It had always been Whittens dream to live on a golf course, even if, at age 91, he couldnt play anymore. Consumers noticed that Pinnacle, which had debuted in 2003, its raw vodka imported from France and, again, flavored and bottled in Lewiston, had a lower price and higher import cache. However, change and the communities relationship with it is only a small part of the problem; like many in the region, Coulombe said he believes affordable housing and education are the two biggest issues facing the communities. Two prominent Maine families have donated more than $10 million to Maine Medical Center in Portland. He became CEO in 1995. The seasonal versus year round argument does not weigh heavily on Coulombes mind, he said, due to the changes which have already come through shoulder season events and the expansion of business months into November and December. Its the rich worried that somebody else might be richer. Already registered? Shes on board with his long-term plans to boost economic development and grow tourism. It really started to take off when one of its brands, Three Olives Vodka, started producing flavored versions. Back then, White Rock owned Three Olives Vodka, a brand made from English vodka and marketed as a premium spirit. White Rock executives attribute their success to word-of-mouth marketing and the popularity of Pinnacles new whipped cream-flavored vodka. How You Should Drink Pinnacle Vodka . The family lived in South America for four years, moving back when Coulombe was a junior in high school. Paul wants everyone to know. The company buys liquor in bulk from distillers in Europe, Scotland, Mexico, the Virgin Islands and the United States. In concerns expressed by Kaplan and others around town, its clear that there is a broader fear over the changes coming to their community, an aging, economically stagnant community. Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration. He is friendly to the governor, but also is the single biggest donor to the Maine Republican Party and has hosted fundraisers for U.S. Sen. Susan Collins at his Southport home. I said, Hey George, I really need your house. Like other landmarks in the area, it had been neglected, so Coulombe stepped in to save it. People were still drinking, but they were drinking at home in 08 and 09, he said. White Rock is not a liquor distiller. Lipman, the attorney who has represented others in lawsuits against Coulombe, has taken the Abbotts case, too. If you already subscribe in print or online, thank you. I've been doing that for over 10 years. I was trying to grow sales and revenue, so we made a good team.. Enter your email and password to access comments. That growth has benefited the entire brand, Suczynski said. Paul Coulombe makes no bones about his intention to bulldoze over the Peninsulas historical past and replace it with the new all built to his taste. The transformation of Rocktide Inn into Boothbay Harbor Oceanside Golf Resort was an attempt to jumpstart revitalization of the Harbors east side, said Coulombe, and new ordinances would have allowed more sweeping updates for, among many projects, the recently sold Capn Fishs. Jane LaFleur is director of the Friends of Midcoast Maine, a nonprofit group that works with coastal communities from Brunswick to Bucksport to implement Smart Growth principles, which means environmentally conscious, anti-sprawl development. Paul and Giselaine Coulombe of Boothbay Harbor and their daughter, Michelle Coulombe-Hagerty, donated $7.5 million to Maine Med. Lipman has counter-sued Coulombe and is girding for a fight. You can quote me on that, what a great place to pee,' Finocchiaro said. Use the form below to reset your password. So whichever way you want to do it, Im OK with.'. Coulombe has purchased and moved entire residential streets, and hes looking to other parts of town, buying more property for future development. I was kind of afraid of the reaction. Boothbays history is steeped in fishing and there are still vestiges of that in the picturesque harbor, where lobster boats with chipped paint occupy the same space as luxury yachts, including some that belong to Coulombe. These meetings are well-attended. The bully of Boothbay.. She survived breast cancer in 2012, ovarian cancer in 2016 and a bacterial infection that required hospitalization in 2017. It didnt happen sitting behind a desk in Lewiston, Maine. Despite all that variety, the unflavored bottling is still the brand's best-selling expression. You feel very comfortable and at home here. By the end of the evening more than $585,000 was raised toward the innovative project. Courtesy photo After $100 million invested in about 20 properties, Paul Coulombe is still driven by the desire to see. He was offended, Kaplan said. We continue delivering the news our communities need during these ever-changing times. Fortunately, a recently proposed amendment to Town Article 25 that would have taken away hearing residents appeals of