1

JERREY ROBERTS

This building at 9 Russell Road in Huntington has been one of the Hampshire Community Action Commission's last remaining assets. With a bankruptcy filing, the failed nonprofit's board should finally be able, four years later, to write its last chapter.

At this point, the four-year endeavor to close the books on HCAC is almost farcical. It has become a never-ending mission fueled by the agency's financial meltdown in 2005. Today, the defunct agency still owes hundreds of creditors $1.5 million, including more than $500,000 to the state Division of Unemployment Assistance.

The financial mismanagement that led to the agency's collapse has been well documented. A story less told is that of an interim board unable to finish its assignment.

The board was tapped by local officials to save or liquidate the agency after it suffered more than $1 million in losses - and in the wake of mass resignations. They are Nancy DeProsse, appointed by Amherst's administrator; Michael Garjian, appointed by Easthampton's mayor; Lynn Wallace, appointed by Northampton's mayor; Morgan Lord, a former HCAC client; and David Kielson, the agency's former and longtime board treasurer. Robert Condon, a former board chairman from Belchertown, resigned last year.

For years, these individuals have been meeting almost monthly behind the scenes. They have labored - at times with great frustration - to dissolve the nonprofit organization. It has been a thankless job, but the group should be commended for dedicating time and energy to bringing about a dignified end for HCAC. Surely none of them thought they would be toiling at this assignment today.

The board's recent bankruptcy petition is the result of a stalemate with creditors over HCAC's largest remaining asset: a building at 9 Russell Road in Huntington. The board tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with a half dozen creditors to waive liens held on the property. By law, HCAC can't dissolve until it liquidates all its assets.

Selling or transferring the property to a new owner or nonprofit organization committed to social services was the board's main goal. The panel wanted to ensure that tenants like the Hilltown Community Health Center would remain based in the Russell Road building and continue to serve low-income people in the area.

After years of trying, the board has now turned to U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Worcester. This move, while done reluctantly, makes sense. If all goes as planned, the Huntington property, 40 Eric Carle lithographs and any other remaining assets will be sold and distributed to creditors by a newly named trustee.

The sale of these assets will not meet the $1.5 million obligation to creditors, which include child-care providers, social service agencies and all manner of businesses that lost money when HCAC went under. In fact, the proceeds won't even come close. But the bankruptcy petition should succeed in writing the last chapter of the HCAC story, which has become "one for the books."