The building that housed Affordable Cremation Solution in Lewiston is going up for auction. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal
LEWISTON — The property owned by the now-closed Affordable Cremation Solution is slated to be sold this month at a foreclosure auction.
The 643 Main St. building purchased by the beleaguered business in 2017 has been shuttered since state regulators yanked its required funeral license in June after finding 11 bodies rotting in an unrefrigerated basement.
The South Portland-based Keenan Auction Co. plans to sell the site to the highest bidder Oct. 27.
The Maine Board of Funeral Service last month agreed to cut a deal with Ken Kincer, owner of Affordable Cremation Solution, that would bar him from the funeral business for a decade but leave the door open for his return if he can show he has rehabilitated himself and stayed away from drugs and alcohol for at least three years.
A number of families unhappy with the care Kincer provided for their deceased loved ones have filed lawsuits against him.
Kincer’s company bought the Main Street property in 2017 for $157,500. The city assessed it for $134,300.
An auction company’s website shows a cluttered desk inside Affordable Cremation Solution’s former quarters at 643 Main St. in Lewiston. Keenan Auction Co.
Pictures accompanying Keenan’s advertising for the auction show the property has mostly been cleaned out, but one shows a desk covered with scattered paperwork.
Foreclosure sales typically occur when property owners fail to make mortgage payments on land or buildings they purchased.
Affordable Cremation Solution has had complaints about its service stretching back to 2020.
Kincer’s attorney, John Clifford of Lisbon Falls, filed a response in August with the state funeral board that said the business “has suffered to such a degree that Ken has found himself in a dire financial situation” that contributed to the owner’s depression and misuse of alcohol.
“The last year and a half of Mr. Kincer’s life has been what can only be called a living nightmare,” the statement said. “He is deeply in the grip of depression and alcoholism.”
A state investigator who went to the business in June found the “odor of decomposition” in the upstairs office, 11 decomposing bodies in the basement, and “reddish brown fluid on the floor” that appeared “to flow into the drain.”
Regulators immediately moved to shutter the business and suspend Kincer’s license to operate.
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