LIVERMORE FALLS – Selectmen denied an abatement request Monday for $232 on a mobile home saying it wasn’t backed up with documentation.
Robert and Tina Reed said they did not receive a tax bill for the amount and the first they heard of owing it was through a lien notice on their mobile home at Hunton Loop.
Tina Reed also noted that she owns the trailer and bought it in 1996 before she was married for $17,000. She said that when it was in Farmington, it was valued at $9,000. Her husband’s name should not be on the mobile home, she said.
She also said the couple was not requesting an abatement, they just wanted the matter fixed.
Another person had owned the property prior to the Reeds and had a different trailer on it.
In 2002, the property was valued at $21,300. It decreased to $16,500 in 2003 and then to about $12,700 in 2004, Town Manager Martin Puckett said.
Selectman Russell Flagg said the couple didn’t provide any documentation that supported what they were saying.
“There is nothing in the records or documents,” Flagg said. It’s your word against his word, he said.
The assessor had dropped the value of the property, Flagg noted, from 2002 to 2004.
Robert Reed said the couple has been asking for a copy of the $232 tax bill for 2003 but had previously been told that it was sent to another place. Reed said he didn’t understand how selectmen could have a copy of bill when he’d been told he couldn’t have one; he also said that when they tried to take care of the lien, they were told they couldn’t.
Tina Reed said the town’s information is wrong, and she could bring in witnesses to support her case.
Chairman Ken Jacques said the town has a paper trail of what happened. He also said the town does not have to send out tax bills. It is the property owners’ responsibility to come in and get one if they don’t receive their bills, he said.
After selectmen unanimously denied the abatement, Tina Reed said, “You’ll be hearing from our attorney.”
In other business, Puckett said the town has received three “generous gifts.”
A person who wants to remain anonymous donated $3,000 toward the police-cruiser fund, he said.
The other two gifts, totaling $1,600, were from the Jay-Livermore Falls Rotary Club and the Woman’s Club for the town’s clock tower.
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