Proposal would replace Bass Park barns

BANGOR – City officials and Penn National Gaming Inc. are contemplating a partnership to replace six aging horse barns at Bass Park with two new barns, a warehouse for track equipment and an all-season paddock.

The proposal, expected to cost between $1.2 million and $1.4 million, calls for splitting the cost evenly between the Pennsylvania-based company and the city, which leases Bangor Raceway to Penn National.

Penn National is the parent company of Hollywood Slots at Bangor and the operator of Bangor Raceway.

No decisions were made Wednesday night, when the plan was unveiled to members of the City Council’s business and economic development committee.

Instead, the issue will be brought to the full council during a yet-to-be-scheduled workshop and possible executive session to nail down the details.

According to Jon Johnson, general manager for Penn National’s operations in Maine, the existing barns, which were built by the city in 1975, have reached the end of their useful lives.

“The truth of the matter is the barns were never meant to last as long as they have, so it’s just a matter of time,” he said.

Under the proposal, Penn would raze five barns and replace them with two new ones. In addition, plans call for a warehouse building to replace the barn closest to the racetrack’s Buck Street entrance, Johnson said.

The work would take place in phases, with the bulk of the work slated for 2009 through 2011, Johnson said.

Councilor Gerry Palmer, who attended Wednesday’s meeting along with council colleagues Susan Hawes and Frank Farrington, said the barns were in terrible shape and he looked forward to seeing them replaced.

“I’m excited, I’m encouraged and I think we’ve got the right group involved with this,” he said of Penn National.

To accommodate the horsemen who race at the track, plans call for maintaining stabling for at least 200 horses at all times while the barn replacement project is going on. The track, which now has housing for about 400 horses, will end up with a total of 200 stalls, which horsemen say is sufficient.

Penn National already has made several improvements at Bangor Raceway, including converting the large barn closest to the racetrack into an all-season paddock. The company also has undertaken a number of repairs to the remaining barns, ranging from patching leaky roofs to rewiring and installing new lighting.

Johnson said he met Monday with representatives of the Maine Harness Horseman’s Association who have tentatively agreed to increase their rent payments for space at Bangor Raceway as the amount of purse money increases. Purses are increasing as a result of the revenue stream generated by Hollywood Slots.

Word that the barns could be replaced was welcomed by city officials and horsemen.

MHHA Vice President Timothy Powers, a Pittsfield veterinarian, said the organization was “supportive of Penn’s plan. … This is certainly something that should be done. The barns are steadily going downhill,” he said.

Clark Thompson, a Bangor resident and racetrack history buff, urged the councilors to go along with the proposal.

He blamed the current state of the barns on “deferred maintenance” on the city’s part.

“I don’t need to point fingers,” Thompson said, “but the city should participate.”

He said that it probably didn’t make sense to take care of the barns until recently because harness racing was breathing its last gasps just before the slots revenues became available.

Though her duties in Augusta prevented her from attending Wednesday’s meeting, Councilor Patricia Blanchette, who also represents Bangor in the Maine House of Representatives, sent along comments via City Manager Edward Barrett, citing a 1980s economic impact study that pegged the industry’s impact at $3 million. She estimated that the impact was about $5 million in today’s dollars.

Besides the improvements proposed for Bangor Raceway, the company is in the midst of building a permanent $131 million gaming and hotel complex that would replace its interim slots facility in the former Miller’s Restaurant building on Main Street, a few blocks away from the track and the permanent project site.