DECD Commissioner's comments on the grand opening of the new Comfort Inn in Wilton.

I think we're going to see a lot of Canadian tourists coming to the western part of Maine and having a place like the Comfort Inn here, having a family like the LaFrance family coming here and investing in this area is just tremendous. We've had many successes recently in this area with Barclays and Notify MD and Poland Springs, and this is just one in another line of successes in this area and it speaks well of the community and of the people that are here. They work together, great things happen.

It shows that people in this region are willing to work, they're eager to find a good job, work for a good employer and it should show other employers that there is a lot of capacity here, a lot of people that are willing to work, and employers ought to take notice of the fact that there is an abundance of workers willing to work and maybe they ought to be thinking about moving into this area.

I can't say enough about Mike and Alison and what they've been able to achieve here. And of course it's never just two people, it's always a team, it's always people that pull together. And as I've said: no economic success in the state of Maine has resulted because of one person. It's always a team approach, it's always many people, many hands making a success of an effort and here today it was demonstrated by tremendous outpouring of support, all those who took part: the town manager, the TIF that was established here to make this a reality, the select board that had the wisdom and the vision to see this thing through, and of course, the Franklin Economic Development Corp and others that really made this a reality. I think it speaks well of this region.