RUMFORD – Selectmen on Thursday didn’t abate Black Mountain’s property taxes for 2006, as requested, but they did vote in support of efforts to get the popular family ski area tax-exempt.

The next step lies with the town’s Board of Assessors, which meets Tuesday afternoon.

Efforts have been made for a couple of years to have the mountain declared tax-exempt, the same status that it had prior to its purchase by Maine Winter Sports Center three years ago. Before that sale, and the subsequent $3.5 million in improvements with the financial help of the Libra Foundation, the ski area had been owned by the Greater Rumford Community Center and had been tax-exempt.

When Maine Winter Sports bought Black Mountain, two of its other winter skiing properties in Northern Maine were not tax-exempt. Since then, both have received tax-exempt status from their respective towns, Black Mountain board Chairman Roger Arsenault said.

Black Mountain board members and Maine Winter Sports Center attorney James Katsiaficas have argued that the mountain provides below market skiing fees and sometimes no fees for youngsters who cannot afford it. Thousands of volunteer hours keep the ski operation running, along with a small number of paid staff.

They have also devised a proposal that they hope will convince the Board of Assessors to reverse a decision they made a year ago. That proposal includes such things as Maine Winter Sports Center agreeing to invest $24,000 a year for 10 years in capital improvements to the ski area, and an agreement to rent the new ski lodge to no more than a dozen times a year.

Dan Mawhinney, a member of the Black Mountain board, said this is the first year the mountain will break even, if it gets a tax abatement. For 2006, the mountain owes $24,000 in real estate taxes and $13,500 in personal property taxes. The board paid taxes during the prior two years.

But Mawhinney doesn’t believe the mountain can continue to pay.

“As a practical matter, we need to ask the town to consider us charitable for when we go fundraising. Unless we get this (abatement and exemption), I don’t think the mountain has a future,” he said.

Jeri Linn Geronda, the town’s tax assessor agent, said Friday afternoon that she doesn’t know whether the three-person Board of Assessors will act on the tax-exempt request Tuesday.

She said the board expects to meet with members of the Black Mountain and Maine Winter Sports Center boards and Katsiaficas, along with the assessors’ attorney, William Dale of Portland.