CALAIS – Four Bangor Savings Bank employees learned last week they soon will be out of a job.
The employees were not identified, but they do work for the bank’s loan department, processing paperwork for the Bangor facility.
The satellite operation was based at the bank building on the corner of Maine and North streets.
Mayor Judy Alexander said Monday she received a telephone call last week from Bangor Savings Vice President Jim Conlin who told her it wasn’t economically feasible to keep the satellite operation open.
The mayor said the closure would not affect the Bangor Savings Banks branch office on North Street, which opened two years ago. Prior to that, the main bank had been located in the Main and North streets building. A tiny satellite branch, with a drive-up window, was located on North Street.
Joyce Sarnacki, senior vice president of marketing, said Monday that the satellite operation was created after the bank closed its Baileyville and North street branches. She said employees were consolidated into the new North Street branch and the satellite operation at the corner of North and Main streets.
The mayor said Conlin assured her that the bank did not plan to close any other facility in Washington County.
She said Conlin told her the employees had been offered generous severance packages and an opportunity to work in other branches.
“Although they had tried to keep the bank open, they have been basically making busy work. Couriering work up and then couriering it back,” she said. “It just was not economically feasible to keep that branch open.”
The building, which has been home to a bank since 1831, is expected to be placed on the market. The Calais Bank was chartered that year and went into operation in January 1832. The first president was George Downes. Since then the North Street building has been home to several banking operations including Fleet Bank.
The mayor said she was sorry to see the branch close. “It is up to city officials, council and mayor, to try and see what we can do to make business more attractive in Calais and to be more business friendly,” she said.
Alexander said she hoped whomever purchased the building would continue to operate it as a commercial entity. She said when she worked in Washington, D.C., a former post office had been turned into a small mall. “I think there is an opportunity to turn it into something viable within the community, whether it’s commercial or whatever. We need to keep it on the tax rolls; we don’t need another tax exempt property,” she added.
City Manager Linda Pagels also said she was sorry to see the employees lose their jobs. She said she, too, would like to see the building remain a commercial entity.
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