Limestone wants Loring to condemn dangerous buildings

LIMESTONE, Maine — Last fall, a fire occurred at 45 Manser Drive, part of an apartment complex that once housed service members and families at Loring Air Force Base.

The fire destroyed the apartment building’s roof. The foundation no longer exists. A person standing in the front yard can see one of the unit’s former living rooms through an open door. Rubble from the fire is strewn across the floor. A “no trespassing” sign is posted but not a formal notice of violation.

It’s the worst example of six blighted 1950s-era buildings on Manser Drive. But though the base is located within Limestone, the town cannot send its code enforcement officer to condemn the building.

“If a building catches fire in town [outside of Loring], the owner has 30 days to board it up,” Durepo said. “We don’t have that control here. Loring is not enforcing the rules on themselves.”

This is not the first time that Limestone officials have called out Loring Development Authority, which owns most of the former base that is now Loring Commerce Centre. The Select Board is threatening to end Loring’s fire protection on Sept. 1 if the authority does not pay $1.2 million for police and fire services dating back to 2015.

At a time when more business and industrial growth is expected at Loring, the town wants to have greater influence over what happens there, especially when it involves Limestone’s services.

As a volunteer firefighter, Durepo has responded to calls many times at Loring, including at 45 Manser. He said fire trucks have had to reroute into Caribou and back into Loring to avoid the massive potholes near and on Manser Drive. That delayed response time by several minutes.

Because of that and building code issues, he and colleagues want Loring officials held to a higher standard. The town is concerned about children crawling beneath uncovered foundations or getting into buildings whose windows have been shattered by vandals, Durepo said.

“We’re not expecting all these buildings to get torn down this fall. But the least [Loring] can do is condemn them. It’s a public safety issue,” Durepo said.

Created in 1993 just before Loring Air Force Base closed, the Loring Development Authority is a “public municipal corporation.” State law grants the authority control over municipal programs that service the base, including code enforcement.

That means Loring officials, not town leaders, are in charge of hiring a code enforcement officer to inspect and condemn blighted Loring properties.

The authority has a contract with George Howe, who worked as Presque Isle’s code enforcement officer until retiring in 2021. Howe inspects Loring properties as needed and sends the authority a bill for his services, Loring Development Authority President and CEO Carl Flora said.

Flora said that most vacant buildings on Manser Drive have been barricaded to prevent anyone going inside.

At 18 Manser Drive (left), a former apartment building within Loring Commerce Centre, no barricades prevent children from possibly crawling beneath the exposed foundation. The foundation at 25 Manser Drive (top right) is gone and no barricades prevent children from possibly crawling underneath. At 45 Manser Drive (bottom right), an open front door leads to the rubble in a former apartment unit’s living room that resulted from a fire last fall. Credit: Melissa Lizotte / Aroostook Republican

But photos taken recently by the Bangor Daily News show a front door open at 18 Manser and shattered windows easily accessible on the ground floor of 25 Manser. At both buildings, orange netting serves as barricades but are overcome by tall weeds. The foundations are visible and children could crawl underneath them.

Loring Development Authority took ownership of the Manser Drive buildings after the base closed in 1994. In 2001, the authority sold that land to nearby Limestone Country Club. The country club returned the property in 2013 in lieu of foreclosure.

Since then, more and more tenants have left without being replaced. The foundations in five apartment buildings began shifting seven years ago, rendering them unstable. Another building became vacant more recently but still needs to be demolished, Flora said.

Loring received $3.1 million in congressional funds in 2021 to demolish buildings and repair roadways. The Manser Drive buildings with foundation issues are slated for demolition, but Flora is unsure when due to pending environmental tests that the federal government requires.

Flora said that monthly rent payments and state funding to the authority decreased dramatically in the last decade, as Loring lost its major employers. That left little in Loring’s budget for demolitions, road repairs and even basic municipal services. It’s also why Loring disbanded its fire department prior to 2015, when Limestone took over.

Loring Development Authority receives Job Increment Financing funds every year, per Maine statute. The Job Increment Financing program takes half of the state income tax from jobs created at Loring and places the money into a fund that the authority receives in July. The authority must use those funds for municipal-based services, like fire, police, ambulance, water and sewer systems, road repairs and code enforcement.

The Maine Military Authority was once the largest employer, paying $750,000 in rent for its equipment repair facility. The company left in 2018 after years of layoffs and budget shortfalls for the authority. At its peak, it employed 1,600 people.

“We had a very healthy budget when Maine Military was here. We could easily get $1 million from JIF,” Flora said. “It’s quite a bit less now — $600,000 last year, $540,000 two years ago. Basic services like water and sewer essentially clean up [our JIF amounts].”

Loring could see brighter financial days if Green 4 Maine succeeds in redeveloping its portion of the Commerce Centre, Flora said. And even with the authority retaining code enforcement rights, he is open to talking with Limestone about sharing those services.

But Limestone officials want things to change on Manser Drive much sooner.

“You can’t separate Loring from Limestone,” Durepo said. “If the town has rules for maintaining roads and buildings, the rules [at Loring] need to be consistent.”