LIVERMORE FALLS — Two Livermore Falls men’s bids for three, town-foreclosed properties gained them three houses and property Monday.
Selectmen approved selling the three properties to Richard Cushing and Alan Adams for a total of $19,263.
Selectmen opened several bids for the properties that had been foreclosed on for back taxes and sewer fees owed.
Cushing and Adams submitted the only bid at $5,051 for an apartment building on Pleasant Street.
A property at 8 Gordon St. received four bids. Cushing and Adams submitted the high bid of $7,606. Other bidders were Mike Bibeau at $7,500, Thomas Harvell at $6,750 and Rose Grimanis, the former owner of the property, at $6,000.
A property on Fairview Street drew three bids. Selectmen voted to accept the middle bid and sell the property to Cushing and Adams for a bid of $6,606. They chose not to award the property to high bidder, Thomas Harvell of Skowhegan, due to past history between him and the town, Demaray said.
The town foreclosed on a property that Harvell owned on Main Street several years ago. Two teenagers had set the vacant building on fire and heavily damaged it. The cost for the town to have the property demolished, legal fees, asbestos removal and other related expenses was $25,000, Town Manager Kristal Flagg said.
The low bid for the Fairview Street property was submitted by Warren Smith for $6,222.
There was no bid for a house and property on Sewall Street, Flagg said.
In other foreclosed property business, selectmen voted to split a $2,500 asbestos removal fee on a town property at 2 Gagnon St. that St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church representatives would like to have to make a parking lot. The town will pay $1,250 toward the removal of asbestos and the church gets the property.
The multistory apartment building has been vacant for a number of years and the property abuts church property. The town foreclosed on it for $4,071.59 in back taxes and sewer fees years ago. The town has unsuccessfully tried to sell the property, which will have to be torn down.
Selectmen gave church representatives approval previously to enter the property to see what it would cost to demolish it and get an environmental assessment.
The town had previously received an estimate of $17,000 to have the property demolished and debris removed. That did not include asbestos removal or an environmental assessment.
Church representatives are willing to pay for that work to be done, Flagg said.
“Right now we are insuring the building” for liability purposes, Flagg said. “We are losing money.”
It is a nonconforming lot, she added, so it could not be built on.
“It doesn’t sound like a good deal but it is the best deal we’re going to get,” Selectman Kenneth Pelletier said.
“Let’s get it resolved,” Vice Chairwoman Louise Chabot said.
The $1,250 will come out of the town’s contingency fund, Flagg said.
dperry@sunjournal.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
