LIVERMORE FALLS — Selectmen on Tuesday evening, Dec. 10, were given more information and suggested next steps regarding 22 properties the town now owns due to unpaid sewer fees.

Livermore Falls selectmen met on Dec. 10 to review each property the town now owns due to unpaid sewer fees. At the Dec. 3 meeting, Tammy Gray, left, Livermore Falls deputy clerk and sewer clerk, is seen talking about those properties during the regular selectmen meeting at the Town Office. Also seen, from left are Town Clerk Doris Austin, Police Chief Abe Haroon and Town Manager Carrie Castonguay. File photo/Livermore Falls Advertiser

At their Dec. 3 meeting selectmen were given a list of 20 owners of the 22 properties that have gone through the lien process which began in February 2023 when Alex Pawson was the town’s deputy clerk and sewer clerk. He sent out 30-day notices warning the lien process would begin if the fees weren’t paid. Lien notices went out that May. Dec. 2 was the date of automatic foreclosure.

“For a period of time the approach was lackadaisical,” Selectman Bruce Peary said Tuesday about the town’s collection of fees.

Town Manager Carrie Castonguay provided the latest information for each property, including the last time real estate taxes and sewer fees were paid. She asked if more information was needed before the Dec. 17 meeting when selectmen are expected to vote on what to do with each property.

Tammy Gray, the town’s deputy clerk and sewer clerk indicated if certified letters for each property had been signed for or returned unclaimed. Each sewer bill clearly states the current balance, past due balance, any lien costs and the total amount due, she noted. “The past due amount is completely separate,” she said.

It wasn’t as though bills weren’t being sent out, Selectman Jim Long stated.

Castonguay said there were four options selectmen could take on each property:

• Do nothing [which Castonguay did not recommend].

• Contract with a real estate broker to sell it.

• Put the property out for sale through a sealed bid.

• Work with the owner to develop a specified payment plan for a repurchase arrangement.

With a one-year repayment plan, the amounts due for sewer fees, real estate taxes, accumulated interest, the estimated amounts due for the coming year, plus an additional 10% to cover staff time would be totaled then divided by 12, Castonguay noted. If a payment isn’t made by the grace period allowed, the agreement ends, she stated.

“I like the opportunity to save the property, the home,” Peary said. “It is up to them.”

The town would own the property until the final payment is made and a quit claim deed provided, Castonguay said.

Long proposed selling a property if it had an absentee owner or if the amounts due went back several years. “A landlord is getting money from it, should be paying,” he stated.

Gray said she had contacted banks and mortgage companies regarding some properties, was waiting to hear back from them. They will often pay the amount due and add it to the owner’s mortgage, she noted.

A counselor is working with one owner, trying to get funding through the state to pay the amounts due, Gray said.

Long asked if the owners know the town has taken possession of their property. Gray told him they know if they had read the letters sent to them.

Peary noted it would be easier making these decisions if it was June rather than right before Christmas.

Some owners haven’t made sewer payments in more than three or four years according to the information provided. “It is not on us, it is on them,” Peary stated.

The board’s philosophy is to work with people, Long said. “We have got to do something,” he noted. When fees aren’t paid it hurts other townspeople, he said.

“If there are no consequences, what is the reason for paying,” Gray asked.