Clarksburg Sets Hearing on Dilapidated House
Update 11/16/2009: The public hearing has been postponed until Wednesday, Dec. 9, at 7 p.m. following the regular Selectmen's meeting because the legal notice sent to the newspaper was not published in a timely manner. (If only they could send those to us.) The structure at 430 North Houghton St. is the subject of a public hearing on Wednesday night. |
The hearing will immediately follow the Selectmen's meeting, the only meeting the board is holding this month. Normally, it meets on second and fourth Wednesdays; this month, the second Wednesday falls on Veterans Day and the fourth on Thanksgiving Eve.
The house at 430 North Houghton St. has been vacant for years and is in extremely poor condition. According to the Northern Berkshire Registry of Deeds, it is owned by Roger F. Daub.
The hearing is being held to allow the Selectmen to declare the property a public nuisance, giving the building inspector the authority to have it torn down. Once demolished the town hopes to take the property by tax title and sell the land at auction.
The town is also planning to auction two other properties this month that it took by tax title: a parcel on the corner of Brooks Heights and five acres on West Road that has an outstanding tax bill of $16,000 to $18,000.
Selectman Carl McKinney said at the Oct. 28 meeting that the land sales will be used to refresh town coffers in anticipation of the effects of Gov. Deval Patrick's expected 9C cuts. The town already reduced its budget drastically because of cutbacks in state aid for fiscal 2010.
"I would feel a lot more comfortable using free cash if I knew the money from the sale of those properties was going into free cash," said McKinney. "There's no money and nowhere else to cut."
