Working at The Jackson Laboratory is something of a family tradition for this branch of the Seavey family tree. Ginger Seavey (left) and her husband, Gary (right), both work there, as did Gary’s father, Merrill, who is now retired. Seated with Merrill are his wife, Elaine, a longtime Lab employee and their grandson, Jack. Now 98, Merrill’s mother, Georgie (pictured separately), worked there, too. Could young Jack be next?—STAFF PHOTO BY EARL BRECHLIN

GOULDSBORO — It’s cold and dark and not quite dawn, but the scenic turnout across Route 1 from Young’s Market is already filling up with cars and pickup trucks.

En route, some riders snuggle into pillows and blankets and sleep. Others trade office gossip. Nobody reads, as it’s too dark.

Normally, Wilpan leaves his home in Sorrento and parks his truck near the Route 185 intersection with Route 1. From his driveway, that’s a roundtrip of two miles, instead of a roundtrip to work in Bar Harbor of 64 miles.

As a subscriber, the commuter system costs him $17.50 a week, an amount that is deducted from his paycheck. Given the rising price of gasoline, Wilpan figures the bus is saving him more than $1,500 a year. It also saves him countless hours behind the wheel in what, seasonally, can be bad winter weather or heavy summer afternoon tourist traffic on Route 3.

The bus that Wilpan rides to his job as a technician in the Lab’s Protein Chemistry Service originates early each morning in Washington County, picking up riders between Cherryfield and Ellsworth. Other buses bring workers to Bar Harbor directly from Bangor and Ellsworth.

Some large, some small, the buses are operated by Ellsworth-based Downeast Transportation. For the approximately 100 employees who now use them, bus fares are subsidized by The Jackson Laboratory to help make the option of commuting as attractive as possible to a workforce that has doubled in size over the last 10 years and continues to grow. That subsidy costs the Lab about $50,000 a year.

The Jackson Laboratory’s subsidized commuting program is one of a number of amenities beyond high wages and good benefits that it provides to its 1,262-member work- force, the largest in Hancock County. One of the most recent additions to the growing campus on the south edge of the downtown business district is “Roscoe’s.” Named after a founder of the Laboratory — Roscoe B. Jackson — the popular in-house food service is linked to a spacious dining area within a two-story atrium that affords panoramic views of the nearby mountains of Acadia National Park.

Above “Roscoe’s” is a large and well-equipped fitness center. As The Jackson Laboratory self-funds its employee health insurance program, wellness is among its institutional priorities. In fact, employees are paid to use the facility. Those who work out receive a monthly bonus of $10, and those who complete an annual wellness assessment receive an additional $50.

Adjacent to the fitness center is a medical clinic. It allows employees to be examined and treated for health concerns that might otherwise keep them off the job or require them to travel long distances to be seen by a doctor.