To the Editor:
In correspondence, dated October 2008, I requested an evaluation by Northern Maine Development Commission staff and board members, of jeopardy I was and remain faced with. These letters were individually addressed, it took time. It is my belief now, as in 2005 when I chose Aroostook County to make my home, mutual purpose; the benefit of investment and contribution. I trusted NMDC’s representation of service with the security of my life’s credit.
In December 2009, I packed the empty boxes of what was left of my life and prepared, sadly, ready for whatever end to the struggle life has been, purpose lost and grave indifference. It is with respect I ask, even in your triumph of such demise, directors reflect to ask questions that wrote this story.
My loan with NMDC, represented to the board as a folder to evaluate, asked no question of the situation, of me, and relied on the word of NMDC representatives depicting an abstract of the compromise, at their hands. How would board members know the truth of circumstance from those who would not admit mistake; motivated to protect their opinion. There is an impropriety which lacked attention and fair evaluation. This, I feel at the very least, should have been extended. I am asking once again for this respect and your attention to the detail of the compromise that has stripped the purpose the board collectively represents and I’m sure believe in, as I have.
It is difficult being the cornerstone of change, which I feel I represented here amongst community and in The County. I did not consider I would be left to fight to inspire those who inspired me to invest with faith of economic interests. I came with generosity and commitment to provide service and have been left bankrupt from NMDC administration. Surely in respect of humanity, the board members are capable of the compassion to at least ask why and how this would happen under their watch and dedication to quality of life here and its improvement for its citizens and their families.
I believe an evaluation of my situation will call board members to reason and ensure such manipulation not be repeated, in respect for the purpose you represent. To summarize, I have spent an estimated $50,000 in utility expense, $30,000 for insurances, spent over $100,000 with local vendors and businesses, and while taxes were delinquent, did pay $10,000 in taxes. To date, I have also spent $10,000 in lawyer fees to fight the devastation of loan administration, better spent to raise the business, pay delinquent tax and mortgage position as I wrote in request, a request that was silenced. I have spent over $340,000 in real estate purchases for the purpose of supporting a community and raising standards for choice and, in belief, I could contribute. I was left hostage to a system that denies support with a blind eye turned, left without resource. My original loan request of $340,000 collateralized by $1.676 million of personal assets in 2007, diminished by procrastination with no regard to the purpose as it was invested, or gatekeepers to protect it.
The manipulation of Northern Maine Development Commission forced my business to open $65,000 in the hole, how could anyone recover from that? Economic development representation sat in silence in your board room as inaction and acceptance without question to the discrimination and micromanagement of the NMDC loan administrator.
The economy will ebb and flow, but the benefit of the investment to a community, Van Buren Road Lodge is lost and scheduled for auction. I am now collecting public assistance to pay rent and receive food stamp subsidy with little hope to secure gainful employment and with the impossibility to leave and seek employment elsewhere.
I offer more than words on the page. I have a solid paper trail of spreadsheets and witness of peers to the disrespect of the investment and my family that has consumed all I had brought to contribute. I ask that the full NMDC board take the time to consider the facts and jeopardy resulting unbiased. If not the NMDC board, then who can be trusted as the gatekeepers of the future here, of which my business, Van Buren Road Lodge, was denied and exploited from being an outsider, and yes, a woman in your male-dominant society.
Caribou
