Windham council advances November ballot questions, weighs tax-acquired properties

[0:00] Council Chair: Council meeting of September 22nd, 2026. Mr. Clerk, if we could have a roll call, please. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilor Cook? Present. Councilor Terry? Present. Councilor Netto? [0:13] Councilor Morrison: Present. Councilor Morrison? Here. Councilor Reiner? Councilor Fortier? Here. Councilor Jones? Five councillors present. Great. [0:21] Council Chair: If you all could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic from which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, minutes to be approved. CD 26-150 to approve the minutes of the September 8, 2026 Town Council meeting. So moved. All in favor? Thank you, Anthony. Public participation. Participation, is there anyone here tonight who would like to speak on a topic that is not on tonight's agenda? If so, please come forward. We will close public participation. On to councilor comments. Any comments from council? All I have to say is enjoy the fall. We've got a couple of great weeks, I think. Enjoy it now, because it's going to be changing soon. Public hearings, 26-169. To receive public comment and act on an application submitted by Kennebec Hospitality, LLC, doing business as Microtel Inn and Suites, located at 967 Roosevelt Trail, for a renewal special amusement permit. Open public comment. Seeing none, close public comment. So moved. Second. Everything in good order? Yep. Okay. Okay. Any comments? Seeing none, put it to a vote. All in favor? Passes. So just as a reminder, so everyone's clear, we have five councillors. We need four in the affirmative to pass. Correct, Mr. Parliamentarian? That's correct, right? 26 -172, to receive public comment and act on proposed amended General Assistance Ordinance Chapter 95 of the Code of the Town of Wyndham and updated appendices establishing certain benefit maxims as required by the state statute. Open public comment. Seeing none, close public comment. So moved. [3:16] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: State statute. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. So this is an annual occurrence. Each year the state puts out the revised multi assistance amounts, and you know, they've gone up nominally across the board from last year's, so that's, it's really not debatable. It's just for your information, and then, and obviously the approval. [3:44] Council Chair: Great. Thank you very much. Comments? I have just [3:47] Speaker E (unidentified): One comment. On the page where it says increase in the overall maximum level, it's updated from last year to updated to this year. Instead of saying one, then two, it says two and two. I think that needs to be corrected. The typo. It's a typo in there. [4:09] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: It should say one. That's what I thought. Yes, you're [4:12] Speaker E (unidentified): right. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Do we need [4:16] Council Chair: to amend? No, I attribute that to scrivener's error. Okay, I'm good with that. Thank you, Counselor Terry. Any other comments? Seeing none, put it to vote. All in favor, it passes. Well, this one's going to be fun. Let me wait the reading. No, I'll do it. I like a challenge. 26 175 to receive public comment on the following proposed referendum questions for a special town meeting to be called and held on November 3rd, 2026. Question one, shall the town approve charter amendment summarized below to be effective January 1st, 2027 to amend article five, the budget and article eight, the town meeting of the town charter to change the method of towns meetings voting to the annual budget from an open town meeting to a secret ballot referendum, provide for a special open town meeting to be held to consider portions of the annual budget rejected at the secret ballot referendum, authorize the town council to choose how to present the budget to voters for approval, and adjust the timeline for the town manager to prepare and submit the a proposed annual budget to the Town Council for review to accommodate use of the secret ballot referendum process. Question 2. Shall the Town approve Charter Amendment reprinted below to be effective immediately upon adoption? Article 8 of the Town Charter entitled The Town Meeting, Section 2 entitled When Action by Town Meeting Required is hereby amended as follows. Additions are underlined, deletions are struck through. Section 2. When action by town meeting required, the annual budget as provided in Article 5 and in accordance with Section 5 of this article, any appropriation of $500,000 or more in addition to or supplementary to the annual budget appropriation. The issuance of bonds or notes, except notes in anticipation of taxes to be paid within the fiscal year in which issued, shall become effective only after adoption at a town meeting by a majority vote of those present and voting. The town meeting shall not increase the amount of any appropriation recommended by the council and shall not increase the amount of any bond issue above the amount recommended by the council. Question three, to see if the town will vote to, one, authorize the issuance of general obligation bonds and or notes in anticipation thereof in the aggregate principal amount of up to $19,500,000 to finance the cost of rehabilitating the Windham Middle School for use as a community center, including the cost of design, engineering, professional services, site preparation, construction, renovation, 2. Appropriate the proceeds of said bonds or bond anticipation notes for the foregoing project, plus an amount necessary to refund the interest payments of any bond anticipation notes issued for said purpose in any cost of issuance of the bonds and or bond anticipation notes. 