Extreme Makeover: Dover Edition

By Josh Salm/Staff writer
Every once in a while a story or an idea will cross my desk that I don’t really digest until hours later, whether I am at home or on the road when I have a moment to really think it through.
The occurrence happened again on Wednesday, when I got an e-mail from Jim Macomber about Extreme Home Makeover looking to come back to Maine to give another family in this state the gift of a brand new sprawling home and a vacation to Disney Land.
At first, I thought nothing of it. There are countless homes in Piscataquis County that could use a helping hand from Ty Pennington and his overly-positive crew of designers and builders, and there are numerous well-deserving families in this county that would benefit from by hearing their stories of giving and sacrifice.
Plus, the vacation to Disney Land would be nice bonus.
This is what Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is all about. Tell the story about the family and what troubles they are going through, tear down the home with a lot of flair, march in with the volunteers and build a new home – rain or shine – in seven days and give it back to the family in a big ceremony.
Extreme Home Makeover is about doing everything in a big way. It brings in the ratings. It allows the drama to ooze from the TV set and makes a deep connection with the audience.
The thing is, the crew has done so many home rebuilds over the years that it must be getting old. I can just imagine one of the crew saying, “Been there, done that; bring on next site.”
So here’s my idea: let’s give the crew of Extreme Home Makeover another option, something they haven’t done before – rebuild Moosehead Manufacturing. It would be like Extreme Town Makeover.
Right now the whole site belongs to the town of Dover-Foxcroft as a tax-acquired property. Moosehead Manufacturing is no longer the problem for the old owners, but for the town and for the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council. The options for the building seem limited right now, but that could all change with a little help by a massive volunteer construction crew and a few TV cameras.
This is what I came up with for the new Moosehead Neighborhood Block (it’s an early concept title).
Instead of tearing down the building and constructing a new home in seven days, the crew could come in with a mission to rebuild Moosehead Manufacturing into a multi-use facility and restore its exterior to its historic façade.
Inside Moosehead, the front part would be a all-in-one neighborhood section. There would be a whole series of first-floor businesses such as a sports bar, flower shop, thrift store and a sporting goods store, the second floor would be low-income apartments.
In the back, there could be a community center, bowling alley and an indoor sports field/skate park built for the kids. It would be utilized by kids and adults alike all year long, especially high school students wanting to train in sports like tennis, baseball and softball. Plus it would help keep skateboarders off the narrow sidewalks in town.
The rooftop would be a closed-in, greenhouse-style community garden, with water drainage set up to run into a storm drain. A dock could be built in back to allow canoes, kayaks and small boats access the river.
The kicker, power for the whole structure could come from, or at least be supplemented, with solar and hydro-electric power, lowering the overall cost of the structure for the town.
All this would do a number of things: build a target for the center of Dover-Foxcroft to bring in tourists and residents alike, to give the town a tax income and save a historic structure in the county. Heck, a renovated Moosehead may bring in a developer who would run the facility.
It’s a win-win for all involved.
Now how do we convince Extreme Home Makeover of this?
Here’s how. Go online to http://abc.go.com/primetime/xtremehome/index?pn=apply and nominate Moosehead Manufacturing. It’s worth a shot. What’s the worst thing that happens? Moosehead stands vacant?
Even if you don’t want to nominate Moosehead Manufacturing for renovations, tell the Extreme Home Makeover team about a neighbor that could use a hand or even yourself and try to bring that group to Piscataquis County. Remember, anything to help one part of the county helps the whole county.