decisions of the Code Enforcement Officer and the Planning Board was defeated at the ballot box. Please help sustain local journalism. Thats what proved how important a vehicle (social media) could be.. Folks are having a say, which is great, he said. Already registered? He had grand plans and needed the geographic flexibility to execute them. Enter your email and password to access comments. We sold more than all the other flavors combined. The towns population was 3,120 as of the 2010 Census. For people opposed to change, or at least his brand of it, Coulombe said change is constantly occurring: There is no such thing as 'no change' everything ages.. All we have to do now is build a huge hotel so we can get people to come and stay here and play.. Coulombe told Wine & Spirits Daily that Pinnacle was the number one brand at White Rock Distilleries. George Whitten, a World War II veteran, raised the flag during the ribbon-cutting ceremony. He gave $1.1 million to the urgent care center in Boothbay after the hospital closed. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. He left his $113,937-a-year post in March 2014 after 29 years with the LCB. I said, We can do two things: I can offer you enough money to pay whatever youve got in it or I can put the range in and put a big black net around your house. The Boothbay Harbor Country Club celebrated the completion of its new clubhouse with a ribbon-cutting ceremony May 11, a week prior to the clubs opening May 18. He became a part-time resident in 2008 after he bought property on Pratts Island, a small island connected to Southport, a slightly bigger island, connected by bridge to Boothbay Harbor. The story was a witch hunt, she said. Anyone can access the link you share with no account required. Paul LePage while his daughter, Amy Whitten, looks on at the Boothbay Harbor Country Club on May 11. Michelle Amero photo Cathy Honeycomb, mother. They were excited but were nervous, though, and I was, too. Paul and Giselaine Coulombe and their daughter, Michelle Coulombe-Hagerty donated $7.5. Already have a commenting profile? This is a solution for people who havent had the resources available to care for an autistic child and who then worry about the future when their children become adults, Coulombe stated. I've been hiring a minimum of 100 people every winter in construction whether they're painters or carpenters or plumbers, electricians, roofers, architects, designers. Or willing to take that risk, he said. Heres why. His talk was, Paul, we got lucky. White Rock employs some 230 staff, including 200 at the Lewiston plant and a five-person marketing team in Portland. MaineHealth, Maine Behavioral Healthcares parent organization, is providing half of the funds to the project, and a capital campaign has raised over $5.4 million prior to the event from the community toward the other half, leaving just under $2 million to be raised over the coming year. Paul LePage, who is friends with Coulombe and participated in the ribbon-cutting, called it a world-class facility that will spur economic development. The Coulombes understand what bringing a center like this will mean to the people of Maine, including those in the Midcoast region, for families desperate for help. Marriage. Coulombe has also given from his Florida address $5,200 to Congressional candidate Bruce Poliquin, a Republican, and $5,000 to the Lincoln County GOP committee. Try to find a bus driver! I suggested a limousine service instead but money could also be saved by paying a bus driver competitively well, which would not come close to seventy-seven million dollars in the cost of building such a school on this Penisula because we do not believe we can find a bus driver to transport the students to a more regionally centric location. Expecting it would take a long time, Coulombe said he could never have anticipated the opposition which unfolded. And globally. The project is a $14.7 million, state-of-the-art facility created to meet the growing needs of Maine families and individuals with a diagnosis of autism and other developmental disorders. According to his profile on the . Learn more. Because of a reporters error, the original published version was incorrect about the background of one of his critics. Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. I actually never made money on Cabana Boy; I actually lost my shirt, if the truth be known, Coulombe said. Create a commenting profile by providing an email address, password and display name. I was ready to call it quits and move on to something else; I didnt think itd be a country club. The guy who created Grey Goose and I were best friends and I saw what he was doing. I didnt imagine that in my wildest imagination, he said. In the center of the plant is a monitoring room and testing lab, where technicians measure alcohol content, and at the back at the plant is the flavor house, full of enough concentrate to flavor 25,000 cases of liquor. Meanwhile, the legal drama over Pay-to-Play was still being worked out, outside of the media spotlight, in the year 2017 and the center stage of the drama is the golf course. Please wait for the page to reload. White Rock had already launched Three Olives Vodka, its first flavored line, before Coulombe bought out his family in 2005, but sales hadnt yet taken off. The only weekly newspaper locally owned, printed, and published in Lincoln County. Fred Kaplan did not serve in Vietnam; he was an anti-war protestor. I had no idea of that.. Please note the display name will appear on screen when you participate. Paul is related to Kassandra Ann Coulombe and Joseph Coulombe as well as 3 additional people. Boothbays juggernaut: If he builds it, will they come? The East Tower, which is getting a two-story addition as part of the hospitals ongoing expansion project, will be renamed the Coulombe Family Tower. He had grand plans and needed the geographic . Please subscribe or login first for digital access. In todays world, the end, alone, is the measure of success. Word got out. English vodka hadnt been imported by anyone, Coulombe said. Heres why. Im trying to put the peninsula on the map, he said. This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login. But critics like Fred Kaplan wonder if Coulombes political influence has helped him secure support from the Department of Transportation. The first major success on his own: the sweet taste of cherry and grape vodka. That will help keep overall hospital costs in check, Petersen said. Asked why hes doing it, Coulombe said he wants Boothbay to surpass Kennebunkport or Camden or even Bar Harbor in drawing tourists with money to spend. Create a commenting profile by providing an email address, password and display name. Well, my initial dream, all my life, since Ive been a little boy has been to own my own town, he told the magazine. This artists rendering shows what the Coulombe Family Tower will look like at Maine Medical Center in Portland. Around this time last year, a writer from Boston Magazine profiled Coulombe and his plans for the region. But one flavor, Pinnacle Whipped, trumps all the rest, said Coulombe. The Park presents facts and records but the Code Enforcement Officer rests on his authority, alone. Coulombe said his only child daughter Michelle, who worked in sales at White Rock had already let him know years before that she didnt have any interest in taking over the company. After Cleveland bartenders began experimenting with it in funky cherry and grape bombs (shots of the grape or cherry vodka with Red Bull) in 2004, it became the No. (My father) was unemployed and looking for a job, Coulombe said. We were all nervous.. Its luxurious and grand without being garish, similar to the new clubhouse at the golf course. Then there are Derek and Rebecca Abbott, who own a horse stable that borders the back edge of the golf course. Venezuela might have been Mars because that was how remote it was, he said. Paul Lvesque. What message is within the new landscaping of our Town Center? I think Mainers, and I'm one of those, are suspicious of people who give a lot. Though he didnt disclose the price at the time, Coulombe sold the brand in 2007 for $400 million to Proximo Spirits. They did, and it did. There are very few sources that actually name names in the suit against White Rock Distilleries. They have also lived in Topsham, ME. It states that The practice of providing things of value and services continued until approximately the spring of 2012, when the Company agreed to sell its assets to another national company and ceased active operation in the industry. Louise also worked for the Welfare Department and co-owned a knitting store with her sister Natalie. 202 - . This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. No ones told that story before. The Park says that all the permits that The Code Enforcement Officer says they do not have were reviewed by the Shoreland Zoning compliance prior to site plan approval in 2020 which the Code Enforcement Officer saw and that the Park and Marina Building Permit that is currently under appeal is completely unnecessary and redundant to the approved 2020 site plan. Bean sued over a waterproof claim. In 2011, he set about finding a buyer. In two public meetings held this spring, dozens of townspeople came armed with questions and skepticism. And Im selling it to make us a financially stronger company.'