3. Authorize the Town Council to approve the execution of one or more agreements as may be necessary in connection with a foregoing project and borrowing for said project on terms and conditions that the Town Council deems reasonable and necessary. And four, appropriate up to $2 million of the town's fund balance as a town council deems reasonable and necessary to reduce the borrowing amount and directly pay for costs of the project, operating costs of the project, and or pay for debt service in connection with the project. Subject to all applicable regulations related to the use of said funds and the proceeds of the bonds and or notes issued. [Speaker F (unidentified): Open.] Open public comment. Seeing none, closed public comment. Do I have a motion? Thank you. Do I have a thank you very much. I mean, after all that I was looking at something, I think that's pretty straightforward. This is we've talked about this for several meetings now in its final form. Any comments? [9:31] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: Really the only comment and is that this is a process related. That's why it's back in front of you tonight to have the public hearing to, you know, fully describe the ballot and then that's really it. Okay, what you've [9:45] Council Chair: already said it in motion right any counselor comments questions seeing none let's put to a vote all in favor it passes 26 176 to receive public comment and act on a renewal application of Rakan Abdulla doing business as Wyndham Auto Recycling for a permit to operate a junkyard automobile graveyard. Open public comment. Seeing none, we'll close public comment. So moved. Second. Everything in good order? [10:27] Councilor Morrison: Yes,, these came from codes. I'm sorry. These came from codes and there were no issues. It's just routine renewals for them. Fantastic. Questions? [10:36] Council Chair: Comments? Seeing none, put it to a vote. All in favor? It passes. Moving on to 26-177, to receive public comment and act on a renewal application of Stephen Rogers for a permit to operate a junkyard automobile graveyard. Open public comment. Seeing none. Closed. Public comment? So moved. Second. Again, all in good order? Yes, that's correct. Questions, comments? Seeing none, put it to a vote. All in favor? It passes. To receive public comment and act on a renewal application of Mark Day, doing business as auto mill LLC for a permit to operate a junkyard automobile graveyard open public comment seeing none so moved thank you we had a second correct all right very good all in good order excellent questions comments Seeing none, put it to a vote. All in favor? It passes. 26-179, to receive public comment and act on a renewal application of Jeffrey Whitney for a permit to operate a junkyard automobile graveyard. Open public comment. Seeing none, close public comment. So moved. Second. Again? Yes. Yes. Okay. Questions or comments? Councilor Terry? No,. Okay. All in favor? It passes. Unfinished business. Oh, my gosh. That's all. Okay. That's the last one. All right. Unfinished business and general orders. To appoint a voting delegate and an alternate voting delegate to the Maine Municipal Association annual business meeting and authorize the town manager to take the necessary steps to complete the submission of credentials. [13:08] Speaker F (unidentified): So moved. Second. Great. Thank you. [13:13] Council Chair: Mr. Manager, can you provide just a little enlightenment here on this, please? Absolutely. [13:18] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: So this is time to choose our next voting delegate, an alternate. Currently, Councilor Netto sits as the voting delegate, and I am the alternate. and we haven't talked so I'm not sure if he wants to continue and I'm happy to turn over my role to another counselor or stay as is so it's really up to [13:42] Council Chair: However you folks would like to proceed. Okay, make a motion to stay as is, status quo, status quo. All right, any other recommendations? Seeing none, all right. All right, let's vote on the status quo. All in favor? Status quo wins. Congratulations. Why, thank you. 26-180, to authorize the addition of various assigned fund balance amounts to the fiscal 2026-2027 budget accounts. So moved. Second. Mr. Mayor, do you have any background on this? [14:24] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: Yeah, this is a follow-up to our last meeting, the large table of carry-forwards that we presented to the council. These are two items. One is a correction. We had the wrong amount on the carry-forward for the Great Falls funding. It should have been 151,460, not 246, so that's a correction. And then the second item was we talked around the bond principal and interest to carry that forward as well from the FY26 budget in the amount of 9-21-091. And so that will get utilized for the exact article approval that was carried out in FY26. So we're carrying it forward to FY27. [15:13] Council Chair: Questions, comments? Seeing none, put it to a vote. All in favor? It passes. 