BY VINAYA SAKSENA

CUMBERLAND — Mayor Daniel McKee will host what his administration bills as a town hall-style meeting on economic development tonight, in which he will seek ideas from residents and businesses on how to improve the local economy.

The meeting, which will take place in the Town Council Chambers in Cumberland Town Hall at 7:00 p.m., comes more than two months after the mayor hosted similar forums on matters of concern to town residents, including economic concerns. What caused the delay between those meetings and this one, he said, were some of the very economic issues that prompted these forums in the first place.
“This is something I know we would have done about a month ago,” McKee said. “Right now, jobs are probably the most critical issue to the town and the state.”
McKee said he wanted to reduce unemployment in town at a faster rate than the state likely can or will do. He said he had spoken to several of the largest employers in town in recent months and found that one of the biggest barriers to hiring more workers in their eyes was the ability to find candidates ready to do the job without undergoing extensive training first. The mayor said he wanted to help employers address this matter, along with the economic concerns of residents, at Monday’s forum.
According to McKee, Monday night’s meeting will also serve as a venue for him to unveil his plans to start a new “Economic Task Team.” Consisting of a group of business leaders and residents to be determined, the mayor said, the team would be charged with contributing ideas to a plan for economic revitalization of the town, particularly with respect to job creation, while also serving as a means of recruiting local entrepreneurs to contribute ideas and possibly help start new businesses.
“It will be a combination of business community and residents,” the mayor said of the task force. “We’ll continue to have the meetings in an open town hall style, so that people can provide input on this particular issue.”
McKee said Monday’s meeting and the team’s future meetings would have three goals. The first would be to create a system by which an inventory could be kept of both jobs available and residents currently in need of employment, with the goal of matching employers and job seekers by their needs. The second would be to generate ideas for fostering new business activity in town, with residents contributing ideas toward this end. The third would be getting these ideas out to the public and finding ways to put them into action.
According to a news release put out by McKee’s office, Monday’s town hall meeting will be the first of another series of meetings between the mayor and residents on various issues. The release noted that future meeting topics include education, senior issues, water, recreation and the prospect of merging the town’s fire departments. Those with questions regarding the meetings are asked to call the mayor’s office at (401) 728-2400, extension 132.