Downtown developer defends lull in work Millinocket effort still under way, director says

MILLINOCKET – With no renovation work done since July, about $160,000 in financing spent, and – except for the placement of a holiday display – scarcely anyone in the building since the holidays, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Katahdin Cultural Center effort is dormant, if not dead.

Center interim Director Guilds Hollowell concedes the point, but said he isn’t done yet.

“I am excited about where everything is going,” Hollowell said last week. “It’s a shame that we took a six or seven month hiatus, but our goal is to have it [the center] up and functioning before the end of 2006.”

Hollowell, who originally hoped to have a downtown arts, culture and retail center worth as much as $750,000 operating in the former J.J. Newbury department store building by last Thanksgiving, blames divisive town politics for driving away the funding he had lined up.

“We had a lot of momentum coming up to the election, but then the money started backing off and people said let’s wait and see,” Hollowell said. “We had to let the bickering calm down.”

Hollowell’s explanation didn’t shovel much snow with Town Manager Eugene Conlogue or Town Council member Jimmy Busque, who expressed disappointment that Hollowell promised much in exchange for the $30,000 the town gave him, but has delivered nothing in return yet.

“I regret voting to give money to a for-profit organization,” Busque said. “Our understanding is that the building would be fixed up, an eyesore would be cleaned up. It hasn’t happened yet. It should have.”

Working in affiliation with the Millinocket Area Growth and Investment Council, among others, Hollowell, a community developer and town resident, bought the building at 225 Penobscot Ave. for an undisclosed price from town businessman Tom St. John in June.

Building plans call for a lobby, small food concession area, 1,500-square-foot retail shop, 165-seat adaptable movie and stage theater and a large, open floor space where arts and museum works will be displayed, Hollowell has said.

The theater will be the town’s first movie house in at least 10 years.

Hollowell said now that the election is over and many of the anti-cultural center voices have quieted, he is working with former Town Council Chairman Avern Danforth and some professional fundraisers to start a long-term capital fund-raising project. Earlier, he had said that he hoped to raise $650,000 to $750,000 for the center.

And although the building looks unchanged, the $160,000 paid “to do all the demolition work,” including asbestos removal, the digging of the stage theater, and the removal of old fixtures, Hollowell said. The building is prepared for the new construction called for in the plans, he said.

“I’m looking to restart and have something in place by springtime, have a plan and some money,” Hollowell said. “I haven’t given up yet.”

Anyone interested in helping establish the cultural center is asked to call Hollowell at 723-6463.