Loring, Air Force continue to haggle Officials say agreement near on payment

LIMESTONE – The Loring Development Authority continues to have difficulty with the U.S. Air Force about caretaker funding for the former base and the collection of payments in lieu of taxes from two federal government tenants of the Loring Commerce Centre.

The LDA believes it should be getting $1.9 million from the Air Force for fiscal year 2004, the last year of caretaker funding payments. Negotiations have been going on for months, and the issue remains unresolved.

Brian Hamel, LDA president, told trustees Wednesday the issue is coming to a

head, but dollars are still not firm.

The LDA has been able to negotiate the caretaker money up to $1.818 million, an increase from $1.5 million the Air Force wanted to pay.

The LDA also was able to negotiate the repayment of $200,000 the Air Force previously had overpaid. The repayment will be made with funds the LDA already paid for some roof work, at a cost of $220,000, which was supposed to be paid by the Air Force.

Still in the air is the issue of PILOT fees by the Defense Accounting and Finance Center and the Loring Job Corps. The fees are an annual payment paid for services such as police and fire protection, plowing of roads and other services provided by the LDA.

Including retroactive payments, the fee amounts to $300,000. The annual fee, figured at a 50 cents per square foot, is $130,000 for the Loring Job Corps, and $72,000 annually for DFAS.

Hamel said it may take congressional intervention. He said he hoped the Maine delegation could find support for legislation that will give DFAS and the Job Corps the authority to make payments retroactively to the LDA.

The two agencies claim they do not have specific regulations to make payments.

“This may all take some time,” Hamel told trustees Wednesday morning. “In the meantime, it creates a cash flow problem for us.

“I am satisfied with the most recent caretaker payment offer [of $1.818 million] by the Air Force,” he said. “We could not afford the original offer they made.”

He said the office of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins is working on the problem in Washington, D.C. Hamel said he hopes to convince the Air Force to do some “creative bookkeeping” that would allow them to make retroactive payments now, and the Air Force could be repaid at the end of 2004 from new legislation.

Hamel and the trustees say that caretaker funding was guaranteed when the LDA signed a caretaker agreement with the Air Force in 1997. The funding, Hamel said, was to run through the end of fiscal year 2004.

In other business, Hamel said discussions are continuing with the Maine Lighthouse Corp. on the possibility of having a long-term therapeutic center at the LCC. The continuing work on the installation of an instrument landing system at Loring was covered, as was the near completion of demolition of substandard housing and of two former schools on the base.

He also reported that the facility’s fitness center has closed, and an upcoming state referendum bond issue could bring $1 million to the LCC to finish renovations of an arch hangar that would be used by the Telford Group and Volvo Aero Service for aviation projects.

Trustees approved a contract with Mark Sutherland for the operation of the bowling center on the LCC, and for the leasing of two buildings to a company doing environmental cleanup work on the former base.