Selectmen look over documents Tuesday before voting to sell four properties and taking no action on a fifth. From left are Bruce Peary, Jim Long, William Kenniston, Jeffrey Bryant and John Barbioni. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser

LIVERMORE FALLS — The Select Board voted Tuesday evening to sell five town properties through a local real estate company.

All five were taken through foreclosure for either unpaid sewer bills or property taxes.

To be sold by sealed bids and a required minimum offer are:

• 95 Park St., 0.32 acres, $3,250.

• 100 Main St., 0.18 acres, $25,600.

• Corner of Park Street and Leeds Road, 1 acre, $2,100.

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• 22 Gagnon St., 0.18 acres, $12,500.

Meservier & Associates, a real estate company at 42 Main St. will handle the four sales, along with the former Methodist Church and parsonage at 28-30 Church St., which will not have a minimum bid requirement.

The board approved a 6% buyers’ fee from Meservier & Associates.

Selectman Jim Long asked that conditions be placed on the Church Street property that it not be used for the production or sale of marijuana or cannabis products as it had been a church.

Ken Jacques with Meservier & Associates said, “That property on Church Street is a fairly salable property. If you list it, it’s known to anybody around the world.”

He said the parsonage is still a pretty solid building but he didn’t believe there was any chance of saving the church. “The brickwork is just so bad that all the buttresses that they put on there are falling off,” he said. “Investors can come in, purchase the building and take the church down. Possibly they could regain some of their money with the sale of the organ, all the stained glass windows, things of that nature.”

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Jacques said it’s a large parcel and another house could possibly be built on it. “The parsonage could probably be saved and that might be enticing to an investor,” he said. “We are getting a lot of investors from outside the area and my concern is if it’s just put out to bid locally you are missing a whole group of buyers.”

Under Multiple Listing Service, the property could be listed as both a residential and a commercial property to get people looking at it, Jacques added.

He told Long that the board could have deed restrictions and proposed adding a stipulation that the church be taken down. “You don’t want that thing sitting there, ending up on Knapp Street. That’s been falling apart for 10 years.”

Jacques said renovating the church could easily cost more than $1 million, perhaps $2 million. The church, parking lot and area with the Conex containers could possibly be turned into another house lot.

Selectman Jeffrey Bryant said only an investor could afford to take the church down, if that was stipulated. If it’s not stipulated the town will have the expense of tearing it down.

Town Manager Carrie Castonguay said The Whittemore Realty Group at 75 Main St. was invited to submit a sales proposal but did not.

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She provided an updated list of properties that were put in foreclosure in December for unpaid sewer fees:

• 69 Church St. and 34 Otis St., fees paid in full.

• 80 Depot and 5 Gordon streets in mortgage foreclosure with sewer fees paid in full.

• 22 Gilbert St., owner making payments but property is still listed as being sold through the town attorney.

• 18 Millett and 19 Prospect streets listed as being sold through the town attorney; owner of the latter working with Community Concepts.

On Dec. 17, the board considered how to proceed with 22 properties that went into foreclosure for unpaid sewer fees. The board members voted to put some of the properties on the market, develop repayment plans for several and tabled decisions on others.

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