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Town Council Sends Demand Letter to Kilcollins for UDAG Loan

 

If compromise isn’t reached, Bob’s Main Street Location will be foreclosed on by the town on March 14.

 

By:  David Deschesne

Fort Fairfield Journal, February 28, 2018

 

   With the leveling of his shop on Main Street by fire on New Year’s Eve, Bob Kilcollins has found himself upside-down  on a Urban Development Action Grant (UDAG) loan from the town of Fort Fairfield.

   After the Great Flood of 1994, Kilcollins’ shop on Riverside Avenue (former Gary Giggey shop) was destroyed and he purchased and relocated into the Peterson’s Motor Mart building on Main Street.  Along with the building came an attached loan from the town out of UDAG funds, taken out by previous owners,  to help repair damage from the flooding in that area.  That loan was guaranteed by the equity in the building and land.  Now that the building is gone, there isn’t enough collateral to back the loan and the town has issued a 30 day demand letter for the outstanding past due balance with a deadline of March 14.

   The outstanding principal of the UDAG loan is $21,924.15.  In addition to juggling the financial responsibilities of getting a new building constructed on that site, Kilcollins now must come up with the entire outstanding principle on the UDAG loan before March 14 or face foreclosure on the property by the town, at which point it will likely just turn into another town-owned parking lot or green space like so many other razed buildings on Main Street have in recent history.

      Kilcollins, who is a current town council member, was asked to temporarily step down from his seat for the duration of the discussion of this topic during the February town council meeting, at which point he offered the equity in the shop at his Brown Street location as collateral to help secure the loan.  “At this point and looking to making everything work, that's how I can do it,” said Kilcollins.  “Right now with the financial institute that we have backing us on what we've got right now, I could go back and regroup and probably make some changes but it would be tight to do.”

   Rather than accepting the Brown Street property as collateral, town council chair, Scott Smith asked Kilcollins if he could take out his own loan on the building to pay off the past due debt to the town.  “This debt was supposed to be paid in 2007, according to the memos,” Smith told Kilcollins during the council meeting discussion.  “Somebody got involved back in 2011 and told the treasurer to stop calling you to collect the payments.  I don't want to air out dirty laundry, but they've been a little inconsistent over the years because you went a three and a half year period without making any payments, and that's a concern, Bob.”

   “We had some financial issues that came along with us,” said Kilcollins, who then suggested some of the new building money could be utilized to help pay off the loan. “We got about a two months to three months project and upon that project funds that we oversee that is over and above, I would contribute them into this document that we have going on that would possibly pay it off or close to it... At this point in attempting to make everything work, that's how I can do it.”

   The town council directed the town manager to check into the legal options of adding the Brown Street property as collateral, while retaining first mortgage on the Main Street location and report back to them at a special council meeting prior to the March 14 deadline to see if a reasonable arrangement can be met.  The date for that meeting has not yet been set.

   Until then, it is likely the construction process on Kilcollins’ new shop, which was scheduled to begin on March 1, may be put on hold.