MILLINOCKET, Maine — Twelve properties the town acquired via foreclosure since summer 2013 will be razed because efforts to sell them have failed, Town Manager Peggy Daigle said Tuesday.
Daigle said the work razing them won’t likely begin until spring. She will ask the owners of properties adjoining the 12 properties if they would like to buy them as additions and raze them, seek a summary judgment in civil court allowing the demolitions, and put the demolition work out to bid, she said.
“Some of them are in pretty rough shape. Most of them are irretrievable in terms of making them a livable facility,” Daigle said Tuesday.
The Town Council voted 7-0 on Thursday to approve the demolition work. A list Daigle provided includes houses on nine town roads, including Aroostook, Katahdin and Penobscot avenues. The council also approved six property sales to bidders and rejected three bids on Thursday.
Daigle has made sales of tax-acquired properties a priority since summer 2013, when a cash-flow shortage threatened the town’s credit rating. The town has processed 71 properties counting those addressed Thursday, selling or collecting property tax and sewer liens and fees on 49 of them, according to a tally she provided.
The collection totals include $112,679 in tax liens collected since summer 2013; $24,663 in collected sewer liens; $13,045 in collected fees; and $23,246 in property sales. Those revenues equal $173,663 of the $349,112 total the town is owed in taxes and fees, Daigle said.
“There are a number of abandoned homes in Millinocket, some they [homeowners] are not taking care of,” Daigle said. “So as the population dwindles from 4,500 to 2,300 [by 2030] it is important for us to take care of this problem so that we don’t have an excess of dilapidated housing.”