AUGUSTA, Maine — Even though he acknowledged the merger between the $51 million KV Federal Credit Union and Kennebec Savings Bank would take a competitor out of his market, the vice president of another Augusta credit union said that the merger is a bad deal for credit union members.

Paul Guerrette is the vice president of the $30 million Alliance of Maine Federal Credit Union, and his opinion article appeared in the Kennebec Journal in response to an article in the newspaper by Kennebec Savings Bank CEO Mark Johnston in support of the merger.

“The credit union members are being told that, following a merger, they'll still have a voice in the decisions made at Kennebec Savings Bank, but their vote will decide whether the merger happens. Current customers of the bank don't get a vote,” Guerrette wrote. “If mutual savings banks were 'just like credit unions,' the Federal Credit Union Act of 1934, which paved the way for the establishment of credit unions across the country, wouldn't have been necessary.”