26-181, to approve the town clerk's roster of warden Yvonne Meyer and deputy warden Sally Babb for the November 4, 2025 state referendum and municipal elections for districts 106 and 107. So moved. Second. Pretty straightforward. [15:42] Councilor Morrison: Forward. Well, the only thing is I just noticed on there somehow must have gotten on there that it should be the November 3rd 2026 election. Another [15:52] Council Chair: typo. We can change the typo. I am that scrivener. I [15:58] Councilor Morrison: apologize. Okay, no, so did you give, please show up on November 3rd? No, I entered it into myself. It's entirely my fault. That's, couldn't put it on anyone else. So just to be crystal clear, [16:14] Council Chair: voting day is November 3rd. Comments, questions? Seeing none. All in favor? Passes. 26-182 to set poll hours and polling location of the November 3rd 2026 state referendum and municipal elections as 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Windham High School main gymnasium located at 406 Gray Road. So moved. Second. [16:47] Speaker C (unidentified): Gonna write that down. Thank you. [16:53] Council Chair: All right, questions, comments? All in favor? It passes. 26-183 to set the date and time for extended hours of the register of voters from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 29th, 2026. So moved. Second. Thank you. All in favor? Passes. All right, got through unfinished business pretty quickly. Wow, really quickly. Town manager's report. Thank [17:39] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: You, Mr. Chair, let's see, first item I'd like to point out, and I had it on my computer. See if I can wake it up now. The TV won't wake up. It's going so good earlier. There we go, camera in action. Okay, so the WDC is hosting a business gathering, and that will be September 30th. It's a Wednesday at Eric's Church, 6 to 8, and just if anybody is interested, business owners in particular, and there'll be a quick introduction. I'll be talking a bit about a couple projects in town, but it's mostly just a chance to meet and greet and see who's doing what in the town of Wyndham. So we're [19:14] Council Chair: looking forward to that event. You said that's at 6 o'clock? 6 to 8. 6 to 8 at Eric's Church. Next Wednesday, September 30. Perfect. Thank you. [19:26] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: And then just some items. Our code enforcement, we ask folks that are trying to obtain permits and work through construction where they have the need of the Code Enforcement Office. We are down two Code Enforcement Officers, so we are operating on one of the three right now. So that's creating some challenges for us. We are working hard to get some assistance from neighboring towns on that. I think we'll see some help here shortly. But be advised that we are short-staffed in the code office, doing everything we can to keep progress going. You will see, have seen in Facebook, and you will see actually in front of you tonight, I left you with some paperwork on basically an informational, that could become a centerfold in the Wyndham Eagle on the community center project, showcasing the various aspects of that project, pointing out in particular a number of questions that we have seen from residents, you know, answering those questions, and we hope that explains the project in full detail. I'd recommend to any resident who wants to learn more certainly can call the town manager's office. I would also point them to the website. We have a specific area in that website for this project, so all the details are in there. You know, it's an exciting project where we have the opportunity to potentially turn three buildings into one and reuse an existing structure, and we believe it will result in a long-term cost savings for the town. So a lot of a lot of positives there on this project. I just heard the public works director talking About his concern cern for winter, and he told us in a meeting that he had just had 600 tons of salt delivered. That's everybody's most exciting time of the year, I'm sure. He also pointed out that they are looking to remove four dead pines on Route 302 at Arlington Cemetery. Our fire chief is working with businesses to install the nox box replacements that we talked about at budget time. That's happening right now. And let's see, probably the most exciting topic is the fact that we continue on with our sewer connections we are north of a third of the businesses connected at this point I know they connected McDonald's last week so we were moving ahead what's the flow been bought good yeah that's been right about what was expected there was some initial reading problems with the flow meter at the pump station but that was resolved but the flow is exactly like we had anticipated so that 's the good news there and everything seems to be moving along and i mentioned the wedc event i would also point out that we are having a ribbon cutting for the treatment plant on October 8th, 2026, so