By GLYNIS HART
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CLAREMONT – The city council reviewed a list of tax-delinquent properties at its meeting Wednesday night and declined to take possession, for reasons varying from unclear hazardous waste site status to a desire to work with property owners who are paying off their tax debt.
City Clerk Gwen Melcher presented a list of the impending tax deed parcels, which the city determined “would subject the city to undesirable obligations or liability risks.”
The list included: 8 Upham Place; 34 Madison Place; 39 Central Street; 33-35 Chapel Grove Place; 35 Upham Place; 5 Denison Avenue; a vacant lot on Winter Street; and 101 Mulberry Street. Several of these parcels have payment plans in place under which the owners are paying the delinquent taxes, and four (Central, Winter, and both Mulberry Street sites) are potential hazardous waste sites.
Mayor Charlene Lovett opened the discussion by noting that refusing the tax deeds doesn’t preclude the city from accepting them in the future. “The penalties and interest continue to accrue. If conditions change, it can always come back to the council and you can approve it. If you do decide to accept the tax deed and the city becomes liable for everything we have to adhere to the laws as if we were the landlord.”
Councilman Nicholas Kolonski excused himself from the vote because he had a conflict of interest with one of the properties.
Melcher said the owner of 35 Upham had recently passed away and the city would like to give the estate time to settle things. Chapel Grove Place is on a payment plan, she said: “They’ll have that paid off in a couple weeks. Then 39 Central Street is a vacant building the city has put a lot of money into.”
The Central Street site is a documented hazardous waste site.
“There may be things available to the city to help clean it up that are not available to homeowner,” said Melcher.
As for the Winter Street property, the clerk is seeking more information on the vacant lot, as it appears to have a hazardous waste site designation — but no one is sure why.
Nancy Merrill, director of planning and development said her department would seek information from neighbors who have lived nearby for a long while, who might know more about the site. What information they can glean will be presented at the first meeting in August.
Lovett expressed some impatience with the process. She referred to a New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES) report that indicated the issue had been resolved with the removal of a fuel oil tank. At the end of the discussion it was agreed that the council would receive an email with a link to this document.
“Why are we continuing to delay this?” she asked. “It’s been abandoned since 2005. Back taxes are over $141,000. I don’t see why we continue refusing this tax deed.”
City Manager Ryan McNutt said if there are hazardous wastes at the site, “I don’t know I would have the resources to deal with it right away.”
The building at 39 Central Street may have historical significance, Merrill said. A wooden part of the building was razed after a fire some years ago, but the brick part was left standing. “The historic [district] commission wanted to keep the original brick building,” she said.
Councilman Allen Damren suggested checking with the historic distric commission before making a decision. That parcel, too, will be reconsidered at the August 8 meeting.
As for the Mulberry Street properties, Merrill said a recent report suggested the contamination is getting worse: “There could be a new source of contamination coming in from off site. A request has been made to DES to do a couple monitoring wells so they can pinpoint the source.”
“For this particular property one of the big issues is we really don’t know what we’re dealing with. It makes it even more uncertain what the city might be walking into if they took ownership of the building,” said Merrill.
McNutt said the current owners are paying the taxes off, and recommended that the city not take the parcel. “I believe they are on the road to correcting this problem on their own, which is what we want to see from any private property.”
As there will be only one meeting in July, the two properties will be reconsidered at the city council meeting on Aug. 8.
The council voted to refuse the tax deeds on all the parcels, with Councilman Jonathan Stone voting no.
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