HOULTON, Maine — The Houlton Fair Association is making plans to pursue a loan as it works to reorganize after several years of declining revenue.
The news came to light during a Town Council meeting on Monday evening, when Nick Crane and Jeff McCarthy, members of the fair board, explained the situation.
“As a fair, we are doing some restructuring,” said McCarthy. “We have had a couple of not so good years. We know what has gone wrong and what has gone right. So we have voted to take steps to assure we can go forward.”
The loan is part of the restructuring process, he said.
In Community Park, the fair board has a number of buildings that were built for the festivities with fair association money, but the town of Houlton owns the buildings as part of an agreement. Town Clerk Cathy O’Leary said Friday that any buildings constructed in Community Park under the agreement become property of the town.
The fair asked the town to use the buildings as collateral for a $185,000 loan from Katahdin Trust Company, which will be used for reorganization purposes.
Councilors had a number of questions about the proposal.
Town Manager Marian Anderson said that the municipality had secured a similar arrangement with the fair in 1994, and that Town Attorney Dan Nelson drew up documents for the deal.
She said that she had not seen the reorganization plan, but trusted Nelson to secure the necessary paperwork because it had been something the town had done before.
“I let him handle it because I agree that it is a little unusual,” she said. “But I know it also has been done before.”
Councilor Chris Robinson asked who would be responsible if the fair board defaulted on the loan.
Anderson said that Katahdin Trust Company would own the buildings if the fair defaulted, and the town would have no liability.
McCarthy said that he did not envision that happening.
“Katahdin Trust is willing to work with us and go out on a limb,” he said. “They know we are restructuring. They are willing to accept the buildings as collateral and not the land.”
Councilor Sue Tortello said that she did not have an issue with it and agreed that there was a precedent, but she felt that some of the wording in the agreement was confusing. She suggested that Nelson appear at a future meeting to explain the agreement.
The council then tabled a decision until the next meeting.