more information to come on that, but that is we will We'll have that actually at the treatment facility itself. So, again, that's October 8th. [22:41] Council Chair: Do we have a time? [22:43] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: I believe it's 2 o'clock. Great. [22:53] Council Chair: That's all. So, committee reports. Appointments Committee. [23:01] Speaker C (unidentified): Our last meeting was canceled. Our next meeting is scheduled for October 15th, and it should be the closeout of 25. [23:10] Council Chair: That's on the Appointments Committee? Did you jump the gun again? [23:14] Speaker C (unidentified): Oh, I jumped the gun, yes. I thought you said Finance Committee. [23:19] Council Chair: You're stealing Katie's thunder. Oh, you, okay. [23:22] Speaker G (unidentified): I'm sorry. I'm supposed to talk about this. Nobody said anything. What do you mean? The Appointments Committee has been meeting almost every other week because we have received quite a few applications for the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee, and we just want to keep those coming. And then we do have some other vacancies right now. Now, I don't have them in front of me, but we have had a pretty good turnout. Great. [23:51] Speaker C (unidentified): Our news committee now? Yes. Our last meeting was canceled. Our next meeting is scheduled for October 15th, and it should be the closeout for 2025. [24:02] Council Chair: Fantastic. You're on the Ordinance Committee, too, right? [24:07] Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah, I'm on the ordinance, too. Our last meeting, we discussed C2 for the new connector road, and there's some changes coming. And we gonna put it was going to be see a to see to in the seat oh now it's going to be c2 and we're incorporating everything together so they have the same exact ordinances crystal-clear and our next meeting for that is October 21st. [24:43] Speaker H (unidentified): So the new Connected Roads will not be C1, Dave? You're looking at C2? [24:47] Speaker C (unidentified): It's going to be exactly like Manchester in the C2. [24:55] Council Chair: Fantastic. Parks and Rec Advisory Committee. Who is that? [25:05] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: It's Councilor Jones. Okay. [25:08] Council Chair: Wynnum Economic Development Corporation. [25:13] Speaker H (unidentified): Bob stole our thunder. Yeah. The big meeting. [25:19] Speaker E (unidentified): In addition to that, I met with Ben from Bubble Root Farm, and we're doing a farm initiative here, and we've contacted, we've been in touch with USM, and they've got two groups of students that will be going out and asking some questions to, you know, local farmers and local people who are interested in that, and finding ways maybe to discuss to, you know, get more farmers involved into farming in Wyndham. So that's a goal we have. It also will be in the comprehensive plan. And, you know, we hope to start looking to capture more of our farmlands for farming. [26:04] Council Chair: Great. Thank you. Natural Resources Advisory. [26:12] Speaker G (unidentified): The NRAC met last Wednesday. day. I unfortunately could not make it. So I would ask Amanda to just share any updates. [26:22] Town Staff: We had staff from Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation District attend the meeting where we discussed a new report that they've published that looks at septic system risk parameters in Wyndham and where there might be soil conditions, groundwater conditions, and ages of septic systems that they researched for all the properties in Wyndham that may put them potentially at risk to short-circuit their septic systems. So the committee, and also at that meeting was the Code Enforcement Director, John Rio, and we talked about what sort of education and outreach that we can be doing to educate property owners with private septic systems on how to best maintain them and to look for those risk factors, both in existing systems and new installations. And then while John was at the meeting, we talked about our surface water protection ordinance and how enforcement is going and many potential changes that the committee may seek to recommend to the council because the town of Gray was considering adopting a similar ordinance that would be more strict than Wyndham's. It turns out just the night prior, the Gray council voted down those ordinance amendments, but the committee wants to further discuss ways in which that ordinance can be a tool to protect water bodies in Windham. [27:45] Council Chair: Great. Thank you very much. Greater Portland Council of Governments, if not Matt. [27:53] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: EcoMaine. