Can town and bank work together regarding library?

PINE PLAINS ­­— The Town Board, the Foundation for the Pine Plains Library and Community Center, the Bank of Millbrook (which holds two-thirds of the foundation’s debt) and Salisbury Bank & Trust (which holds the remaining one-third), have been hard at work for many months — trying to problem solve the foundation’s growing debt and inability to pay for the library building. While much of the struggle has been aired in public, with the foreclosure sale date of Jan. 9 now passed, the parties involved still wanted to further explain what they’ve been grappling with regarding the matter. (To learn about the outcome of the Jan. 9 foreclosure sale, log on to www.tricornernews.com.)The numbers“It would be nice,” said George Whalen III, president of the Bank of Millbrook, of the possibility of selling the building before it foreclosed. “But right now I’m not holding my breath.”That’s because, according to Whalen, the bank well knows the foundation does not have the funds to make good on the $1.53 million owed on the building; nor does the library, which is the prime tenant of the building, which opened its doors to the public in June of 2009. The same goes for the Heart of Pine Plains (HoPP) community center, located on the building’s second floor, in the Sweeney Community Room.The likely potential buyer for the library building is actually the town. It’s an option that has been bandied about at Town Board meetings, library gatherings and just about on every street corner in Pine Plains. The Bank of Millbrook president said he’s approached the town about the possibility — suggesting opening a dialogue about a sale, which Whalen said could forestall foreclosure actions — but he said doing so has been for naught.“We laid it out for the town multiple times, that we could agree upon a price in order to avoid a foreclosure sale ... and that would allow them to go to their constituents with a public referendum and let the voters decide,” Whalen said, adding the offer remained open as of press time. “I don’t understand their reluctance. All I’m suggesting is, let’s talk about price and timing and details, and see if we can stall the foreclosure. If we’re miles apart then there’s no sense in delaying [the foreclosure]. It seems very straight forward and I don’t understand why the town wouldn’t call.”In fact, Whalen said, while town Supervisor Brian Coons said publicly that he would call the bank to talk things over, he never did. Coons said that’s not true, and that the town spoke with the bank on numerous occasions, though he did say he refused to speak with Whalen without an attorney, as was apparently suggested to him.“We met occasionally with them,” Coons said of the bank, adding the town also initiated a fundraising campaign with the library to help purchase the building, but not at the bank’s price. If a sale is ultimately agreed upon, it would have to go before voters in a public referendum. The annual cost to service the $1.5 million debt would be $100,000, on top of the $50,000 a year it costs to maintain the building, resulting in a $150,000, or 15 percent, budget increase. That amounts to a $150 hike in taxes per $100,000 per assessed value of property.Lines of communicationAttorney to the Town Warren Replansky confirmed that there’s been communication between the bank and the town, though he said it might not have been to the bank’s liking.“I have been in contact with bank attorneys; Brian [Coons] has had conversations with Mr. Whalen ... so I’m not sure why Mr. Whalen has been saying things like that,” Replansky said before surmising why there might be a disconnect between the town’s and the bank’s intentions. “I think they’re talking about sitting down and negotiating [a viable] price and that we haven’t done yet, but we haven’t been prepared to do that until now.”“The town has not been dragging its feet,” Replansky continued, adding the town has long since retained the services of an appraiser, as well as had the building inspected by the town engineer, who developed feasibility plans and an estimate of costs to retrofit the library into a municipal building — which the attorney said the town would be forced to do if it purchased the library building. The town also retained the services of bond counsel, to assist the town in maintaining the necessary bonding to put out a bid. “We are now probably in the position to sit down and talk with the bank about the possible purchase of the building,” Replansky said. “I don’t know why Mr. Whalen feels this decision should have been rushed into by the Town Board, but we have to act responsibly to the town and citizen as taxpayers in approaching this very difficult problem. It’s nothing we created or wanted placed in our laps.”The situationReplansky went on to encapsulate exactly what the present situation entailed.“This is a situation where the town was going to be gifted a building, free-of-charge, that was to be constructed by the foundation, which would pay off the mortgage, deed the building to the town, and that was all wonderful,” he said. “The town could then use the building as a library, or for other municipal purposes. We never anticipated that we would have to buy this building ... and this is a huge undertaking for a town of this size.”For rent?That’s why, he said, the town is hoping the bank will allow the library to remain in the building while the issue is sorted out among all interested parties. Whalen, however, said he is not willing to consider a lease.“To lease it to the town for two years is not acceptable,” he said. “We need to sell the building. To tie up an asset for two years not knowing the intentions of the town is not acceptable and not prudent.”Coons, however, said it was a save-all so payments on the principle could be kept current and “the bank would not be hurting.” Again, the complaint of little cooperation between the bank and the town was raised.Cooperation is the name of the game“We’ve gone out of our way to work with the bank,” Coons said, adding that once the town discovered the foundation was struggling the Town Board immediately sought solutions. “We definitely were trying to resolve an issue that wasn’t the town’s problem.”According to Coons, the town went so far as to make an offer on the library, close to its appraisal (which is being kept confidential), but the offer was rejected by the bank.“They always pushed have to get a certain price,” Coons said. “The town felt it was a little too much money to want to purchase the building and wanted to work with them, but we didn’t want to pay an exorbitant amount of money, so here we are, waiting to see if they’re going to evict the library.”The finality of foreclosureIf the foreclosure was not forestalled on Wednesday, Jan. 9, then Whalen said that is exactly what’s going to happen.“Yes, most likely we will serve an eviction notice quickly to the building’s tenant, however we don’t want to make a statement as to the date or how many days we would give them,” he said. “It would be an appropriate time. It wouldn’t be months, it would be reasonable, though that’s subjective.”Replansky, meanwhile, was more optimistic.“This is no simple problem, and we have not been sitting on it,” he said. “We have been working very, very hard to try to do all of our homework, and I think that’s what the taxpayers would expect. We will be reaching out to the bank and start opening the lines of negotiation and hopefully we will come to terms.”