MILLINOCKET, Maine — The town council re-elected its chairman Monday and authorized the transfer of eight dilapidated tax-acquired houses to new owners who will raze them and beautify their neighborhoods, officials said.
With re-elected Chairman Richard Angotti abstaining, the council voted 7-0, 6-1 and 6-0-2 to allow Town Manager Peggy Daigle to facilitate the free transfer of houses on Spruce Street, Medway and Iron Bridge roads and Eastland, Katahdin and Penobscot avenues — including two on Aroostook Avenue — to abutting or nearby owners.
Councilor Bryant Davis voted against the Penobscot Avenue property transfer because he disagreed with the inclusion of $1,800 from the town’s unallocated fund, plus legal and surveying costs, to remove a tree from a right-of-way.
Angotti abstained because his brother Rodney Angotti will get the 50 Spruce St. property and Councilor Gilda Stratton abstained because she is taking the property at 37 Aroostook Ave.
Councilor Richard Theriault disliked extending the town’s beautification program beyond abutting landowners.
“Now that we are offering properties to someone near, what’s the definition of near? What’s going to end up happening is that tax-acquired property will be free to everybody. When it is free to an abutter, and free to someone near, it’s free to everyone,” Theriault said.
The town has transferred or sold more than a dozen tax-acquired properties since fall 2013 to generate income for the town, reduce neighborhood blight and reduce town housing to reflect the town’s declining population.
Daigle has made sales of tax-acquired properties a priority since summer 2013, when a cash-flow shortage threatened the town’s credit rating. Several of the properties have been turned into businesses or renovated by new homeowners.
“Hopefully this will help beautify the neighborhoods and the town. It is long overdue,” Councilor Jimmy Busque said of the eight transfers.
The new property owners are not getting the houses entirely free of cost. They have a year to raze the properties or the houses will go back on town tax rolls, Daigle said. They also are restricted from building new homes or renovating the purchased structures and are responsible for contacting utilities and paying continued charges, according to the tentative agreements the council approved.
Daigle cautioned the new property owners to wait until the town completes the transactions before beginning demolition work. The work likely won’t begin until spring, she said.