Town borrows $150,000 to cover project costs

FORT KENT – The East Main Street area is in the midst of a renovation and rehabilitation project that will be completed sometime next summer.

Part of the work that was done this year included the relocation of overhead wiring for electricity, telephone and cable television services. Most of that work has been completed.

Monday night, the town council approved the borrowing of $150,000 to repay the relocation of services part of the project. The money was borrowed through a Tax Increment Financing project that will be repaid over a 10-year period.

The $150,000, borrowed from People’s Bank, was through a bonding project and carries an interest rate of 5.8 percent.

Property tax money from increased valuations in the TIF project area will repay the loan. The largest valuation increases come from the construction of a new Rite Aid Store and MBNA America facilities. Town Manager Donald Guimond said the utility relocation costs were part of the town’s share of the project.

Those costs include: $40,950 for electric line relocation, $77,260 for telephone services, $26, 287 for cable and an overall relocation cost of $8,310.

“Most of the work was done this season,” Guimond said. “Voters had approved the borrowing for the project at the annual town meeting last March.”

The town council also approved changes in the housing guidelines for renters involved in a Community Development Block Grant program in the East Main Street area.

Guimond said $100,000 is available for rental property owners to make renovations to buildings rented to residents with low and moderate incomes.

The $100,000 fund was part of a $400,000 CDBG grant the town received for the East Main Street project. Much of the remaining money was for underground utilities work, a farmers market area and miscellaneous municipal expenses with the project.

Rental owners can obtain grants for 50 percent of renovation projects. The dollar for dollar money is grant money.

“With the dollar for dollar program, it could mean that as much as $200,000 in rehabilitation could take place in the project area,” Guimond said.

Owners of the rental properties will not have to repay the grant side of the project money, if they live by the guidelines for a period of seven years.

Those guidelines say in part, that the apartments are rented to people with low and moderate incomes, and that the ownership of the property does not change for seven years.

If the guidelines are not followed, the time element of the grant is pro-rated and must be repaid.