DIXFIELD — Selectmen agreed Monday to put 15 tax-acquired properties out to bid and to keep one other for possible future use by the town.

The 15 properties are among the 24 the town owns. It’s the highest number of such properties in anyone’s memory. The parcels include mobile homes, stick-built homes and land. Owed taxes range from $284 for an older mobile home with no land to $5,295 for a building and 5.5 acres.

If all are sold for back taxes, the amount realized would be more than $35,000. Buyers also would pay the town interest on the owed taxes, as well as advertising costs and liens, and in some cases, sewer liens and back water payments.

Selectmen decided to retain a vacant Main Street building across from the town office with a small parcel that borders the Androscoggin River.

“The town needs some access to the river,” Selectman Norine Clarke said.

The town can decide to sell the property at a later date, Town Manager Eugene Skibitsky said.

The remaining eight properties have mortgage issues that must be resolved or have previous owners who have made tax payment arrangements with the town.

In other matters, the board approved proposed cuts to the municipal budget as proposed by department heads. The town had to cut about $77,000 this fiscal year because of less state revenue sharing.

Selectmen also:

• Appointed former state legislator Randy Hotham and ATV Maine Executive Director Dan Mitchell to the Planning Board.

• Renewed Skibitsky’s contract for another year, beginning on April 1.

• Learned that a meeting between Skibitsky and Western Foothills Regional School Unit 10 representatives will take place Feb. 24 to renew an agreement on the school district’s use of Harlow and Marble parks and the town garage.

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