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I actually had a meeting last week, both a finance committee meeting and a board meeting. I think the highlights, the budget was pretty straightforward, nothing significant to report there. I would say the biggest discussion was about the enhanced packaging law that the state of Maine passed. We actually led the nation being the first to implement such a law. Basically, it's making the producer responsible for the recycling cost-wise, for the recycling involved with the packaging of whatever item you're purchasing. But we are one of the, I think there's four other states now that have actually created the law after us, and they've implemented it, and we still haven't been able to implement it yet. So if you recall your budget process, our tipping fees on recycling basically doubled because EcoMain decided to move forward with a new recycling center, and the increased recycling tip fee is affording that. The hope was we were going to get revenue back from the state, and so far that hasn't happened. So EcoMain has just recently reached out to the DEP commissioner to try to find out, you know, what's the latest news. And the DEP has met with contractors that would have bid on this, but were scared away basically by the IT requirements that the state put onto it. And so they're going back to the drawing board, but too sweet, right? They need to be quick on this so that we can get this revenue back in action here. So a lot of towns have, you know, are counting on this, and we're one of them, too. We need to see that tipping fee for our recycling dropped back down closer to where it was, which is about half of the price of solid waste that gets incinerated. So hopefully the program will get up and running, and we'll be right where we predicted in short order. [30:02] Speaker C (unidentified): But that's it. Great. I knew that program wasn't going to fly. [30:08] Council Chair: Moving on to discussion items. First up, CD 26-152, Mineral Spring Estates Road Maintenance Request. [30:21] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have received a letter from the Mineral Springs Estates Owners Association, and we, being the town council as well as myself, thought that I would bring this forward just to have a discussion with you on it. I can tell you some of the basis behind it. Last winter, I was called by Mr. Dennis Duquette to look at the condition of his road. It was wintertime, and he had indicated that it had been heavily sanded, and so I went out to his residence, met with him, and I noticed that it had an extremely heavy amount of road sand put out on the road. This road happens to be maintained in the winter by our contractor, one of our contractors, so working with the public works director, you know, we reached out to the contractor and attempted to get that sand use cut back. In comparison, roads right around the other side of the hill that the town maintained, almost exact topography, almost exact road construction, they just weren't sanded in that manner. And when I say sanded, I mean it was probably an inch of sand on the road. I don't mean to exaggerate that. That's what I was observing. So unfortunately, Fortunately, the problem really didn't resolve itself through the winter, despite working with the contractor on it. And keep in mind that the contractor is using town sand to sand with, so that's a resource. We pay money for that. But the goal is that we want to keep the road safe for traveling motorists. So clearly it was, you know, when the snow melted and spring came, clearly there was far too much sand on the road for a typical winter. And I worked with the public works director, his crews were able to go out and make several rounds of sweeping to clean that up, because I felt that we had not lived up to our contractual obligation there. We applied too much sand. Now that's something typically we would not do, private road would not get that spring maintenance, but I feel like our contractor left us in a bind there, so we went out, we cleaned up our mess, and interestingly enough, so this letters come forward and the proposal in the letter is that would we consider conducting the winter maintenance on that road with our own forces and not use the contractor and the problem is that we have limited resources and they're already fully obligated so to do that would mean we'd have to flip-flop I mean the only way to do it currently would be to flip-flop and for town plows to plow that road and then the contractor to plow a similar road I don't see the benefit to that I'd much rather work with the contractor to get this problem resolved so that you know they can get an appropriate winter treatment and in the end hopefully cut back on the problems they're experiencing and cut back on costs sure yeah so what is the what is the response been from the current contractor certainly Brian can talk to that our public works director Brian Warren [33:41] Speaker F (unidentified): good evening he's been very helpful willing to do what we need to do to make it right I'm gonna have a meeting set up with him next month just to recap and you know go over the measures of them okay [33:57] Council Chair: so he's willing to work with us yeah comments so [34:03] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: I'll I'll put together a letter in response copy you folks on it but the intent would be to proceed as we have been but expecting that the contractor is able to perform better [34:15] Council Chair: winter maintenance do you have a ballpark on what the cost was to do the cleanup the sweep the sweeping you mean to clean up the sand yeah I would dare [34:31] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: I dare say, I mean, you're talking just running one crew is, you know, for an eight-hour day is probably $1,400, just personnel-wise. And