By JOSEPH FITZGERALD

UXBRIDGE — Concerned business owners victimized by the massive fire that destroyed the Bernat Mill in Uxbridge last July say it's been eight months since the fire and none of the money collected through donations to help businesses displaced by the blaze have have been distributed.

Susan Franz, the Bernat Mill Fire Disaster Team's community liason, says she's been approached by several of the business owners questioniong the status of the fund set up in the aftermath of the fire.
 The Friends of the Bernat Mill Fund was placed under 501(3) c non-profit charitable status with Alternatives, Inc. when the Rotary Club of Uxbridge declined to sponsor the fund. However, Franz says, none of the funds from the nearly $2,000 in donations have been distributed in the eight months following the fire.
Franz made several phone calls to the managers of the fund, but says she is still not clear why the funds haven't been distributed. As a result, she is making an official request to the Board of Selectmen this week to investigate why the funds have not been paid.
"We have contacted the Friends of the Bernat Mill Fund managers multiple times and have not received any satisfactory response to the questions raised," she said. "We have offered technical and logistical assistance to get distribution of the funds and there has been no response."
Franz voiced her concerns in a letter mailed this week to Sen. Richard T. Moore (D-Uxbridge).
"Approximately 70 businesses, artist and recording studios, and community programs lost everything in the fire," she wrote. "I have been approached by Bernat Mill businesses through the mill recovery Website mailing list with serious and ongoing concerns about the Friends of the Bernat Mill Fund.
To date, none of the money raised through community efforts has been distributed to individuals affected by the fire. This is unacceptable. We are asking the Board of Selectmen to immediately investigate the status of the fund and determine why no funds have reached the individuals for whom it was intended."
Wrote Franz: "As with all disaster relief efforts, we appreciate those who worked very hard to help, and feel frustration with areas where response was less than expected or hoped."
The Bernat Mill complex, once the third-largest yarn mill in the nation, was converted in recent years into a mixed-use development that housed nearly 70 businesses at the time of the fire. All of the businesses in the three-story building, which is owned by the Capron Corp., were eventually destroyed by fire leaving nearly 400 people unemployed. Several of the businesses that had occupied the mill have reopened throughout the community, but many others remain displaced.
The 10-alarm fire ripped through the 19 Depot St. mill complex on July 21 around 4:15 a.m. The fire eventually evolved into a massive blaze that produced a billowing smoke tower visible for miles around the region. Several small explosions shook the complex and surroundig area. By mid-morning, more than 35 different departments responded to fight the fire, which consumed 80 percent of the 350,000 square foot mill complex. No one was seriously hurt in the blaze, but seven firefighters were treated for minor injuries.

State fire officials said later that welding work at a metal custom shop within the complex was the cause of the fire.
In December, Massachusetts Lt. Governor Timothy Murray visited Uxbridge to host an open meeting focusing on the potential redevelopment of the Bernat Mill Complex. He was joined at the meeting by Moore, Rep. Paul Kujawski (D-Webster) and Rep. Jennifer Callahan (D-Sutton).
In October of last year, the Legislature approved a $577,186 package to provide relief for damages associated with the fire, including reimbursements for the 66 communities that responded. More recently, in an effort to further alleviate financial burdens to Uxbridge, the Legislature authorized the town to abate the property taxes associated with the complex.
In additrion to The Friends of the Bernat Mill Fund, there were three other direct aid projects that have helped victims. A Phoenix Festival of Music and Art was held and to bring an immediate financial boost of cash into the community. Vendors were recruited from within the local community and approximately $50,000 of indirect benefit from the festival was injected into the local economy.
The second was an Adopt-A-Business program, in which five businesses were linked directly to other firms willing to "adopt" them and help them get back on their feet. The businesses provided targeted support and specialized equipment.
The third was The Lost Art Calendar, which provided relief targeted directly to the creative community formerly housed at the Bernat Mill. It was a special project designed to recover from photos the art lost in the fire and to create a 24 month calendar. The printing costs of the calendar were donated by the Southwick Zoo. All sales proceeds have gone directly to artists who lost their studios and life's work in the fire. To date, $825 from calendar sales has been distributed to Bernat Mill artists as royalty payments for their work.