BERNARDSTON — Bob McCollum, 72, leaned against his red Ford pickup, holding a walking stick to keep upright, watching bidders walk up to his home of 17 years to try to buy it at a public auction on Monday.
The auction process, which could lead to McCollum being evicted from his home, had started and he was watching it unfold.
The foreclosure, held by the Lowell-based firm Korde & Associates, awarded the property to the bank that he took out a loan from over a decade ago, at a sum of $144,000 for the property on Shaw Road in Bernardston.
Dressed in khaki shorts and flip-flops, others in suits and leather shoes, the other potential bidders quickly walked away after the bank offered up its number. Instead, the property went to Bank of New York Mellon, an investment bank, whose representatives declined to comment. McCollum had taken a $153,000 loan for the home on an adjustable rate interest back in 2003.
It is unclear if the bank will go through with the eviction process and if they do, how long McCollum will have before he is forced to find a new place to live. McCollum’s good friend of nearly 25 years, elder advocate Al Norman, has been assisting McCollum. At his side Monday was an employee of Community Action, which helps him with his heating bills through a federal program they administer.
McCollum, born in Greenfield, a longtime Northfield resident and a Pioneer Valley Regional High School and University of Massachusetts alumnus, had run into some bad luck over the past 10 years.
The lifelong carpenter, who has served on the Conservation Commission of Bernardston since the early 2000’s and is currently the chairman of the commission, said he was diagnosed with two types of cancer, lymphoma and lung, and then spinal stenosis, on top of neuropathy.
“Everything sort of just hit me all at once,” McCollum said. “Then I did a job that went bad and lost something like $40,000. If my health didn’t give out, then I could’ve dug my way out.”
McCollum said he didn’t know where he would move if, or more likely when, he has to leave his home — although he knows he has options. Still, there’s a decent amount of work to be done on his home, he says, knowing the work that needs to be done but unable to physically do the upkeep anymore: the lawn is overgrown, the outside needs to be powerwashed, the inside has a few cosmetic issues, but structurally, the cabin is sound.
“I just feel guilty that things have turned out the way they did,” McCollum said. “I feel embarrassed about the whole thing. It kind of makes me feel like a failure. I always thought old age would be sitting back and things would be going good. For me it’s just the opposite. Everything has been going downhill. I’m just grateful I have a lot of friends.”
McCollum had been running his own business since his 20s, when he parted way from his union carpentry job, helping to create new buildings at UMass.
“I realized I had a special gift or knack,” McCollum said. “I’m 20-something years old and I’m better than these guys that are 50. I had a good reputation and I went on my own. Things were going pretty good until my health ran out.”
His passion for building things goes far back, back to when he was growing up in Northfield. He had a horse when he was kid and he’d ride it out into the woods. Carrying a small ax, McCollum would cut down small trees and build a small cabin. He started building things when he was 6 or 7 years old.
Now, McCollum is more or less retired, with the neuropathy and spinal stenosis taking its toll on his body. He said he has been cleared of his cancer for a handful of years, though he still notes the impact it had on him. He said he can still work as a consultant, providing his experience to others, but he misses the work he used to do for people around the county.
McCollum recalls when he would do work for wealthier folk, often times he would end up with leftover materials. He’d stick them in his shed, and then when someone with less means would come and ask him for help, he’d charge them something like a dollar an hour and help them out.
“I was kind of Robin Hood of builders,” McCollum said. “If that makes any sense, but that’s the truth.”
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Joshua Solomon at:
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