Not a good place for outsiders
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8/15/2018
I've lived here most of my life, and this place is just not right.
Note that Moscow borders on Bingham to the south, and the 2 towns function as a single unit. So if I mention Bingham, it's just because it's all the same people, just on the other side of Route 16.
There are 3 kinds of people in this area. You have your families who have been in the area for generations, you have the mass of drug abusers who live on and near Murray Street, and you have 'everyone else'. The families feel like they're better than everyone else, and are more entitled to the area and the resources it has. They have all the public sector jobs locked down and make sure that all the public money is spent on businesses owned by the same families. Want an example? There's a business called "Logo Logic" on Main Street in Bingham, owned by the Town Clerk. Every event held by the local School District or Town Hall gets all their signs, t-shirts, plaques, trophies, etc. from - you guessed it - Logo Logic. No attempt is made to field bids from other businesses, as is the ethical way - no, they just submit their purchase order to LL.
The school district is in shambles. Old family teachers get seniority and do what they want, and the Board of Education is also mostly Old Family, so there's no actual oversight. New employees don't stay, as the conditions are pretty bad, unless they're somehow linked to the Old Families.
When the school principal retired, they hired a bonehead art teacher with no experience as the new principal. He is so incompetent that he needs 3 "Principal Liaisons" to supervise 200 students. These "Principal Liaisons" are just Old Family teachers who are paid a bonus of $10000 a year each to do the principal's job for him. More tax money wasted.
The businesses in the area are hit or miss. The Hardware store in town is respectable, but all the other stores either have a high turnover rate (no stability),
low quality, or have problems with overcharging the customers (such as the only grocery store in town). I take bi-weekly trips to Skowhegan to patronize stable, reliable businesses and avoid the crust in this town.
Housing is a challenge too. The town will quickly put a lien on a property over a $70 sewer bill, and foreclose on the house the minute they can. There are several houses in the area that have been foreclosed upon, and the real estate market here has not recovered. It's not uncommon for a foreclosed house to remain on the market for years.
Lastly are jobs. There really aren't any. Everything remotely related to work is at least a half an hour drive away, unless you want $6 an hour cleaning rooms after guests leave. The bit of work done in the area is by family businesses or by outsiders contracted to do work (such as those who built the windmills). Those new to the area will not find a job easily.
Alex | Bingham, ME