Tue, 11/05/2013 - 08:45 am

GREG FOSTER, Staff Reporter

Two of the 20 former Dresden owners of tax-acquired properties have paid back taxes in full, and the town has heard from four others, one who plans to send the entire payment.

The news came during the Board of Selectmen’s regular meeting Monday night, Nov. 4 at which selectmen discussed the 60-day time limit the town has given delinquent tax payers an opportunity to recoup on the planned sale of the properties.

Three of the four said they are working on letters of request for agreements to pay a substantial amount of the total they owe before the 60-day deadline the town has set for the total $143,443 amount owed.

So far the town had received a bit more than $5,877 as of Monday for the taxes owed, but selectmen remained adamant about the 60-day deadline from the day they sent the letters on Monday, Oct. 21.

Selectmen expressed agreement the town has given much leeway to the delinquent taxpayers for taxes that go as far back as 1998, and until this year did not acquire the properties.

“We’re willing to talk to somebody, but they are going to have to pay more than 50 percent down,” Chairman Phil Johnston said.

Johnston said the most that any one resident owes totals $20,000, but the thing that concerns him most is other taxpayers have had to make up the difference for 15 years.

“We’ll have to set up procedures on how we’re going to sell the properties,” he said. “It’s not going to be pleasant, but we’re going to have to do it.”

Johnston said the town will have to have a legal review of the procedures.

Administrative Assistant Trudy Foss asked if it would be possible to sell a few of the properties that are land-locked and have little or no access to abutters of those properties. Selectmen Allen Moeller said the law does not allow direct sale to abutters, as the land must go to auction. Abutters have the opportunity to buy at auction like anyone else.

Trailer park expansion

AJ Investments LLC, which has purchased Indian Run Estates, a mobile home park on Route 127, has announced plans for renewal of a 2008 planning board decision to allow expansion of the park to allow for 23 more units in the park, abutter Bob Gleason informed the board Monday night.

Gleason, who owns about six acres of land abutting the park, said he received a registered letter about the plans and the company’s request for a renewal of the application granted in 2008 to the past owner.

At that time, the past owner submitted a plan for two or three different designs for a new, large septic system to accommodate the prospective mobile homes.

Gleason expressed his desire to know more about the adequacy of the septic system plan for the park agreed upon when the town approved its expansion in 2008.

Foss said the company has not requested the renewal of the application yet, and Johnston said the board should verify whether that has happened.

Old town hall

Johnston reported on cleanup work at the Old Town Hall on Sunday, which he termed productive. “Most of the debris is out,” he said. “Now we need a winterization day.” He suggested making frames for shrink wrap instead of putting shrink wrap directly on the windows.

“I think the question needs to be asked whether we are going to allow the snowmobile club or someone else to use the building,” Johnston said. “No one should be allowed upstairs, not that it is condemned, but we should not allow congregating of people up there.”

Moeller strongly expressed his feeling that any other group could use it for a meeting as long as it is not at a time when the snowmobilers are meeting.

The board agreed the club will have to pick up the cost of heating the building, along with the electric bill over and above the fee the town has to pay to keep the electric service of about $14 per month.