KINGFIELD — The town’s cemeteries and municipal properties have looked their best this past year, and Monday night selectmen expressed their appreciation for the job done by caretaker Jim Ross.
“You did a great job,” Chairman Wade Browne said.
He and other selectmen asked Ross to plan to continue his work in 2018 and asked him to review any equipment he needs before then.
Selectmen also reviewed the Bruce Manzer’s proposal to rebuild and resurface the Tufts Pond Road. Manzer had explained at a recent meeting that the project could be budgeted in stages.
Selectmen also could ask taxpayers for an increase to pay that cost, estimated to be between $800,000 and $1 million, or the town could borrow the money to pay for the job.
One option could allocate $36,000 to return the tarred road to a dirt road and finish the rebuilding in budgeted stages, but that could work only if the weather didn’t produce torrential rains. Whichever option selectmen approved, the final vote must go before taxpayers.
In other matters, John Goldfrank, a resident and owner of Longfellow’s Restaurant, explained that he, the Water District and and the town needed to rectify an incorrect land transaction.
Many years ago, he bought the land between his restaurant and the Carrabassett River. He bought the property from the Water District, but he’s since learned they did not have title to the property, the town did, he explained.
“There was no title search done,” noted Selectman John Dill.
John and Tammy Goldfrank’s daughter, Melissa, and son-in-law, Christopher Doucette, now operate the business, and they would like to have a clear title to the property, he explained. The simplest option would be to have local attorney John Fowler do the legal work to correct the title and give the Goldfranks a quitclaim deed.
When the town received a dam in 1936, they didn’t know what they got for land. They received four lots in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Public Works Department has plowed and maintained the lot. The town has a prescriptive easement, and with so many public utilities involved, the property will always be a parking lot.
Goldfrank said he hoped the issue could be settled quickly and efficiently. “I’ve been paying taxes on (Lot A) for 23 years,” Goldfrank said.
Selectmen approved having Dead River Company provide the heating oil and maintenance of the heating system.
In executive session, they also denied a property owner’s tax abatement request after he sold acreage in the state-approved tax-sheltered forestry management program.
They also approved the addition of Lisa Standish, Kate Ardello and Neal McCurdy as new members of the Village Enhancement Committee.
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