The dispute between the City of Eastport and Millennium Marine USA over rent payments to the city and money owed to Millennium has now boiled over to the point that the city has told the boatbuilding firm to leave the city-owned Guilford mill building by July 19, while Millennium President Cory Guimond vows to continue working in a section of the building.
     On April 21 the city sent Guimond a notice to quit the premises within 90 days for failure to pay the March and April rent amount of $17,000, with May and June's rent of another $17,000 now also not having been paid. According to city officials, Millennium has previously owed back rent to the city. Guimond, though, says he intends to continue to operate in the smaller Olson space, while he has vacated the larger section. "I plan to continue to employ people and fulfill the obligations to the people I'm doing business with and fulfill the contracts I have to complete."
     He maintains that the company is owed "a considerable amount," over $600,000, and that he intends to take legal action against the city. "Obviously they want me gone -- for whatever reason I do not know."
     However, City Manager Elaine Abbott says, "The council tried very hard to renegotiate with Millennium, but those negotiations failed." At a special city council meeting held on April 25, the council proposed that the city would waive rent owed for March, April and May and a new lease would be negotiated for the period beginning June 1, 2016, through December 31, 2016. The rent would be reduced from $7,200 a month to $3,750 a month for the main section of the mill. The reduced rent amount would cover the premium of the mill insurance of $52,000, which had doubled after the building caught fire in July 2014, so that taxpayers would not be subsidizing the cost. The lease for the Olson space, which Guimond had stated he no longer required, would be canceled without penalty. New lease negotiations would occur in January 2017, and provided there was increased financial stability within Millennium Marine, a rent payment of $4,750 would be instituted for 2017. The offer also stipulated that Millennium would pay outstanding personal property taxes owed to the city, that rent would be paid on the first of every month and that failure to pay rent would result in a seven-day notice of eviction. This offer, though, was rejected by Guimond, Abbott says.
     Following the issuance of the notice to quit, Abbott and other city representatives inspected the larger section of the building on June 2, and she says, "In my opinion the space has not been vacated." She doesn't know if Guimond plans to continue to use that space, but she says, "To me it appears he still has possession of that building." Abbott says that if Guimond does not move out by July 19, the next step will be to get an eviction judgment from a court.
     The Washington County government also is involved with the lease agreements, since the $1.4 million Economic Development Administration (EDA) grant that was used for building upgrades and equipment purchases was a partnership between the county and the city. A total of $524,000 of the grant funds was used for hull molds, and the county holds the liens to the molds. On May 6, County Manager Betsy Fitzgerald wrote to Guimond, stating, "The county is aware of your attempts to work out building lease issues with the City of Eastport and understands that you intend to look for a building to lease on the Pleasant Point Reservation, in Steuben or some other location. Moving the molds from their current location would be a breach of your boat mold lease obligations." Without a valid lease from the city, the county might terminate its lease of the boat molds, she stated, although the county might consider amending the lease to allow the molds to be relocated, if a suitable location was found and Millennium pays off its existing debt for 5% of the match for the EDA grant.

Divergent views
     Differences between Guimond and city officials have been ongoing for some time, with both having sharply divergent understandings of agreements that may have been made.
     Guimond relates that based on assurances given to him by then City Manager Jon Southern, he had ceased his boatbuilding operations in New Brunswick in the summer of 2013 and moved them to Eastport. The first lease agreement was dated September 1, 2013, but Guimond says the city-owned mill building was not ready. He was told he could work in the smaller Olson section, but that ended up not being the case. The new city manager, Larry Post, then told Guimond he had found a solution, with Guimond to install a new door so that the Olson space could be used. In December 2013 he moved his equipment in, with rent beginning in January. He says he was then forbidden by the city and the county to perform any operations in the building while the main section of the building was being refurbished, since it could jeopardize the EDA grant. He wasn't able to start boatbuilding operations until May 2014 in the main section. Meanwhile, he had paid two months' rent on the Olson section and paid for heat, snow removal and other costs, for a total of $15,844, but was unable to use the space. "The city should have checked before saying they had a solution," he says.
     After Elaine Abbott became city manager, he says he received a letter stating he owed 13 months' rent, at $1,300 a month, on the Olson space that he had been unable to use. Guimond says it was "bizarre" to receive a letter 13 months later asking for the payment, since payment had not been requested previously. "I had told them before I was not paying for something I couldn't use." After speaking with the council and telling them what had been agreed upon, he says none of them remembered that agreement.