then you add in the equipment and maintenance and what have you. [34:46] Council Chair: Is there any way, if this contractor does this again and we have to have a cleanup again, can we hold them accountable on [34:58] Speaker F (unidentified): the next one? That's a great question on the contract. I have to read that contract maybe a little further, but I'd like to see that happen if we could. [35:06] Council Chair: And if we were on the hook the first time, the second time should be on him or her. [35:13] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: Right. So we'll continue to work with the contractor on this, and obviously we want to, in the end, it benefits everybody if it's a more appropriate level of sanding. I mean, normally, honestly, the complaint is probably not enough sand, right? It's lack of traction in the wintertime. this was the opposite so well we're gonna work hard to make sure it doesn't [35:37] Speaker H (unidentified): happen again Brian this is Samarian yeah is that a new driver is that Mike [35:43] Speaker F (unidentified): No, that's one of his season drivers. Yep, because this is a new problem, so I just wonder if it's a new driver, one of the season drivers. We had a chat with him a couple times last winter and trying to fix it. We're gonna, we're going to keep a real good monitoring process on it this year. Pete and I, knock on wood, won't be in trucks this year and won't be chasing private roads for Casella, hopefully, so we can man our own problems more. But I think in the long run we can solve it. I really do. Great. Good. [36:23] Council Chair: Any last questions? Okay. Great. Thanks again Brian. That's completed our last discussion item, CD 26-153 tax acquired properties, 239 Wyndham Center Road and 520 River Road next steps. So [36:54] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: I think the council is certainly familiar with 239 Wyndham Center Road, which is caddy corner to our location here at the intersection of 202 and Wyndham Center Road, and the different scenario, same owner, previous owner rather, we currently own these are tax acquired, but the previous owner, same owner, actually I'm incorrect on that, I apologize, the two different owners, but perhaps two different situations. Both are the dwellings are in poor shape, and really bringing these forward to see what the council would like to do. We need to either decide to retain these parcels or we need to sell them. There's really not a time frame on this, but we need to make a decision. Holding on to them, it is costing the town a little bit of money because we have to insure them. So they are currently insured by the town, but I think that it would make sense to move ahead with at least give me a direction on do we want to retain for any reason. If so, that's a different process than if we decide to sell them. So and I would start, perhaps we'd start discussion with 239 Wyndham Center Road first, and that is obviously a location that's close to the school campus and may be of interest for the council to retain it or not. So I'm curious what you folks think. [38:27] Council Chair: Yeah, so that's the one that's right, like you said, kitty-con across from us. [38:31] Speaker H (unidentified): This is the second time this has come before council. [38:35] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: Well, we discussed tax acquisition at the last, when we discussed this the last time. [38:41] Speaker H (unidentified): I had a list of. No, that property was quite, you know, tax lien by the town, and then whoever owned it came and paid the taxes off. That's correct. And now it's right back at it again. [38:50] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: Good memory. Yeah, that's correct. That's probably three or four years ago, correct. At this point, the previous owner has not come forward on 239, and I think clearly it makes sense for us to deal with it, I think, at this point. Coincidentally, we did advertise in the newspaper we were required to. There was another party who had an old vehicle stored in the barn, and we had to go through a bit of a process to try to alert the owner, but basically we never heard back so he forfeited his rights to the contents of the building which are separate than the actual building in the land we don't we tax acquire the parcel we don't tax acquire apparently the items on the parcel so we had to advertise that long story short the car was retrieved by the owner of the car who was different than the owner of the parcel and so anyway that was a bit of a process but so really decision is you know if we decide to keep it for purposes that the council is interested in, we need to have it appraised, and then likely it would make sense to remediate any asbestos and then tear down the structure and then proceed with, you know, with whatever future plans. On the other side, if we decide not to keep it, we need to conduct a 90-day notice and then retain a realtor to list it. as is well it would be up to the council but I would say as is would make more sense yeah but [40:31] Speaker H (unidentified): I think it would be a valuable piece of land account for the talents on the corner it's right near the school that's a corner lot and it's [40:38] Council Chair: about a half