FARMINGTON – Mobile home owners working with the town’s code enforcement officer were given 60 days to reach a resolution for their dilapidated Dutch Drive residence.

After holding a public hearing Tuesday on whether to declare the structure owned by Amy Carsten as dangerous or a nuisance, selectmen voted to allow Code Enforcement Officer Steve Kaiser 60 days to help work out a solution. Selectmen will review the status of the situation at their Oct. 28 meeting.

The 1991 mobile home, incorrectly set on rented property off Cascade Leisure Park, has aged quickly, Kaiser told selectmen, while owners Amy and Randy Carsten have felt trapped by a 30-year mortgage on the Ohio-built home that Carsten said isn’t up to Maine winters.

“The unit is coming apart at the seams,” Kaiser said, adding that it was not worth putting more money into it.

Although the Carstens tried to fix some problems, including a new roof last year, making one repair has led to six more, Amy Carsten told selectmen, explaining how siding on the structure was attached to insulation instead of studs.

Not wanting to put people out on the street, Kaiser has been working to uphold the town statutes while trying to help the couple find a solution. Kaiser told the board that the landowner had another unit across from the Carstens’ that was larger and in better condition and he felt confident that 60 days was sufficient to acquire another housing arrangement, demolish the trailer and secure financing to help the couple.

Carsten told selectmen she and her husband had been looking for a way to move. She said she had been reluctant to ask the town to help.

William Crandall voiced concern about the town going out of its way to find faulty units and spending time on personal properties being a waste of taxpayers’ money. That led Kaiser to explain that he doesn’t go looking for the units but has a long list of properties that need to be looked at.

In other business, selectmen agreed to lease the former Farmington Falls school property, now town-owned, to Jim Cassidy for $100 per month starting Sept. 1. Living next to the property, Cassidy had begun to park his vehicles and store firewood, which he sells, on the property.

The property, turned over to the town by SAD 9, belongs to all taxpayers and is not there for just the use of one, Town Manager Richard Davis said. Cassidy was asked to remove his property, prompting Davis to discuss the future of the empty lot with the board.

While suggesting that the board might want to keep the land as a possible future site for a fire department substation, selectmen decided to lease the .35 acres to Cassidy to let him store firewood and his plow truck.