Van Buren town manager wins statewide economic development award

VAN BUREN, Maine — Van Buren Town Manager Luke Dyer is getting statewide recognition for spearheading the town’s recent economic development and revitalization efforts.
The William F. King Jr. Downtown Champion Award will be given to Dyer during the upcoming Maine Downtown Conference on Nov. 7, hosted in Biddeford by the Maine Development Foundation.
The Maine Development Foundation is an affiliate of Main Street America, a national organization dedicated to improving historic downtowns and neighborhoods throughout the country.
The Downtown Champion award recognizes communities throughout Maine for their downtown revitalization efforts. It is the highest honor given by the organization for individual contributions.
It is also the only individual award given out during the conference. The Uptown, a 60-unit residential development in Bath, will win the 2024 Downtown Project of the Year and Rhona Beauty, a hair salon in Biddeford, will win the 2024 Downtown Small Business award.
“It’s super humbling,” Dyer said. “There’s no doubt about that.”
Dyer received this award after just two years as town manager. Before starting in 2022, he worked in law enforcement for 30 years.
He also attributed much of the town’s recent success to a Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design (CIRD) grant they received last summer.
Van Buren was selected as one of just 17 towns in the United States to get the CIRD grant, which is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. The grant doesn’t give towns money, but instead provides them with access to national experts who help with artistic, cultural, and economic improvements.
The grant helped spur numerous community projects, and Dyer said the town is still seeing benefits over a year later. One such project included collaboration with the Drexel University Westphal College of Media and Design in Philadelphia. It involved creating about 10 art pieces that will be displayed on granite posts along a historic pathway that connects town parks, the boat landing, and runs along the St. John River.
The project came about when Professor Scott Schmidt was looking up “rural design” online and found Van Buren through reading about the CIRD program.
Without this collaboration, the project would have cost Van Buren roughly $60,000.
Other local projects include revitalizing the downtown area through MaineDOT’s village partnership program and turning a cul-de-sac devastated by a storm into a community garden and greenhouse.
Dyer said the town still has a long way to go in terms of completing its various projects, and that it’s humbling to have been chosen for this award after just two years as town manager.
“It’s definitely an honor to have even been considered at all,” he said.
And while the award was specifically given to Dyer, he said it was only possible with the help of countless community members from the town council to numerous community volunteers and organizations like the Van Buren Revitalization Association.
“This is an honor, really, that honors the work of all the people involved here,” he said. “It’s just not possible without those other people. You can’t do it without them.”