OTISFIELD – A camper on land owned by John Gagne on Bell Hill Road will be taxed beginning next year, selectmen have decided.

The camper will not be taxed this year because it was not there as of the start of the tax year on April 1, Administrative Assistant Marianne Izzo-Morin said.

She said it’s legal for campers to be placed on a person’s property for an extended period of time as long as there is also a permanent dwelling on the property. In Gagne’s case, there is no permanent dwelling; he lives outside the state and used the camper on weekends, she said.

Concerns were raised after a roof was placed over the camper, she said.

Resident Gordon Chamberlain raised the issue in a letter presented to selectmen at their Nov. 17 meeting. He said the camper had been on the property for more than five months, and wanted to know whether it would be taxed.

Selectman Mark Cyr said Gagne plans to build a home on the property next year, and that the land had passed a soils test.

Chamberlain, in his letter, also asked for information on foreclosures. Izzo-Morin said two properties underwent automatic foreclosure on Nov. 23: the former Grange hall owned by Melinda Ware between Bonney Hill Road and the Gore Road, and land off Bell Hill Road owned by Andrew Ames.

The Grange hall property has a tenant living there. Selectmen have not made any decision on what to do with the properties, Izzo-Morin said.

In other business, resident Gary Tougas asked selectmen if they were planning any workshops on following the Freedom of Information law. Tougas said he saw Cyr and Head Selectman Lenny Adler talking at the table after a recent selectmen’s meeting was over.

Adler said he and Cyr were talking about C.N. Brown Co. business, as both of them work there. “It was nobody’s business but ours,” he said.

Tougas persisted, saying there is “very little discussion” among selectmen at meetings, “which would suggest to me that there’s been discussion before the fact.”

Adler said he is well aware of the need to conduct town business in public. “I’ve been doing this for a very, very long time,” he said.