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The Dime, a prominent Old Town bar and a mainstay in local night life, will close for an undetermined period of time as the result of a long-standing dispute between the building’s owner and its proprietor.
News of the closing went viral on Facebook after a Jan. 22 wall post on the event page “The Dime Grand Finale” announced the bar would close Jan. 29.
“Saturday Night will be the last night at the Dime 
Due to our ongoing lawsuit for ownership of the building, and the lack of maintenance performed by the owner we are regrettably closing for the time being.” read the post.
The closing was confirmed by The Maine Campus Tuesday night after the bar’s owner, Tim Taylor, said he could no longer afford the financial stress incurred by the dispute.
The decision to close and the financial stress described by Taylor stem from a conflict over ownership of the building that began last winter between him and the property owner, Robert Modery.
In February 2010, according to Taylor, Modery backed out of a lease-to-purchase agreement when it came time to close on the building for a sale price of $200,000. Taylor claims Modery wanted more money at the time of the sale in addition to the cost of one month’s rent, $3,500. At the time, Taylor felt this defied the conditions of the lease-to-purchase agreement he had entered into in order to buy the building.
“The money we had paid at that point was supposed to go to the principal of the purchase price,” Taylor told The Maine Campus in October. “This guy thought he was going to take advantage of a bunch of young kids and get more money than we actually owed.”
Meanwhile, Modery maintains the property was either to be purchased or relinquished on or before March 2, 2010, but he said Taylor refused to pay the amount outlined in the lease-to-purchase agreement. Furthermore, Modery said, Taylor refused to pay anything at all.
According to both parties, this led to the issuance of an eviction notice on April 16, 2010. Subsequently, after Taylor failed to vacate, as he felt he had a legal right to stay, various legal challenges were filed with the district court in Bangor on behalf of both parties.
Now, as a result of legal proceedings, Taylor has been forced to close his establishment.
The move comes after the court issued a ruling in Modery’s favor following a forcible entry and detainer hearing Oct. 4 in Bangor District Court, which was filed by Modery in response to Taylor’s refusal to vacate.
“He wouldn’t leave and he wasn’t paying what we had agreed upon — he wasn’t paying anything at all and the court ruling demonstrates that,” Modery said. “I’m from the old school, and when you agree to something, you follow through on it.”
The court ordered Taylor to pay into an escrow fund, an account that the court will control until all rulings are final. Taylor has appealed the order with a higher court and is awaiting a date for another lawsuit he filed against Modery over the lease-to-purchase agreement.
However, Taylor must make 11 payments of $3,500 each, or the amount of rent on the property for every month since the dispute began, in order to have his appeal heard. Taylor says he is complying with this order for the sake of his appeal.
Only after all litigation is settled will the money be distributed, if at all, to Modery.
In the meantime, following the Jan. 29 closing, The Dime’s doors are expected to remain shut tentatively, according to Taylor. Ownership will essentially be in the hands of the court, as all other means of mediation have been exhausted.
“We have maintained and continue to maintain that Modery has not upheld his end of the bargain — we followed the agreement as it was written,” Taylor said. “We no longer have the money to pay into an escrow fund for the monthly rent Modery claims we were expected to pay — in addition to our financing payments for money we borrowed to buy the building in the first place.”
“I don’t want to close, but I have to,” he added.
Ultimately, The Dime’s closure brings an end to a rancorous dispute that saw broken windows, cat-and-mouse games involving “For Sale” signs being put up and taken down by both parties, and legal proceedings that produced no clear answers about who was to blame.
Both Taylor and Modery are confident they will eventually win in the end. Taylor says if his appeal is granted and The Dime regains financial stability, he will reopen the bar.
Modery says he wants “the mess” to be over and has likened the event to “a movie that won’t end.”
