HOOKSETT – Retail giant Cabela’s is wiring $50,000 for legal fees into the Hooksett town coffers, though some town councilors said they’re uneasy spending the cash without promises from the corporation that Hooksett taxpayers won’t be stuck repaying an $18 million loan.

Councilors had different opinions about an October discussion in which Town Councilor Jason Hyde said he wanted a letter from Cabela’s corporate officials detailing its proposed plan to collateralize an $18 million bond Hooksett voters approved last May.

On Wednesday, Feb. 14, Hyde reiterated that he doesn’t want to move forward with negotiations without promises from the sporting goods outfitter that it would collateralize the bond through treasury notes or a letter of credit. Hyde said he also wants to reach a deal with the company whereby it’s responsible for any fees, like legal fees, associated with the bond negotiations, even if the Cabela’s project doesn’t move forward.

Councilors agreed they didn’t want to be liable for such legal fees, but some said a letter from Cabela’s detailing its proposed guarantee is premature since town lawyers haven’t yet begun negotiations with the company.

“We can’t ask them for something unless we know what we want,” said Councilor Mike Jolin.

He said without some professional analysis of a potential bond deal, he’s not ready to sign off on any deal specifying what type of collateral the company may offer.

“I’m not going to make that decision,” Jolin said. “I’m not going to lay my name on that for $18 million.”

Voters allowed the council to enter into negotiations for the $18 million bond, with a promise written on the ballot that the bond won’t require new taxation. Of the total, $13.5 million has been earmarked for infrastructure in and around a site near Interstate 93’s Exit 11, where Cabela’s plans to build a 100,000- plus-square-foot retail store. The money is tentatively slated for roadway improvements, sewer and water line extensions, access to the Cabela’s site through state-owned land and Cabela’s “museum elements.”

The remaining $4.5 million is earmarked for town infrastructure improvements like the final phase of upgrading the wastewater treatment plant, Lilac Bridge reparations for a sewer line and a possible fire station on the west side of the Merrimack River.

The Cabela’s store would anchor a 150-acre tax increment financing, or TIF, zone. Tax revenue generated from the new developments within the TIF zone would go to pay off the $18 million bond, and revenue exceeding the annual bond payments would go to the town’s general fund.

Early drawings of the TIF zone show it loaded with potential commercial developments including hotels, distribution centers, retail stores and restaurants. Cabela’s representatives have estimated that the zone wouldn’t yield enough revenue early in the life of the 20-year bond to make annual bond payments, but company spokesmen have also said Cabela’s would buy the bond, and cover such shortcomings.

Cabela’s representative Ed Eckman told voters last year that the company would look to recoup such expenses in later years, when more revenue would likely be streaming in. Representatives from Cabela’s, a Nebraska-based, publicly traded corporation, planned to meet with the council at a special meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 21, at the Hooksett Public Library.