By Patrick Adrian
Staff Writer
BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. — Rockingham and Bellows Falls officials aim to meet with a number of property owners of buildings that have posed ongoing safety hazards to the community.
Municipal Manager Scott Pickup identified nine total properties on Tuesday, including 66 Atkinson St. and 9 Barker St., whose blighted, unsafe conditions violate the town’s nuisance building ordinance.
Many of these property issues date back as far as 2013, according to Pickup.
“Most of these properties are in negative positions with taxes, liens or other expenses on the property,” Pickup told the Village Trustees on Tuesday. “So the long term outlook is that there’s not a lot of market incentive to do this work.”
Town officials hope by working with property owners on plans to make the necessary repairs, the town can circumvent aggressive action like property seizures or court actions, Pickup explained.
Officials also said they hope to remedy savable properties before they become another 66 Atkinson St., the dilapidated former YMCA building which has cost the town over $18,000 to date in legal expenses and materials to barricade the property until the matter is resolved.
The Trustees have attempted for over three years to get Chris Glennon, owner of 66 Atkinson St., to make the promised repairs. An engineer’s report in 2018 indicated that the entire structure is unstable, the interior ceiling is beginning to collapse and heavy slate roof shingles are coming loose and falling to the ground.
“In reality we should have gone after that building when it was still the YMCA,” said Village President Deborah Wright. “Instead it got [sold] off for $1 and here we are.”
“We’ve got an owner who bought it for a dollar, has never put a dime into it, never paid any taxes I believe, and he apparently won’t hand over the deed,” said Selectman Jatim McAuliffe. “
Pickup said a broader discussion of 66 Atkinson St., is scheduled for Tuesday, June 29, at the joint meeting of the Rockingham Selectboard and Village Trustees.
As for the other properties, Wright said the ideal solution is to resolve the problem without a cost upon the town and village.
“This is not intended for us to spend any significant amounts of money,” Wright said. “This is intended as a deterrent, to get people to understand that properties that are languishing and falling into the ground should be worked on.”
Pickup said that there are a number of programs available to provide funding support to property owners.
“[The amount] may not be enough to incentivize an entire renovation but at least it’s a step in the right direction,” Pickup said.
Pickup said there will continue conversations regarding what to do about some of these properties in the event that an owner is non-responsive or cannot financially alleviate the tax or maintenance deficiencies.
Properties placed under the town’s ownership could potentially go to auction, Pickup noted.
Theoretically, the currently hot real estate market might make investors more willing to invest in a depreciated property if it has potential. But officials worry these nuisance properties are too deteriorated and have too little potential value to garner interest.
“My concern is that the properties are not sellable even if you go to auction,” Wright said.
Trustee James McAuliffe suggested the village take a case-by-case strategic approach with each property.
“[Even if] the ultimate resolution for that property is to tear down, then the strategy becomes whether we can attract a neighbor to joint venture with us on the cost to get this [task] done?”
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