Norway selectmen accept bid on seized house

NORWAY — The Board of Selectmen voted unanimously Thursday to accept a $2,000 bid for a house Cummings Place rather than face the expense of asbestos removal and building demolition.

Everett and Iris Parlin of Norway bid $2,000 and agreed to pay $2,850 for asbestos abatement, should they decide to tear down the building. The couple said they hope to build a garage on the site.

The property at 1 Cummings Place was taken by the town for unpaid sewer fees and taxes in the amount of $6,504.

Although the bid was less than what the board estimates the town’s expenses are, the bidder agreed to pay for asbestos removal if the house is torn down.

“We’d like to be closer (to the $6,500) but it’s hard to believe we’d get a much better offer,” Selectman Russ Newcomb said.

Last month, Town Manager David Holt told selectmen that an environmental study of a building taken for unpaid taxes shows asbestos in the building materials.

He said the asbestos survey was conducted by Atlantic Environmental Contractors Inc. in Lewiston. The report, which cost the town $1,300, stated it would take about $2,850 to remove asbestos found in building materials inside and outside the building.

If the town did not accept the bid, selectmen said they would probably have to pay the money to have the asbestos abated and the building torn down.

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