(Host intro) A small cheesemaking business at the Calvin Coolidge Historic Site has been told by the state to leave.
The decision will have an impact on two local companies that employ about 20 people.
The companies’ owners and local legislators are protesting the decision, but the state says it will close the cheese factory for now.
VPR’s Steve Zind reports.
(Zind) The Coolidge family began making cheese in a building on their farm in Plymouth more than a century ago.
Calvin Coolidge’s son, John, operated the cheesemaking plant for many years.
A decade ago, the state purchased the factory and made a half million dollars worth of renovations to the building, which is part of the state-owned Calvin Coolidge Historic Site. Since 2004, the state has leased the building to a company called Frog City Cheese.
The company specializes in the aged, cheddar-like Plymouth Cheese that the Coolidges made.
(Gilbert) "It’s basically a walk-in cooler, a refrigerator. About 40 degrees."
(Zind) Owner Tom Gilbert says he feels a certain sense of history making a cheese unique to this place. And he’d love to go on doing it. But the state has told him it wants him out of the cheese factory by January 1st. Gilbert’s company employs as many as six people on a seasonal basis.
(Gilbert) "My plans for next year are canceled. My contracts I will be unable to fulfill. By terminating my lease they are forcing me out of business."
(Zind) The state’s decision will affect not only Gilbert and his company but Frank Abballe and his business.
Abballe produces meat and cheese from a herd of nearly 700 water buffalo at his farm in Woodstock. He employs 16 people. Abballe contracts with Gilbert to make cheese at the Plymouth factory.
With Gilbert gone and the factory shut, Abballe says he’s questioning whether to stay in Vermont.
(Abballe) "In Vermont it’s already tough to farm here. Not just to farm but to manufacture. And this is another hit, another problem. I’m Canadian and I’m thinking maybe to move everything back to Canada.
(Zind) Windsor Representative Ernest Shand says he’s puzzled why the state is doing something that could put people out of work at two local businesses during a difficult economic time.
(Shand) "And I have not received any real answers from the state. The last person I talked to was the communications director for economic development and he didn’t give me a reason."
(Zind) Until now state officials have refused to comment about the decision to terminate the lease of the cheese company. On Wednesday they provided an explanation.
(Mace) "Mr. Gilbert has failed to live up to his obligations under the contract he signed with the state on numerous occasions."
(Zind) David Mace is the communications director for the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development, which manages the lease. Mace says Tom Gilbert failed to pay a fuel bill and also fell behind in lease payments.
For his part Gilbert says he was up to date on payments until he was told to leave the building.
He says a troubled relationship with Deputy Secretary of Commerce and Community Development James Saudade who overseas the lease is at the heart of the dispute. That’s something the agency denies.
The future of the factory is uncertain. The state says it may look for a new tenant – or simply leave it shuttered.
For VPR News, I’m Steve Zind.