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Boys Summer Camp Caught in Credit Crunch

October 22, 2008 -


OAKLAND -- Jon Deren, co-owner of Camp Manitou, a summer camp for boys on East Pond, has had a close encounter with the nation's financial crisis -- and it hasn't been pleasant.

Nor has it been enjoyable for the four businesses that filed liens against Deren last month totaling more than $1 million for failure to get paid for services or materials provided to Deren this year.

But Deren said those businesses will be paid in full soon.

The delay, he said, was a result of two unforeseen issues, the latter being the meltdown on Wall Street.

"We have a good relationship with all the contractors," he said. "They understand the situation, and it is understandable that they filed these liens. By Maine law, they should have filed them to protect themselves."

Those liens, each a public document available for viewing at the Kennebec County Registry of Deeds in Augusta, were filed by the following businesses: S D Construction, of Fairfield, $572,121; William Mushero Inc., of Oakland, $328,294; Ware-Butler Inc., of Waterville, $237,261; and R.S. Pidacks Inc., of Livermore, $97,841.

Deren said the sum of those liens overstates the total amount by several $100,000 because at least one business was a subcontractor to one of the other companies involved.

The work the businesses provided, he said, went toward the construction of Camp Eastwood, a performing-arts camp next door but separate from Camp Manitou.

Deren said trouble started when the cost of developing Camp Eastwood turned out to be higher than anticipated, a level in fact that exceeded the financing Deren had secured for the project.

Given that situation, Deren said he arranged for a second appraisal of the property so that he could refinance to obtain the additional money he needed to meet his expenses.

But his timing could not have been worse, he said.

Deren said a credit crunch had begun in earnest as a result of the Wall Street crisis.

"This is a bad time in this country for a quick refinancing," he said. "Those things take time."

Robert Pidacks, owner of R.S. Pidacks, is not panicking.

"I feel we are going to get paid," he said. "I just didn't want something to happen. We are just a small family business, and I can't afford to lose that much."

Pidacks said Deren has been straightforward with him about the problem.

"I don't think he is intentionally not paying us or avoiding us," he said. "I think it had to do with the tightening of the banks and that he didn't get all the financing he needed."

Gerald Saint Amand, credit manager at Ware-Butler, said his company is not alarmed by the delay in payment.

"I expect everything will work out," he said. "They are good people, a good company. I think the changing economic times are responsible more than anything else."

BY COLIN HICKEY
Staff Writer, Kennebec Journal, 10/19/2008


Lakes: East Pond
Regions: Belgrade


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