MINOT — Selectman Eda Tripp told the board Monday that she discovered a house that had been put up without any building permits.
Tripp said she figured the house probably was constructed two or three years ago, but she checked back through records for the past four years, just in case, and found no mention that anyone even applied for a permit.
The house is located on Pleasant Drive in a subdivision developed by Buffard and McFarland.
“The lady has been living there for over a year and a half,” Tripp said.
Tripp noted that the resident has been very cooperative.
“She’s as upset as we are,” Tripp said.
Tripp, who is also the town’s chief assessor, said the building isn’t on assessor’s records.
The property apparently has a septic system, but there’s no record of that either, she said, which lead Selectman Dan Gilpatric to wonder how that could have happened.
“The contractor can’t cover the leach field until it’s been inspected,” Gilpatric said.
Tripp said she hadn’t reached Code Enforcement Officer Ken Pratt to let him know what’s going on.
“Ken will be the one to address this,” she said, “there will be some fines.”
In another code enforcement issue, Town Administrator Arlan Saunders told the board that Pratt is also dealing with complaints to the effect that Washburn and Son had hauled demolition debris from a building that had been torn down in Auburn into their pit on Route 124.
“Ken is monitoring the situation and stated that he has been assured that they will clean it up as soon as they get the insurance check to replace their dump trailer,” Saunders said.
Selectman Dan Callahan pointed out that what Washburn has created is clearly an illegal dump and that the town, if its ordinances are worth anything, should cite him for the violation and give him thirty days to clean it up.
The board agreed that Pratt should proceed with the citation and that he probably ought to get cracking on a few other illegal dump sites about town.
Saunders also reminded the board that he expects department heads to have their proposed budgets in to him by the end of the month.
Fire Chief Dan Campbell said he should have figures on what it will cost to transfer the department’s antennae to American Tower’s tower on Harris Hill Road.
He also reported that it appears the department’s proposal to solve its space needs by constructing additions at the Central Fire Station and the Orchard Station over on Death Valley Road could cost about $175,000.
The project involves a 20-by-40-foot addition at the Orchard Station for a training room and adding a bay, about 18 feet wide, to the end of the Central Fire Station. The projects are small enough so that much of the interior work can be done by volunteer labor which he figures will go a long way toward keeping costs down.
The two projects can accomplish much of what had been intended by an earlier proposal which called for a much larger expansion to the Central Fire Station. Town meeting voters rejected that proposal largely due to its cost, estimated at over $500,000.
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