Bangor City Council Chair Rick Fournier will be awarded with the community’s top business award at a ceremony in January.
The Bangor Chamber of Commerce announced Tuesday that it will grant Fournier the Norbert X. Dowd Award, which is presented to a business leader “whose commitment of time, resources and talent has made the Bangor region a better place to pursue one’s livelihood and dreams.”
Fournier will receive the award at the chamber’s annual awards dinner on Jan. 27, 2023.
He was elected City Council chair last year, days after retiring as a commercial loan officer for Bangor Savings Bank. He first won election to the City Council in 2019. Before running for council, Fournier served on the boards of the Bangor Region YMCA, American Folk Festival and Maine Discovery Museum, and chaired the Bangor Water District’s board of trustees and city planning board.
He is running for a second term on the council in next week’s election.
The chamber also will honor the city’s recently departed community and economic development director, Tanya Emery, with the M. Jane Irving Community Service Award. Emery stepped down last month after 11 years in city government to join the Maine Connectivity Authority as its economic development director.
The Eastern Area Agency on Aging will be recognized with the Nonprofit of the Year Award and Devil’s Half Acre Distillery in Hermon will be given the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award.
The chamber also will bestow two new awards.
The Sarah Dubay Professional Award, which honors the Bangor councilor who died last year, will go to Kristen McAlpine, First National Bank’s development officer and assistant vice president of corporate engagement.
“It is our honor to present this award to recognize an individual who embodies Sarah’s generous spirit, donating over an extended period of time his or her expertise to both the Chamber and the community at large,” the chamber’s president, Deb Neuman, said.
The new Spirit of the Region Cultural Award will be presented to the Collins Center for the Arts.