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By Charlotte Boynton
Little did the town of Wiscasset know that when Joe Cotter, the owner of National Resources in Greenwich, Conn., purchased the Mason Station property in 2004, the town would find itself mired in a legal battle as a direct result of the sale.
With plans for development, Cotter purchased the property from the Florida Power and Light Company, with plans to develop the property under the umbrella of Mason Station LLC, but the development never happened, In 2013, Cotter owed back taxes amounting to over $800,000, and the lack of tax income form the properties has hurt Wiscasset’s bottom line.
In February, Wiscasset officials announced the town won a default judgment in Lincoln County Superior Court, authorizing the town to attach Mason Station LLC assets in an effort to collect back taxes currently amounting to more than $800,000.
Seven months later, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office seized material on the Mason Station site; some of which is apparently are not assets of Mason Station LLC, but a Guatemalan company, ESI S.A.
According to Lincoln County Sheriff Todd Brackett, the material was seized pursuant to the court order pending the town’s legal interest.
That legal interest, according to Alex Barboni, the U.S. Consultant for ESI S.A. is costing millions of dollars in lost revenues for vendors and contractors in both countries because no work can be done on the Wiscasset site.
“In my opinion for the town to delay shipment for any appreciable time, could result in millions of dollars in lost electricity generation and revenues,” Barboni said. “I would guess that someone could be held accountable for those losses.”
Cotter purchased the Mason Station property in 2004 for $3.9 million. According to Bill of Sale documents, in 2007, a list of certain equipment within the Mason Station building was sold to Sugar Industries Equipment Inc., located in New Orleans.
ESI purchased five generators along with boilers and other material needed to generate electricity from Sugar Industries that same year.
Over the past five years the Guatemala company along with local contractors have been removing asbestos and dismantling the boilers and turbines and shipping them to Guatemala.
According Barboni, about one-third of the material has been removed and shipped to Guatemala, another third is ready for shipment inside the Mason Station building, but there is some outside the building and that material has been seized by the court order.
“I propose that the town and its lawyers were unable to identify the actual assets of Mason Station LLC, that they asked the sheriff to post and seize everything. That is not acting in good faith and not fair to the sheriff,” Barboni said.
“The town had been provided with a list of equipment that was purchased by ESI, and is clearly marked on the equipment that has been crated,” he said.
He also said material that was actually assets of Mason Station LLC were not posted such has two brick buildings on the site.
Wiscasset Town Manager Laurie Smith said Oct. 28, the town has been trying for several months to obtain a clear copy of materials that were been purchased by ESI.
Several attempts to contact a legal firm in Miami, Fla., that represents the Guatemalan company, have not received any response.
“The town is on strong ground here,” Smith said. “We have done nothing wrong. We are attempting to collect a debt that is owed the town. We will do and are doing what is necessary to protect the interest of the town. The town does have rights.”
Smith did say that Barboni had given the town documents indicating a list of the material owned by ESI but important information on the documents had been blacked out and could not be used to determine ownership of material.
Smith also said, when the town received the default judgment to collect the back taxes from the asserts of Mason Station LLC, the attorney for the town notified all parties doing business with the Mason Station property of the town’s judgment against Mason Station LLC property, and ESI was one of those companies.
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(Photo courtesy of Alex Barboni) |
The Guatemalan company is using the material in phases to generate electricity much like the way Mason Station was built. According to Barboni who researched the building of Mason Station back to the early 1940s, the first phase was installing boilers one and two. About 10 years later boilers three and four were built, and about five years later boiler five was installed at Mason Station.
The Guatemalans are doing it just the opposite: their first phase was to install boiler five because it was the newest. “The steam turbines from units one and two are now working in sugar mills in Guatemala,” Barboni said.
The reason the material at Mason Station was not shipped as soon as it was ready is because they were not ready for it in Guatemala, according to Barboni. The dismantling effort got ahead of the work in Guatemala.
According to Barboni, the court order is clear as to the goods, chattel or lands to be seized by Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office. It doesn’t, in his opinion, include equipment stored on site that is owned by another company.
In an effort to have the ESI material released from the seizure, Barboni has written a letter to the State of Maine Superior Court to review the judgment that was entered in favor of the town suggesting the court issue an order to the defendant (Mason Station LLC) to provide a list of their assets to the town.
In the letter to the court, Barboni said, “I have continued to provide the town of Wiscasset with details of the of ESI purchased equipment. Their (the town) visual inspection with their engineer, lawyers, and several town and county officials was performed several months ago to view the remaining assets of Mason Station LLC and clearly marked ESI assets.”
Barboni went on in his letter to the court to say he had provided the town with CMP list of equipment purchases, photos of purchased equipment remaining on site, and posted notices in the purchased equipment.
“Apparently the town has chosen to ignore all the information that I have attempted to provide them,” Barboni said. “It appears that the seizure posting was done without the knowledge of what the Mason Station LLC assets are.”
