LIMESTONE – Unhappy with the 2003 funding level proposed by the Air Force Base Conversion Agency for the Loring Commerce Centre, the Loring Development Authority board of trustees Wednesday authorized its president to appeal the proposal.

The conversion agency’s original proposal for 2003 was $900,000. Through some negotiations, which included those by Dave Belyea, local director for the agency, the amount has been increased to $1.6 million, still some $400,000 short of what Brian Hamel, LDA president and CEO, and his trustees think it should be.

The federal agency, according to Hamel, thinks the amount offered should be the amount the LDA gets because the authority now owns 2,800 acres of the former Air Force base and the federal government should pay for heat, electricity and maintenance on buildings owned by the LDA.

The LDA took ownership of the acreage and associated buildings in April 2001. The caretaker agreement, according to Hamel, called for the LDA to receive up to $3 million a year for caretaking costs of the former base until 2004.

“It is a substantial issue,” Hamel told his board Wednesday morning. “We’ve been had.

“If I had been told in 2001 that taking ownership would have cut our annual caretaking money, I would have told them we would take ownership in 2004,” he said. “I believe we have a contract in hand that says they have obligations.”

The board agreed to seek the help of Maine’s congressional delegation to help the LDA deal with the base-closing agency.

Last year, the annual payment decreased from $3 million to $2.135 million, with $900,000 initially proposed for the coming year, Hamel explained.

Without the $2 million, Hamel said, heat and other services to many buildings may have to be cut off. Without the services, many of the buildings will become dilapidated.

The only recourse the LDA has, according to Hamel, is to go to dispute resolution. There are several levels of appeal. The appeal has to be filed within 30 days, he said.

Trustees were unanimous in the decision to appeal.

Hamel said the agency’s decision is “in direct conflict” with the Economic Development Conveyance Agreement between the federal government and the LDA.

“We have always made it perfectly clear that the LDA could not take on the challenge unless caretaker funding was extended through Sept. 30, 2004,” Hamel said. “In return for the LDA agreeing to take the property off their hands, the AFBCA made it clear that it would continue caretaker funding through Sept. 30, 2004.”

Hamel said, and trustees agreed, that the LDA, as caretaker of the former base, has met all the performance criteria set up by the federal agency.

“We believe [the lower funding level] is a violation of the contract,” Hamel said.

The appeals process could take several months.