Railroad in default; city may give it the boot
By Jay Davis
BELFAST (Jan 18, 2005): The city that built the Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad and ran it for 120 years may soon give it the boot out of town.
Officials disclosed Tuesday night that the railroad's owner, RailStar Corp. of New York, defaulted on its lease with the city when it failed to make monthly payments in a timely manner.
City Manager Terry St.Peter said RailStar was three or four months behind in its payments when the city sent a 10-day notice in mid-December. There was no response in the 10-day window called for in the lease, St.Peter said, so the city can now order the railroad off the waterfront property it has occupied since 1870.
RailStar president Ron Trottier of Cape Vincent, N.Y., told VillageSoup Tuesday "glitches can happen" when a business basically starts "from ground zero." Trottier purchased the line from the estate of the late Bert Clifford in the summer of 2003 after several years of relative inactivity following Clifford'sdeath.
"I always figured it would take three years to turn a profit," he said. Trottier has sent checks to the city covering the late payments, St.Peter said, but the city has not cashed them and is considering its options. The amount of money involved is about $2,000, a drop in the bucket compared to the value of the waterfront land the railroad may soon forfeit.
One of the city's options, the manager said, "is to tell the railroad to pack up and leave town."
The council met in executive session Tuesday night with St.Peter and City Attorney Bill Kelly. No action was taken following the hour-long closed-door session; St.Peter said, "the city is keeping its options open."
The manager released a letter from Trottier to the city dated Jan.16 in which Trottier conceded the lease was "in serious jeopardy" and pledged to "stay current with the City from this time forward."
He added, "It is our corporate vision that the Belfast & Moosehead Lake RR becomes the premier attraction of its kind in the Mid-Coast region of Maine."
The city held the controlling interest in the railroad from 1870 to 1991, when it was sold to Charles Sturtevant of Rhode Island. The city had earlier purchased most of the railroad's extensive waterfront holdings, leaving mostly the land and buildings near the roundhouse that were needed to operate the trains.
At one time the city agreed to sell the land back to the railroad if it maintained an annual ridership of 25,000 for 10 years. That possibility was forfeited during Clifford's years as owner.
An interested party in the fate of the railroad is developer Tom Roberts, who wants to turn the former Stinson Seafood property into a multi-use commercial and recreational facility. Roberts attended Tuesday's council meeting but did not speak.
The council is expected to decide on the railroad's future at its next meeting on Feb. 1.
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Based in Belfast, Senior Reporter Jay Davis can be reached at 207-338-0484 or by e-mail at
jdavis@villagesoup.com.
