NORWAY — Selectmen voted unanimously Thursday night to declare a burned-out piece of property on Pikes Hill a danger and nuisance, and the board agreed to spend $8,500 to clean it up.

The property at 157 Pikes Hill Road, which is owned by Christopher and Mary Buckley, was destroyed in a fire in March. The town has already paid more than $11,000 to help with an initial cleanup after the fire.

The town will place a lien on the property to get back all the the money it will spend on the cleanup.

“We’ve tried to work with the landowner but we’re at the point that we don’t believe that is going to take place,” Town Manager David Holt said. The town has sent letters to the Buckleys and had meetings with them.

Code Enforcement Officer Joelle Corey-Whitman told the board that “nothing has changed” at the property despite the attempts by the town to have the Buckleys clean it up over the last few months.

“The only thing getting bigger up there is the weeds,” she said. There have been complaints from neighbors and a lot of questions, she said.

The Buckleys had told Corey-Whitman they would live on site in a camper while they clean up the debris, a process thought to take 30 to 40 days, but Chris Buckley told the board Thursday night that he had nothing more to say about the matter.

The vote is allowed under state law, which provides the town with the option to declare a site a nuisance or hazard and take further action to get it cleaned up at the owner’s expense. The town must first notify the property owner and hold a hearing.

The town also had the option to ask the Superior Court for an order to demolish the structure.

In June, selectmen unanimously voted to hold the public hearing as the next step in the effort to clean up the property.

“I know this has to be taken care of for the sake of the neighbors,” Holt said.

The foundation will be filled in, he said.

Owners of almost a dozen properties in Norway, including the Buckleys, were notified by the town in May that they must clean up their properties or face possible action by the town.

ldixon@sunjournal.com