BY TIMOTHY LAROCHE
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CLAREMONT — Almost a month after it was proposed, a fund that would finance the cleanup of blighted properties will be held for further revision.
City Council Finance Committee members on Monday gave more suggestions to city staff on ways to revise a proposed non-capital reserve fund from the sale of city owned properties. The fund would use revenue from the sale of properties taken by tax deed for clean-up efforts at other blighted properties.
“It gives us the ability to start going after this blight in a proactive way,” City Manager Ryan McNutt said of the fund.
Following the recommendations of the committee, McNutt will revise the language of the resolution to clarify which actions will be taken through the fund. City staff will also remove the originally proposed cap from the fund and add provisions for the council to review its usage periodically.
“We just want oversight in that once the money is in the fund, is it accomplishing the goals of the fund,” Mayor Charlene Lovett said.
The revised resolution will advance to the March 20 Finance Committee meeting before going to a full council vote at a later date.
The resolution to create the fund appeared at the Feb. 15 council meeting following its proposal by members of Neighborhood Improvement through Code Enforcement. The initial proposal drew criticism from councilors about unspecific wording.
The resolution was redirected to the Finance Committee on Feb. 21, when officials gave staff feedback on ways to move the resolution forward. Suggestions from the finance meeting included a study of sales of tax-deeded properties.
According to information shared at Monday’s finance meeting, the city has taken in $325,056 from sale of 17 tax-deeded properties since March 2014. With $505,779 owed to the city in taxes on the properties, the sales recouped almost 65 percent of the back taxes owed. About 25 percent of the revenue from the properties came from the sale of 54 Windsor Road for $82,000. In two of the sales – 248 Main St. and an unnumbered property on Fitch Reservoir Road – the city made more money than the amount owed and the difference was returned to the property owner.
With the city’s sparse history of selling tax-deeded properties, McNutt said that the fund is not likely to see huge totals. By creating a dedicated fund for clean-up efforts though, he said he hoped it would make for more consistent code enforcement initiatives.
“This is something that should be seen consistently,” McNutt said of clean-up efforts. “That the city staff are constantly on the look-out for blighted properties.”
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