an acre right a little more than half an acre correct [40:41] Speaker E (unidentified): I think Zillow has a list is 0.73 yet small okay is there any opportunity to get into that building to have an understanding of what the status is of it. I mean, it's been – [40:54] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: It's completely – it's condemned, basically. I mean, it's – yeah, probably the barn is in better shape, and that's structurally impaired as well. [41:05] Speaker G (unidentified): So it's – The land is what's worth the value. [41:08] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: Yeah, it's – yeah. [41:13] Speaker H (unidentified): I say hold on to it and – [41:15] Speaker C (unidentified): I say we keep – [41:19] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: So, obviously, that comes with a cost. we would if we if we remediate it and tear it down I believe we're able to take those costs off from the appraised amount that we would owe the previous owner and you know we would have to fund that in a future budget we put that in for the FY 28 budget so just for discussion sake if it's if it's [41:46] Council Chair: deemed to be a hundred thousand dollars and we and the cost of demo is 25 000 then we pay 75 000 to [41:56] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: The to the owner yeah plus or minus there's there's some other session yeah there's some other intricacies there with that process but that about that yeah okay yeah I mean that's that is a [42:09] Council Chair: Valuable piece of property that you might want to kind of hang on to especially with it being so close to the middle school that we're thinking about repurposing I agree my only hesitation is [42:25] Speaker G (unidentified): That there is quite a lot of concern in our community about the town properties and how much they are costing us right now and so I would like to see us have a purpose behind it before we determine what we're going to do with it okay that's all well [42:49] Council Chair: I think that needs more discussion I agree yep and what is the you said mentioned that we need to ensure [42:58] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: Is that fairly nominal yeah the cost yeah it's but we with the everything else that we ensure it's it's pretty small I can give you an amount on that perhaps the next time we discuss this you know I don't know off the top of my head what that costs us but it's relatively small amount but not to be overlooked right okay yes [43:22] Council Chair: I'm you know I hear what you're saying counselor Cook and we probably should hold on to it at least through November to figure out how the vote goes with the middle school and then that will really kind of help guide us on what to do beyond that yeah there's no [43:43] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: As I said, there's no, for whatever reason, there's no requirements that we have to act on this. There's no clock ticking on any tax-acquired property for that matter. But I think this is one that I just wanted to bring forward because of its location. [44:01] Speaker C (unidentified): Okay. Here's my take back on the comment. One, I don't think there's a whole bunch of people in the town that's worried about the town. having a piece of property my bigger concern is if the town had control of that property they'd know what's going in one of their centers you know you can work with the developer on what's going in there and not just put it up sale have it sold and anything go in there so that's my [44:42] Speaker G (unidentified): My concern with that piece of property and I do want to I do want to say I completely agree with you Dave I completely agree with you on that front I just think you know there's there's this mentality especially with the Wyndham middle school happening right now of like well what are you going to do with all the other properties why are we continuing to acquire properties shouldn't we sell it and like get some money from it which I know we really wouldn't we would just be kind of paying the Taxes. And so I just think it warrants more discussion and more thought before we turn it over again. [45:14] Speaker C (unidentified): That's an education piece because we have zero pieces. [45:21] Speaker G (unidentified): But we're talking about like the town hall, general assistance. [45:26] Speaker C (unidentified): Well, the town hall hasn't happened yet. [45:30] Speaker G (unidentified): This property that we're in right now is what I'm referring to. Yeah? Yeah. [45:36] Speaker C (unidentified): What, if the community center goes in? [45:39] Speaker G (unidentified): Yeah. Yeah. What are we doing with it? [45:41] Speaker C (unidentified): That hasn't happened yet. [45:44] Speaker G (unidentified): I know. I know. That's why I'm saying that I think we need to wait and see. [45:53] Speaker C (unidentified): I think we have to hold on to it. [45:59] Council Chair: The question is how long. So we'll continue the discussion. It sounds like the cost to insure is nominal. [46:06] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: Minus, and I forgot to add in there too, there are back taxes to owed. So that would be taken off from that amount as well. [46:13] Council Chair: So it would be pretty