SACO — Thornton Academy sophomores in Devin Beliveau’s United States History Class learned how the democratic process works.

The students participated in Project Citizen, a curricular program from the Center for Civic Education that promotes participation in local and state government.

Students worked in small groups and identified a problem they believed existed in the school or in the Saco community, identified solutions and came up with an action plan for a public policy change.

Their efforts culminated with a presentation in front of local officials conducted Friday, Monday and Tuesday.

Students Joshua McCrum, Myra Boissonneault and Drew Lavigne gave the final presentation Tuesday morning at the school’s library with a panel of judges made up of State Representative Linda Valentino, city councilors Philip Blood and Marie Doucette , school resource officer Jeff Cook  and Thornton Academy history teacher John Raby.

McCrum said a problem the group identified in Saco is that there are not enough family orientated sit down restaurants.

McCrum said the group surveyed more than 160 Saco residents. When asked where they went most likely go to a sit down restaurant, the most uncommon answer was Saco, with 28 responses, the most popular was Biddeford, with 68 responses. Eighty four percent of those surveyed said they would go to a Saco restaurant instead of restaurants in surrounding towns. Those surveyed said that if there were more sit-down family restaurants in Saco, they would save money and gas, they would be able to support local business, and there would be more

jobs created.

Current zoning laws only allow businesses to be up to 40,000 square feet.  The group reviewed different solutions and decided the best solution would be to change zoning laws to accommodate 90,000 square foot businesses, said Boissonneault. This would allow more businesses to develop, which would attract more restaurants, she said.

Lavigne outlined a hypothetical plan to solve the group’s problem. He said they would take the survey results to chain stores like Dick’s sporting goods and convince them to go to Saco, which would help attract restaurants to the area. The group would then go to the mayor and the city council and advocate for an ordinance change, and would bring their survey results to chain restaurants.

“It will bring more jobs and revenue to the city of Saco,” he said.

The panel praised the group for their work, and offered some constructive criticism.

Valentino said that there have been many stores in shopping centers in Biddeford that have closed, and asked what sorts of stores they wanted to bring into the city.

Lavigne said they were envisioning a smaller scale business development, and Boissonneault suggested a sporting goods store because there was one on Main Street that she used to visit regularly that had closed down.

Boissonneault said many restaurants in Saco don’t fit what they considered sit down family restaurants because they are too expensive, are bars or aren’t open for dinner.

Valentino said Saco had a lot of restaurants, and was unique for it’s smaller ones, and the students should have done more research on the restaurants the city has. She praised the students for identifying the industrial park area as a potential place for zoning change to encourage restaurants in that area.

Doucette asked the students if they had spoken to local restaurants to see how their business was doing. Boissonneault said they hadn’t had enough time to do that research.

Doucette said she thought the group did a great job.

“I appreciate you getting involved in government, so keep it up,” she said.

Blood said that, there were a few gaps, but the group’s presentation was clear and they showed passion.

“You showed you cared,” he said.

Beliveau said he has implemented the Project Citizen curriculum twice before, and this year is he is encouraging students to follow up on their proposals. Beliveau, who is also a State Representative, said through project citizen, students learn how the policy making process works, the responsibilities of each level of government, and that “they can make a difference.”

McCrum said he learned a lot about Saco and zoning laws, and it was a good experience to make the presentation in front of a panel of local officials.

“It was fun. We were treated not just as sophomores in high school, but as someone who could make a difference,” he said.

And though the students said it wasn’t likely they would act on their plan soon, the project did inspire them to be  more involved in politics and possibly take action at a later date.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.