Market Study to Boost Orono Visibility

UMaine Alert

Posted: April 19, 2024 - 1:32 PM

At approximately 9:24 a.m. on Friday, April 19, a University of Maine graduate student was struck by a university vehicle on Long Road at the University of Maine campus in Orono. The student reports that they are at a local hospital with minor injuries.

Emergency services, including the Orono Fire Department, University Volunteer Ambulance Corps, University of Maine Police Department, Orono Police Department and Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene.

The university vehicle involved in the incident was a Chevrolet Express van. It was being operated by a university employee.

Counseling services and support are available for students, faculty or staff who may have been affected. The Counseling Center can be reached at 207-581-1392 and the Dean of Students Office can be reached at 207-581-1406.

The scene has been cleared and Long Road is now accessible. An investigation is being conducted by the University of Maine Police Department with assistance from the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office Crash Reconstruction Unit. Any witnesses to the incident are encouraged to contact Lt. Noel Santiago at noel.santiago@maine.edu.

October 25, 2010 UMaine in the News

Contacts: Paul Myer, 581-1992; Kathy Welch, 866-7227; Michele Goldman, 866-3423

ORONO — A Maine Business School faculty member and a UMaine graduate assistant are partnering with the Orono Village Association to conduct a marketing analysis and create a new growth plan for the downtown.

Paul Myer, executive in residence lecturer in the business school, and recently hired graduate assistant Kathy Welch, both residents of Orono, have begun information-gathering with town officials and merchants.

Myer and Welch, and possibly undergraduate business students through class projects, will assess the village business district, what it has to offer and what merchants say they need to boost business and increase visits by the thousands of people who pass through the town daily on the way to the university.

“The ultimate objective here is how do we create a greater synergy between the downtown area and the greater university,” Myer says. “That’s number one in the process of understanding how to get that and also reach out to other market areas, including Bangor.”

The first step is to get the merchants together and see what they want to do, Myer says. “We’ll meet both individually and collectively with the merchants and interested people. This is, after all, the home of the university and how do you make it feel more like that? One way is to have Orono feel like a more integral part of the university.”

Welch says raising the profile of downtown Orono might make it a primary destination for visitors as opposed to a secondary one when people visit the university.

“We want to see if maybe merchants can expand the visibility of downtown Orono so it will be more on people’s radar as a destination,” she says.

Michele Goldman, president of the Orono Village Association, says merchants also want more people to enjoy lifestyle characteristics of the downtown community.

“It’s good for Orono’s residents and the university community to have a vibrant downtown,”~she says.~”A more diverse business community will help the university attract students and retain staff, but also serve the needs of our local folks. This study will help us understand what people feel is missing.”

The yearlong project is being funded jointly by the village association, the town and the University of Maine for a total of $30,000. The last market study for Orono village was done about 15 years ago.