The Bank of Maine has announced plans to sell off the Boothbay Country Club. A public sale has been scheduled for January 28 in Portland.

Reached January 2, club owner Jim Reeves declined to comment.

According to a January 3 legal notice the bank submitted to the Boothbay Register, bids will be accepted on the property beginning at 10 a.m. January 28, at the law firm of Bernstein Shur, 100 Middle St., Portland.

The notice is one step in a foreclosure process known as a “power of sale.” The notice has to be published three consecutive weeks, beginning at least 21 days prior to the sale.

Some club members reached described the news as sad. Cathy Blake of Boothbay and husband Gary have been golfing at the club with each other and with friends since the late 1980s.

Blake said they had been wondering why they hadn't received any bills for the upcoming year. “We'd be very sad for it to foreclose or be closed, because it's a wonderful place,” she said. “It's too beautiful to close.”

Interviewed separately, fellow Boothbay resident Lorri Higgins echoed Blake's positive feelings for the club. Higgins, her husband Chris, and their children Adam and Kylie learned to golf there, she said.

Asked what she likes about the club, Blake said, “Everything. Its convenience, its beauty, the staff. And we really like Jim and (his wife) Carol … I think this is really sad.”

However, another club member, Lincoln Brown, thinks the sale could be a good thing. At prices up to $95 a round (nearly twice as much as some other courses) it's gotten unaffordable for local people to play, he said.

“It's been poorly operated, poorly managed by Jim,” Brown said.

Brown said he would like the club's prior owners, Harris Golf, to take it over again.

Bidders will need a $50,000 deposit to register, according to the notice.

Boothbay Country Club LLC took out the loan in 2008.

Susan Johns can be reached at 207-844-4633 or sjohns@wiscassetnewspaper.com.