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By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — Belding Heminway mill is again looking at an auction.
A Superior Court judge this month ordered the auction of 107 Providence Street and 94 Providence Street. The auction is set for noon Jan. 8 at the mill.
After a five-year journey through state Superior Court Judicial District of Windham, with defendant 107 Providence Street Associates LLC seldom responding, ICB Enterprise Initiative LLC was successful in court and the auction was set.
According to court documents, the legal action began in April 2016 when Donat Charron and Muriel Charron sued 107 Providence Street Associates LLC for a default on the balance of $300,000. The complaint said the principal balance due was $182,592.19, plus interest plus Putnam taxes of over $8,000 and Water Pollution Control Authority sewer and water fees of more than $3,000.
In 2018 the town of Putnam held a tax auction on the property. The winning bid was $66,409.88 by Eggoman LLC. The auction rules allow the owners of the property six months to pay the outstanding taxes. If they are not paid, the winning bidder is the new owner of the property. The day before the six-month mark, ICB Enterprise Initiative LLC, the successor to Donat and Muriel Charron, paid the taxes and fees. The auction was retroactively cancelled.
In May 2019 the court allowed ICB Enterprise Initiative LLC in as the substituted plaintiff.
Earlier this year the lawsuit was amended to correct incomplete Exhibit information.
Originally the lawsuit was against 107 Providence Street Associates LLC plus tenants Biosensory Inc. DSM Design LLC, Schoolhouse Design Inc. and Engineered Construction International Inc. The tenants were removed from the lawsuit in June as they “no longer had an interest in the property.”
That left 107 Providence Street Associates LLC. Putnam Tax Assessor’s records show the co-owner as Ellis Paine of 44 Canterbury Road, Brooklyn. ICB Enterprise Initiative LLC, according to Secretary of State records, lists three principals Isabel Chandana Balachandran, Kallippatti Sundaramurthy Balachandran and Thiruveni Balachandran.
After 107 Providence St. failed to respond, Judge Jack W. Fischer issued a judgment of foreclosure by sale. The debt listed in court papers, as of Sept. 20, 2021, is: Debt - $380,212.07; attorney fees – 2,475 for a total of $382,687.07.Appraisal fees are $1,500; title search $225. The fair market value is listed as $620,000.
According to The Putnam River Mill Heritage & River Trails map history, Belding Mill was originally known as the Powhattan Mill. The brick four-story mill was built by George M. Morse in 1872. “It has “segmental arch” windows with brick sill and Mansard roof with round-headed dormers. Freight doors open to each level in the central hoist tower. Owner Morse ran 20,000 spindles and 416 looms for cotton manufacture here in 1884. Viewed from the bridge, the 115-foot-long, 10-foot-high dam retains much masonry from its original construction, including an arched opening on the west side to drain the pond. The dam provided Powhattan with 15 1/2’ head and 200 horsepower augmented by a steam plant behind the mill. The Belding-Corticelli Thread Company bought Powhattan in 1918 and operated it until its closing. East of the mill, along Powhattan and Mohegan Streets, stand 20 double-entry, wood frame, workers’ dwellings also built in 1872.”
It was the town’s largest employer from 1900 to 1950, according to the Putnam Economic and Community Development office.
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