LIVERMORE FALLS — Selectmen voted Tuesday to deny a request from new owners of a mobile home park for a 60-day extension to prevent foreclosure. The property has $18,000 in outstanding sewer fees from 2010 that come due April 26.

The mobile home park on Souther Road is owned by Glen Dube and Chris Ames of Blue Ridge Properties LLC, who bought it at auction from a bank about four weeks ago.

The owners’ attorney, Jason Dionne, asked for the extension to allow owners to determine if the amount was correct for what went into the town’s sewer system in 2010. The town placed a lien on the property in 2011.

Dionne said there are discrepancies between what the new owners believe went into the town’s sewer system and the amount the Sewer Department is charging in recent months.

The park owes more than $61,000 in sewer fees. Much of it was owed by Brandy Pond Development II of South Portland, the former owner, which lost the property by foreclosure to Bank of Maine in January.

The new owners have worked with Sewer Department Superintendent Greg Given and the residents of the park to try an assess the sewer problems and what has gone into the town’s sewer system.

The men believe the park is being overcharged and should have been assessed between $12,000 to $13,000 a year rather than $15,000 in 2011 and $18,000 in 2012. It has been assessed $7,000 for each of the first and second quarters of 2013.

The figure continues to increase, he said.

The owners discovered that the configuration of the park’s sewer system did not meet local code. They also learned there were a number of leaks and the sewage was going into a leach field on park property, he said.

Dube and Ames have been able to fix the leaks but the park’s system needs an overhaul, he said.

The park uses 300 cubic feet of water per day based on readings over a three-day period, Dionne said.

Because the owners believe the fee should be less than what the town is asking, Dionne said they are requesting a 60-day extension to determine if that amount is correct and then they would make everything current, he said.

Sewer Department clerk Amanda Leclerc said the department has no issue in assisting the new owners with the 2011, 2012 and 2013 sewer fees.

“What we are asking for is the foreclosure amount of $18,000 be paid as of April 26,” she said.

She requested selectmen deny the 60-day extension. The new owners were well aware of what was owed and they signed an agreement.

“We are asking for a reasonable amount of time to determine if the amount is accurate,” Dionne said.

Town Manager Kristal Flagg said they wont’ be able to determine if the 2010 amount was correct but the sewer bills for 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 were about the same for the park.

Dube said most of the park sewage goes through a leach field. Some dye was put in the system to see where it came out, and it didn’t come out in the park’s system or the town’s, he said.

Dube also said the town uses the highest quarter of water readings as a basis for its sewer fees. People in the older trailers leave their water running in the winter months, he said.

If people are running water in the winter, Flagg said, it still goes into the sewer system. The town uses the winter quarter because no one is washing cars, filling swimming pools and watering grass to make it fair to all, she said.

She also said the town’s ordinance requires that a property have either a private septic system or use the public system. It is illegal to use both, she said.

Board Chairman Bill Demaray said the new owners should pay the $18,000 to stop the lien and foreclosure process. It will give them one year to work on the issue and fix it, he said.

Demaray motioned to deny the extension and that owners pay the 2011 lien of $18,000 by April 26, which was approved.

dperry@sunjournal.com