BRUNSWICK

The Brunswick Development Corp. approved more than a half-million dollars in loan and grant requests to spur local businesses to renovate, expand and hire.

A list of proposed amendments to its bylaws will have to wait until November, however. Because the loan presentations took so long during its regular board meeting Wednesday, BDC board members voted to table discussion until Nov. 20.

“The bylaw changes were tabled simply due to time restrictions,” Brunswick Development Corp. Board of Trustees Chairwoman Larissa Darcy wrote in an email Thursday to The Times Record. “The four presentations ran longer than projected.”

Board members originally were scheduled to adopt the amendments during a special meeting Oct. 23, but that meeting was scrubbed by default when amendments discussion was tabled.

Darcy said another special meeting to adopt bylaw changes will be scheduled after Nov. 20.

The BDC’s bylaws came under scrutiny in the wake of a controversial, forgivable $247,000 loan awarded in July to Dale King, the owner of Brunswick Taxi.

King’s wife, Joanne, previously served on both the BDC’s board as well as the Town Council.

The modifications include implementation of an ethics code, stricter parameters regarding who is or is not eligible for BDC loans; creation of a BDC website with contact and explanatory information; and adoption of language addressing conflicts of interest.

Loan recipients Wednesday were At Last … Salon and Day Spa, Frosty’s Donuts LLC and The Gelato Fiasco Inc., which received total improvement or expansion loans worth $328,100.

Additionally, Brunswick Downtown Association was granted $250,000 to be administered in small batches to village business and commercial property owners who want to make cosmetic or aesthetic improvements to their storefronts.

For the downtown improvement loans, each request must be matched by the business or property owner up to $10,000 per application, according to Denise Clavette, Brunswick’s business development director.

At Last … — a Park Row salon owned by Lori Bourgeois

— received $34,500 for lease and site improvement expenses. The loan charges 4.25 percent interest and is amortized over 10 years. However, like many BDC loans, it is 50 percent forgivable if Bourgeois creates and sustains positions for four new specially licensed independent contractors.

Brunswick mainstay Frosty’s Donuts LLC received $137,500 to renovate inside and outside its storefront at 54 Maine St., expand its kitchen, and buy two new delivery vehicles.

Frosty’s, owned by Nels and Shelby Omdal, also will pay interest at 4.25 percent amortized over 10 years for the loan, which is 50 percent forgivable with creation of five new local positions.

The Gelato Fiasco Inc. will get $156,100 for retention and expansion of its wholesale business in Brunswick. The local frozen confectioner, which already has benefited from two different BDC loans in order to retain local production facilities, will renovate the interior and exterior of its 2 Industry Road location and acquire new freezing equipment with the loan.

It, too, carries a 4.25-percent rate for 15 years, amortized over 10 years, and 50- percent forgivable if five new Brunswick jobs are created.

jtleonard@timesrecord.com

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