the information booth, says Rigby, local residents and visitors can find information ranging from snowmobile maps to where to go for local businesses and services.
    Logs and windows for the booth were donated by Katahdin Cedar Log Homes in Oakfield. Plywood and roofing materials were supplied by Richardson’s True Value Hardware in Patten. Owner Nathan Richardson said his donation of wood for framing, the roofing shingles and sheeting was worth about $500. “I’m hoping the booth will be a benefit to area businesses,” said Richardson. Rigby said “the donations were substantial.”
    The new booth might never have happened if the chamber had not been revitalized a couple of years ago. Rigby said it was at the point of being disbanded after operating for about 20 years. Now, she said, there are about 60 members that include businesses from other areas such as Houlton, Millinocket, Oakfield, Dyer Brook and beyond. “Some businesses belong to more than one chamber of commerce because the name of the game is advertising. Where can I get the biggest bang for the buck?”
Contributed photo
OPEN FOR BUSINESS — The freestanding visitor information booth in Sherman at Kelly’s Shell Station is always open with maps, business cards and brochures about what to see and do in the area.
    Among the volunteers donating labor to actually build the information booth were Wally and Gerda  Goodwin who own North County Carpentry and Crafts located in Crystal. Gerda Goodwin said she thinks the idea for the information booth is “great and practical.” “I helped cut logs with a chop saw. It was very hands-on,” explained Gerda Goodwin. Now that she has seen it, she described it as “cute. And, a great idea for new people coming into town to see what is offered and to see the brochures. Even local people stop in to discover things they didn’t even know was around.”
    Rigby said “without the response from all the members, who put in many long days, it would not have happened.” The next steps are obtaining a DOT designation for the Sherman location as a tourist information center and building the remaining booths. Four more are planned with one each in Oakfield, Island Falls, Patten and Smyrna.