Millinocket awaits word on who owes town money

MILLINOCKET – The Town Council will get a snapshot of who owes money to the town’s revolving loan program and who doesn’t early next month, Town Manager Eugene Conlogue said.

“We will get a quarterly report in early July that will tell us where we are,” he said Thursday.

Citing four outstanding and possibly delinquent loans, several councilors in April pressed Conlogue for a more detailed accounting of how much money was outstanding and what efforts were being made to collect it.

The councilors felt that town officials hadn’t done enough to collect on outstanding debts. Originally derived from a Community Development Block Grant to fix up parts of downtown, the loan program has about $65,000 to $70,000 available for start-up businesses and gap loans.

Conlogue said he will be working with the state Department of Economic Development to collect what the town is owed from a $400,000 Community Block Development Grant awarded to Brims Ness, the water filtration sensor company.

According to the terms of the grant, Brims Ness is supposed to have moved into a factory and hired workers by June 30, Conlogue said.

Initial plans submitted by Brims Ness called for the hiring of 481 employees by the end of 2007. The company has promised that all new employees would be hired from Millinocket. A clause in the grant requires a minimum of one job for every $10,000 of the grant, which would mandate that the company hire at least 40 employees.

Most recently, company officials were searching for investors in the Midwest and had not opened any factory.