Selectmen voted this week to apply for a business assistance grant through the Community Development Block Grant program on behalf of Kelly's Landing and other interested parties. It will be the town's second attempt to secure a grant for the project. An application was submitted last year but was not funded.

The publicly owned Junction Wharf also needs renovation, but it is not eligible for a business assistance grant because it will not provide job growth, one of the grant requirements.

The owners of Kelly's Landing, a dining and lodging facility located on Moosehead Lake, want to reconstruct the so-called Hollingsworth-Whitney Wharf attached to their business. The reconstruction is expected to draw more patrons to the business which would create new jobs.

"If we don't help them we're basically telling a Greenville business we don't want to help you," Greenville Town Manager John Simko said Thursday.

If the grant is awarded, the business must match the total cost of the project, which is expected to be less than $400,000. The business owner will provide the cost estimates. Simko stressed that there is no cost to the town; the town basically serves as a pass through agent for the money, he said.

Kim Brady, owner of Kelly's Landing, said that old estimates peg the project at about $100,000. She said the business has already completed about half the work needed on the wharf but needs financial help to finish the project.

"It's just very, very old and it's getting unsafe," Brady said Friday of the wharf. She said the steamboat Katahdin has docked at the wharf in the past to drop off and pick up passengers for its trips. If it is fully reconstructed, the Katahdin could be removed from the water from the wharf to be placed in dry dock, she said.

Simko said any business in the state that has "bricks and mortar" needs and can demonstrate that one new job will be created for every $20,000 in grant funds within 24 months of the closeout of the grant project is eligible for the grant. The funds may only be used for real property, not working capital, he said.

This is the same program that provided $100,000 to C.A. Dean Memorial Hospital for its medical office building project, according to Simko.

The vote by selectmen this week on the matter was 3-1 with Carroll Smith voting in opposition. Nor did Selectman Dan McLaughlin favor the move. Unable to attend the meeting, McLaughlin told Simko in an e-mail that the town should not rush into making a decision since the application deadline is in May. He said the town should consider additional projects that might benefit from the grant.

"This project might very well be the best to apply for, however, without opening it up to the public and further discovery, we will not know," McLaughlin said. He also suggested that downtown businesses could be hurt if the steamboat Katahdin moves its passengers to the junction wharf, he said.

Simko said this application does not prevent the town from making another application in another grant round should the need arise.
"This content originally appeared as a copyrighted article in the Saturday, February 18, 2006 edition of the Bangor Daily NEWS and is used here with permission."