     However, Abbott says that Millennium had a lease for the Olson space but stopped paying rent. The city council instructed her to bill him for past due rent, and Guimond then informed the council that the previous city manager had let him out of the lease because he wasn't using the space. "Council took him at his word that he had not been occupying the space and let him out of the lease and didn't charge him at all," says Abbott.
     For the larger space, Millennium had been given one year occupancy rent free, then began paying rent in May 2015. After starting operations there in May 2014, a fire in July "forced us to slow down," Guimond says. He says "out of the goodness of my heart" he paid the $25,000 deductible on the insurance for the cost of repairs. He says the repairs should only have taken less than three months to complete but ended up taking over seven months. Also, he says he told the city that the insulation in the ceiling should not be removed until the contractor was ready to replace it. He ended up, though, having to heat the 7,500-square-foot space with just metal sheeting on the roof "during the coldest winter in history." Because of the heat loss, he estimates he paid $25,000 in additional fuel costs. Also, the boatbuilding operation was being "constantly disrupted" by the cleaners and contractors doing repairs. He presented the city with an invoice for $43,417 for the costs of moving equipment, additional heat and cleaning costs that he paid, but he says Millennium was not reimbursed for those costs. Abbott, though, says that Millennium was reimbursed by the city's insurance for expenses after the fire, including heat, electricity and the cleanup costs that Guimond started on his own.
     Guimond also says that of the $1.4 million EDA grant, $84,000 was set aside as contingency funds, and the county, engineers and contractors agreed that the money would be used to pay companies he hired to install equipment for ventilation, heating and a wood boiler. He spent over $100,000 on those costs but until early 2016 had not received any money for reimbursement, when he did receive $14,389 from the grant funds. However, Abbott says that Millennium was given $524,000 from the $1.4 million EDA grant to release liens on his molds so that they could be taken out of Canada. The remaining funds were spent on building improvements as directed by Guimond, she says. In addition, the city had received $200,000 in Community Development Block Grants that were used to fund a portion of Millennium's employee training programs.
     Guimond also states, "Neither the city nor the county can explain where the contingency money was spent."      According to Abbott, though, the county has provided Guimond and the city with a complete accounting of how the grant funds were spent.

Boatbuilder relates issues with city
     Guimond comments, "If I had not come here and had I not constantly stayed on top of this project, this [EDA] grant would have been lost and the city building would still be in its previous state in need of repairs and unoccupied."
In late 2015 Millennium decided to produce only the fiberglass hulls and cabins in Eastport and ship the boats to other boatyards to be finished. Guimond also reopened one of Millennium's operations in Canada to increase sales of kit boats to a strong Canadian market. He says publicity about owing back rent has had a negative impact on sales, but eventually the company would transition back to 20 to 30 employees in Eastport.
     Other lease issues, though, also are unresolved between Millennium and the city. After discussions with the council, in March he presented a document listing the issues he wanted to go over and said he would not make more payments until they were resolved. After a series of offers and counter-offers, he says the city's final offer was for the rent payment to be made and left out any of his requests for information or reimbursement. When his counter-offer was denied, he decided to return his operations to Canada. Millennium has now vacated the larger space, and Guimond says he plans to continue building smaller boats in the Olson space and employ six workers, with a goal of increasing the number back up. Employment had averaged 20 workers over the two-year period.
     Now, though, the city has refused to accept his rent payment for the smaller space, citing health and safety concerns for the employees. Abbott says the Olson space is in violation of Millennium's lease with the county in regards to the boat molds. Also there are no sanitary facilities, source of heat or an air exchanger for employee health. Also, she says the taxpayers would be required to shoulder the cost of insurance and heat, which would total $84,000 a year. Although the space does not have access to water or bathrooms, Guimond says he could provide portable toilets and could hook into the water line in the building for sinks. He also notes that the city previously had said he could work in just the Olson section.
     In a February 22 letter to the city council and the county manager, Guimond outlined that Millennium is seeking $212,262 for costs the company has incurred, plus $430,000 for lost sales and profits that the company has suffered. He wrote, "I have made numerous efforts to remedy mistakes and broken commitments by both city and county. In an attempt to relieve the city and county of these obligations to repay my companies, I have offered to purchase the building for $250,000. This amount reflected a figure of approximately $350,000 as hidden compensation for a total value of $600,000 for the building. My offer was denied mainly for the reason that the grant had a lien on the building."
"Another example of goodwill happened when Millennium has offered to pay the city's insurance deductible and in the end has handed the city $25,000," he added. "Millennium has been patient and it has continued to cooperate with the city and county despite numerous letdowns."