BANGOR, Maine - A lease letter obligates the state to pay $11.3 million over 30 years for a psychiatric residence that was supposed to cost $2 million to $3 million to build. It also bars the state from terminating the lease to operate a similar facility elsewhere. The Bangor Daily News reports that documents released by the state breaks down for the first time how the administration of former Gov. Paul LePage negotiated the construction and lease of a privately owned state psychiatric facility that he and lawmakers fought over for years.
The LePage administration wanted to ensure that the building was located in Bangor, not Augusta. And the lease requires it to be licensed for at least seven patients.
The facility will temporarily house some psychiatric patients who no longer need hospital care.