cheap, potentially. [46:19] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: Yeah. I mean, it's still an expense that we'd have to budget for. [46:24] Council Chair: So some of the questions that we've raised, if you could come back with some numbers so we can better understand the situation. [46:31] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: Well, we won't know. Keep in mind, we won't know until we have it either appraised or we send it to market. Yeah. And both of those, you know, sending it to, you know, listing it with a realtor, you know, they're going to get their fee. But you won't know until they get that top bid. [46:49] Council Chair: And then. How much was owed? What do we do? I don't [46:55] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: know. I want to say it was less than $20,000, I believe, off the top of my head. [47:00] Speaker H (unidentified): We could get what assessing appraises that at, can't we? [47:04] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: Yes, but it would be. that would be close but likely different than what [47:10] Speaker H (unidentified): give us you know dilapidated building i'd rather use the ballpark value than 20 grand yeah give us a ballpark figure okay [47:25] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: sure okay so you've heard so we've got a we've got a plan on that one i'll come back with some more information on that at a future date the second address, 520 River Road, so that Public Works went down, cleaned that facility up, that parcel up, just like we did with the Wyndham Center location, mowed it. But that is, you know, I'm not aware of any value that parcel has for the town. I think that one makes sense to start the process. there's a 90-day we have to advertise and then there's a 90-day wait as we try to reach the previous landowner and then list it with a realtor to a reference point should be able to tell you it's right at the intersection of Lasky Road So the house has been in disrepair, even when it was being inhabited. And anyway, both, I believe the owner and the heir both have passed away. Way, so that's likely that, you know, we're not gonna, we're not gonna hear from that party. So that money would end up likely being paid to the state, as the state, and then the state handles it from there. But I see, I see no reason to hold on to that particular parcel now. I think I gave you a list of, I think it was 15 tax acquired parcels, and these are the two that were not occupied. So these are two that we can deal with. The occupied is a [49:14] Speaker G (unidentified): different scenario. Sure. Am I right in my memory that this, that there was a note that there was an interested party in purchasing this? Yeah, we've had been [49:25] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: contacted by neighbors. I think they might be in the audience. Yeah, good to put faces with voices. Okay. Yeah, and so the L, there's been concern over the years about vermin and bad practices, and now there's an opportunity there to get this [49:43] Speaker C (unidentified): place cleaned up. He's not there no more. He's deceased? Yeah, he passed away, yeah. [49:52] Speaker H (unidentified): I agree. I have an interested buyer right there. [49:56] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: Yeah, which is great. [49:59] Speaker C (unidentified): Get a high appraisal. [50:02] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: It'll be a fair market value. I agree. [50:06] Council Chair: Okay. Yeah, I'm good with that. I'm good to sell it. Do we have consensus on that? Yeah. [50:10] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: So I see five. Okay, good. [50:13] Speaker C (unidentified): The question I have on tax-acquired property, we have one piece of tax-acquired property that owed us over $24,000, hasn't paid taxes since you bought it in 2006 or whatever. ever. I just think that's arrogance, not paying his taxes. The rest of us are making up for it. Taxes that are that far in the rear, I think we should be looking at going after, even if it's occupied. I mean, that owner knows that everybody else is paying taxes and he's just laughing at us where [51:10] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: to begin. So possibly, I think that each one of the scenarios is different, and it's, it's, it's, I think we need more conversation on the matter. I think with each of those other tax acquired properties that we own that have residents in them, I think we handle them one by one, and they're likely to be potential [51:38] Speaker C (unidentified): executive session topics. Yeah, no, I'm just saying this is excessive. I mean, yeah, I'm here, I would [51:45] Speaker E (unidentified): say so, huh. You said 2006. 20. You say that's, that's 20 years, 20 years. Yeah, I mean, if we can [51:54] Speaker C (unidentified): get away with it, I'd jump right on board if I could get away with not paying my taxes for 20. Yeah, I jump right on board [52:04] Town Staff / Assistant Town Manager: That it, that's, I got a good direction. Thank you. Okay, just what I needed [52:09] Council Chair: Excellent. Thank you. I will entertain a motion to adjourn as we are at the conclusion of our agenda. Motion to adjourn. On favor, it passes. Good night, Wyndham