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Sleepy Eastbrook Holds Tight to Farming Roots
Charlie Yeo may not
think so, but things do change from time to time in Eastbrook.
The town’s only store, Eastbrook Variety, is where the bulk of
town-oriented conversation takes place over coffee.
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Point in fact: The
local gathering spot in town is no longer the Greenwood Grange or
the Eastbrook Baptist Church or the Molasses Pond House. Each is
where Eastbrook’s people went for social times so many decades ago.
Nor is it the
Community Center, where town officers do hunting and fishing
licenses and other town business, and where the occasional public
breakfast takes place.
Eastbrook is
generally sleepy and slow, but not at the Eastbrook Variety. As the
town’s only store, it’s the one place where things get dissected and
discussed.
The store is on the
southern edge of town, along Route 200 coming up from Franklin. It’s
right in the midst of Eastbrook’s boulder-strewn blueberry barrens.
First thing each
morning, the regulars come in for coffee and their daily dose of
local talk. And more often than not, the conversation centers on
Charlie Yeo.
If he’s not leading
the pack, they are probably talking about him.
As a selectman
since 1978 for all but one year (“1989—I didn’t like the town
politics”), Yeo keeps himself busy with just about all that goes on
in the town of 370.
He actually takes
exception with that census-generated figure of 370. He maintains
that there are closer to 305 people living in Eastbrook today.
A dozen years ago,
there were only a handful fewer living in Eastbrook. Yeo likes to
point out that the 1990 census figure (289) is the exact same number
for the town’s population in 1880.
The big change in
Eastbrook, once Yeo is pressed to account for one, is that locals
today make their livings in Ellsworth, Bangor, Bar Harbor and even
Bucksport.
Any local business
in town might support a family, but not the local economy.
Blueberries, Christmas trees and lumber are still the going
businesses—but they are hardly plentiful.
Blueberries are a
fair business, but the same can’t be said any longer for Christmas
tree production.
The North American
Free Trade Agreement, enacted eight years ago and opening borders
with Canada and Mexico, took care of that, Yeo said.
He should know.
After years of mostly working in the woods, he acquired Alder Brook
Farm, for Christmas trees, in 1987.
The Christmas tree
and wreath business used to be a mainstay of Eastbrook’s economy.
These days, however, Canadian companies have moved into the markets
that many Maine companies used to sell to.
“We used to sell to
the Hudson Valley area for $22 apiece delivered,” Yeo said. “Now the
Canadians are putting trees there for $10 or $11 apiece.
“We were fine until
NAFTA went in place. Now the business in Maine is not just dying; it
is being shot and killed by the Canadians.”
Eastbrook’s pulse
stays beating, however. It is a popular place for those who populate
the town’s three lakes in summer.
Then, the town’s
population more than doubles. The year-round residents are joined by
families who stay at the 350 or so seasonal cottages on the three
ponds—Molasses, Abrams and Webb.
It’s those 350
seasonal property owners, Yeo said, who represent 75 percent of the
town’s tax base.
“We’re really a
bedroom community, more than anything,” he said.
Newcomers address
Yeo by Charles or Charlie, of course.
But the locals, who
have known him since his father worked in the woods on Sugar Hill,
call him “Chibby.”
“My grandfather did
that to me,” he said. “And it doesn’t make any rhyme nor reason, but
it stuck. I’m probably the only Chibby in the state of Maine.”
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