. It was one of my first brands that I actually spent money nationally advertising and got billboards statewide in Florida because I thought, Florida is the No. Boothbay Town Manager Dan Bryer has been in his position only a year but said hes heard from many other town managers in Maine who would like to have his problem: a wealthy investor who wants to build the tax base. July, 2014 | By: Debra Spark | Photography: Irvin Serrano. White Rock bottles and ships 16,000 cases of four varieties of Pinnacle Whipped vodka each week. Soon after Paul Coulombe purchased the Boothbay Country Club in early 2013, he quietly began acquiring property adjacent to the neglected golf course. In the comments to the Parks commentary, Paul Coulombe asserts that everything said by the board is a lie, without attempting to justify his assertion. Login. Growing up, his father, Roland, worked as the head of the Bates Mills Hill Division until 1966 when he took a chance on a job in Venezuela. In the first two months of 2011, White Rock produced 304,000 cases of 9-liter Pinnacle bottles, including 125,000 cases of Pinnacle Whipped. He says he has been and will continue to be mindful of development that matches the areas New England charm. But I think the concern that hes dividing the town between the haves and the have-nots is real. By comparison, Diageo, a White Rock competitor, sold 24.3 million cases of the Smirnoff brand in 2010, according to Diageos annual report. Coulombe had just taken out an $85 million loan to buy the rest of his family out of the company. Winters are long and dark and lonely, and kids need a place to go Any other entertainment vehicles that we could have in the community is helpful. While all of that legal dealing over White Rocks pay-to-play scandals is going down, unreported in the media, Paul Coulombe is taking advantage of the Maine DOTs legalized pay-to-play terms of the agreement to rearrange the center of Boothbay to his liking through the construction of the notorious roundabout, which will eventually recreate the Boothbay Center with Paul Coulombs country club as its central focus, with Paul Coulombe styled road decor wrapping ribbons around the Town Common and the Town Office. That might have been helpful in at least opening my eyes to something else.. Theres also traditional, unflavored Pinnacle vodka. Other than Bigelow Labs in East Boothbay, the job market is thin. Other options are not part of the conversation- except for the fact that Mr. Lorraine responded to my suggestion of the option of building such a school in a more regionally-centric location so that costs and benefits could be shared by a larger community. Paul Coulombe, CEO of White Rock, said he was "pleased" to have grown the brand and now sell it to Beam. To get one, go to the subscriptions page. They were fantastic, he said. The raw vodka for the brand was imported from England. They already had 36 flavors. That changes the community.. Hes a Maine boy, but sometimes I dont think he gets it.. I told him Hold another meeting and let me address the town. . Linda Bean said the medical helicopters are important for those who live in rural parts of Maine and need emergency care. [CDATA[ Im lucky I became CEO, he said. DOT officials, though, said private-public partnerships for road improvements are becoming more and more common and they welcome investors like Coulombe. I know they misquoted me, and if they did me, they must have him., Most backbiting, she said, isnt coming from locals. When he first offered to save Southports ramshackle 1777 Town Hall and wharf, townspeople turned him down. If not, please subscribe or become an online supporter today. This is not just the best facility in Maine, this is a world-class facility, LePage said. Mackenzie . Paul LePage holds the ribbon as Boothbay Harbor Country Club owner Paul Coulombe and his wife Giselaine cut the ribbon to the clubhouse May 11. Coulombe completes training. Everyone has seen the article; bad news travels quickly, apparently, Coulombe said. He said, I think we can sell the business for a substantial amount. John Suczynski, White Rocks COO and CFO, walks past a row of stainless steel pipes that transport alcohol to the bottling lines at the distillery in Lewiston. Coulombe owns one-third of White Rock; he gifted the rest to his daughter, who lives in Boca Raton, Fla. Use the form below to reset your password. She wanted her kids to grow up here. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code. This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login. Coulombe even offered to pay for one-third of the $3.5 million cost through a public-private partnership between himself, the state and the town. 2017. In 2013, he sought permission from the town to dredge the harbor near his home on Southport so it could accommodate his boat. He moved to Connecticut, covering Northeast sales, in 1978, before heading back to Maine in 1983. The more we grow and change outside of historic patterns, were less compatible with the lifestyle people appreciate.. I told him, Its too bad you dont have any guts, Coulombe said. Hi, to comment on stories you must create a commenting profile. He was the son of Jacques Coulombe and Boemi (Rolline) Drieu. And then they get to vote. Many of the flavors are from companies such as Swiss flavor and fragrance manufacturer Givaudan. The new helipad will be able to accept two helicopters at the same time, and the helipad will have quick access to the emergency department from the tower.