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	Pilgrim Hot Springs Set for Auction By Mary Beth Smetzer News-Miner February 21, 2010 http://newsminer.com/view/full_story/6421397/article-Pilgrim-Hot-Springs-set-for-auction?instance=home_news_window_left_bullets FAIRBANKS (AK) -- Pilgrim Hot Springs, a longtime property of the Fairbanks Catholic Diocese, is going on the auction block as part of the diocese's Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization settlement. Interested parties have until Thursday to submit bids to purchase the 320-acre parcel and post $250,000 as earnest money to participate. The live auction sale will be held in the U.S. Federal Bankruptcy Court on March 5 in Anchorage. Last spring, the diocese made arrangements to lease the hot springs, but the lease conditions did not suit the bankruptcy court's timeline and were not accepted, said George Bowder, director of finance for the diocese. The diocese's third reorganization plan to settle with nearly 300 claims of sexual abuse by priests and lay workers was approved in January, and claimants are sharing a $9.8 million trust compiled from insurance money, parish contributions and sales of diocesan property to its endowment. One of the reorganization provisions was that Pilgrim Hot Springs be auctioned off to the highest bidder. The diocese plans an opening bid of $1.85 million from its endowment fund. Bowder said that $1.85 million will be used to pay remaining legal and administration fees. However, if a higher bid is accepted and received, the difference between the diocese's bid and the winning bid will be added to the victims' settlement fund. Bowder estimates that since the first sexual abuse lawsuits were filed almost a decade ago, the diocese will pay approximately $4.5 million in legal-related expenses. Legal fees for claimants' attorneys will be garnered from the $9.8 million settlement. Pilgrim Hot Springs was homesteaded more than a century ago by Henry Beckus and named Kruzgamepa Hot Springs after a nearby river. Originally, it featured a roadhouse, saloon, dance hall and spa baths catering to miners during the Seward Peninsula gold rush until the roadhouse and saloon burned down in 1908. In 1917, the 320-acre property, located 60 miles north of Nome, was deeded to the Catholic church and shortly afterward developed by a Jesuit missionary, the Rev. Bellarmine Lafortune, into an orphanage and boarding school as a result of the 1918 influenza pandemic. The mission grew much of its own food and procured wood from a nearby forest in an otherwise treeless landscape. The mission closed its doors in the 1940s. In the 1940s and 50s, the U.S. Army housed troops at the site and built an airstrip. During the 1960s and later, various agricultural projects were attempted. By 1977, the property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The property's geothermal potential is attracting the greatest interest. Scientists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks are engaged in a federally funded study to evaluate the sources and extent of the hot springs through December 2011. Bowder said there are many other uses that could do well on the property including greenhouse and agricultural projects, tourism and raising reindeer or caribou. "Our one prayer is that whoever takes ownership will recognize the importance of the hot springs to the people of the region, its historical importance and its spiritual significance. And if its agricultural potential is used, it can benefit multiple parties for the long term," Bowder said. Contact staff writer Mary Beth Smetzer at 459-7546. Auction The auction of Pilgrim Hot Springs is March 5 in U.S. Federal Bankruptcy Court in Anchorage. Bids are due and $250,000 bonds posted by 5 p.m. Thursday. Submit to: Mike Mills at Dorsey & Whitney, LLP Suite 600 1031 West 4th Ave. Anchorage, AK 99501-5907 For further information, documents, maps, contact George Bowder, director of finance, (907) 374-9530, finance@cbna.org; Tom Buzek, business administrator, 907-322-4992, tom@cbna.org; or Robert Hannon, chancellor, (907) 374-9510, robert@cbna.org; or visit the Catholic Bishop of Northern Alaska Web site: www.cbna.org Contact: msmetzer@newsminer.com
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