LINCOLN, Maine — Ten families face possible eviction as town officials ponder what to do with a local mobile home park Lincoln acquired in a foreclosure about three months ago.
What Town Council Chairman Steve Clay described as a “nightmare” began when the town acquired Orchard Mobile Home Park on March 10 due to nonpayment of tax and water bills. Town officials had hoped that they would get a new owner for the park when bids on 12 foreclosed properties were opened on May 28, Clay and Town Manager Ron Weatherbee said. No one bid on the park.
Only rarely do foreclosed properties go unbid on in Lincoln, Clay said.
“It is a nightmare for them [park tenants] and the town can only do so much,” Clay said Thursday. “We are trying to figure out what that is. I think the council is handling it well. We need legal advice because we are dealing with families and it needs to be dealt with appropriately.”
Town officials first became aware of the situation’s complexity when water department officials reported May 29 that they would halt water service to the park on June 1 due to nonpayment of bills. Councilors got a day’s delay on the shut-off and the department agreed to extend the delay until the council meets Monday.
Town officials also added the park to the town’s insurance coverages temporarily, but that still leaves town government in an uncomfortable place, Weatherbee said.
“We don’t want to be landlords,” Weatherbee said, “but then again, we don’t want to leave these people without water service.”
Attorneys at Eaton Peabody of Bangor are researching options that the council will consider, Weatherbee said.
Former property owner Warren Brasslett of Greenbush owes the town and Water and Sanitary Districts about $31,000 in unpaid bills and property taxes going as far back as three years, according to Weatherbee.
When approached by a Bangor Daily News reporter at his home Wednesday afternoon, the 37-year-old Brasslett said that he was the owner of the park and had collected rents and paid bills as recently as last month.
“I have been paying the bills there straight through,” he said. “I’ve paid my water bill every month.”
When told that the town had effectively claimed ownership of his park as of March 10, he said that the person to whom he was “paying the note on it” had fallen behind and “I can’t catch up.” He then ordered the reporter off the property.
Town officials are unaware of Brasslett having a partner in the business, Town Clerk Amanda Woodard said, and his name is solely listed on the property’s Tax Information Sheet.
According to a town records, the park land is valued at $115,500 and Brasslett owes a total of $8,332 — $2,738 in 2013, $2,960 in 2014 and $2,634 this year — in property taxes. The rest is owed to the water district. The town now owns the land, which is off Grindel Street, and the tenants own the trailers, Woodard said.
Per state law, town officials sent Brasslett several certified letters informing him of his overdue taxes and U.S. Post Office notices indicate that he declined to accept them when they arrived, Woodard said.
Three tenants said Wednesday that Brasslett has himself or through an intermediary collected rent and water and sewer fees on properties after March 10, as recently as within the last few weeks.
Park resident Jessica Long produced a receipt indicating that in February she and her fiance had paid a year’s rent in advance, while resident Donna Dixon produced a receipt for a payment erroneously dated July 1. It should be dated June 1, she said.
They said recent attempts to contact Brasslett have failed and expressed concern that the council would on Monday decide to evict them. Eviction notices typically carry 45-day warnings.
Eviction is an option, Clay said, but he pointed out the town had also rented the Corro house to the town historical society several years ago. The society bought the property after two years of renting because town officials opted out of the rental management business, Clay said.
Tenant Chad Savage said he hoped no evictions would occur. He and his pregnant fiancee, Rose Theriault, moved into their trailer in September and he is finishing adding the trailer skirt and re-leveling the dwelling, he said. About half the families there resemble his — 20-somethings with children, he said.
The trailer park market is tight, and moving a trailer is expensive, he said.
“If we all have to leave at once,” he said, “we’re going to all be fighting over the spaces to move to.”