MILLINOCKET, Maine — The good news is 49 of 69 property owners who owed the town back taxes since 2014 have paid what they owed and kept their properties, officials said Thursday.
The bad news is the Town Council reviewed the latest round of 15 tax foreclosures before, in a separate action, voting 7-0 on Thursday to authorize the sale of two more tax-acquired properties.
One property, at 45 Orchard St., was due to be sold to sole bidder Les Mackin for $7,010. The other, at 67 Poplar St., will be bought by sole bidder Joan Goldblatt for $4,000. The sale prices will cover back taxes, sewer fees and other expenses, according to documentation Town Manager John Davis provided the council.
Prior to the vote, Davis gave the council a brief rundown on the 69 properties that faced foreclosure for failure to pay property, water or sewer taxes. Of the 69, 15 were foreclosed upon, three property owners were granted extensions, one is in bankruptcy and one is pending foreclosure, Davis said.
Town Councilor Michael Madore saw an upside to an otherwise difficult situation.
“It may not be perfect,” Madore said Thursday, “but with the town getting close to [75 percent] of the money owed out of the foreclosure thing, I think the town is doing a great job” of collecting overdue taxes.
“A lot of people think that we like to do this, but it [property foreclosure] is the last thing we want to do. It is a very unpleasant experience for everyone involved,” Davis said.
Davis said after the meeting that he did not have a comprehensive list of properties that are due for foreclosure, acquired by the town via foreclosure or sold by the town once acquired, or how much revenue is owed or has been generated by town sales.
He referred further comment to town Treasurer Mary Alice Cullen, who did not immediately return telephone messages seeking comment on Friday. Town officials said Cullen was out for the afternoon.
At last count, the town issued 252 liens in July as part of efforts to collect more than $300,000 in overdue property taxes, but the owners of those properties have 18 months to pay up before the town can legally own those properties.
The tax-delinquent properties are part of a downward spiral the town’s finances have fallen into since at least summer 2013, when then-Town Manager Peggy Daigle made sales of tax-acquired properties a priority to help offset a cash-flow shortage that threatened the town’s credit rating.
The number of tax-delinquent properties is significant. Millinocket had 4,466 residents and 2,155 homes in 2014, according to suburbanstats.org, which uses Census data to track residential and population trends in the U.S.
The town had assumed ownership of about 97 properties through the tax foreclosure process since 2012, according to numbers compiled in March.
Councilors on Thursday discussed how the town can best handle the properties it acquires. Councilor Charles Pray suggested considering compiling and releasing one list of all the town-owned properties to better attract investors. Councilor Louis Pelletier recommended the town extend the time allotted for title searches from two weeks to a month.
“People are reticent to put 10 percent down on a bid and then find out that the outstanding debts” on the property make a purchase unfeasible, he said.