ADAMS, Mass. — The years of legal frustration over the former Curtis Fine Paper property may finally be coming to a close.

 

At least within the next 60 to 90 days. Maybe.

 

Town Counsel Edmund St. John III updated the Board of Selectmen on Wednesday on the status of the tax taking of 115 Howland Ave. — and some of the exasperation he's had to deal with.  

 

The town filed a tax taking against the property, owned by MJD Real Estate LLC, back in 2016 for nearly a half-million in delinquent taxes and filed with Land Court to close on the liens in 2019. But the slow pace of Land Court became glacial with the onset of the pandemic. 

 

"I don't want to bore you with this, but I want you to know what it's like to deal with the Massachusetts Land Court. There is a light at the end of this tunnel," St. John told the Selectmen, and proceeded to detail the back and forth in numerous emails and calls he'd had with Land Court employees since his last update in February. 

 

"COVID caused a catastrophic backlog with Massachusetts Land Court," he said. "All the other courts that I've dealt with in the commonwealth were quick to deal as best they could ... There were people who were doing Zoom hearings and all this stuff. In the Massachusetts Land Court, everything stopped."

 

St. John said one court employee told him they were only one of two people in the state working on these cases. 

 

"But we're getting close to the end and we can kind of smile about it now," he said. 

 

The town now has control of the smallest of the three parcels that make up the former paper mill, just under a quarter of an acre. The two larger parcels — one at 11.8 acres and the other of four acres — contain the buildings in the sprawling complex. 

 

One of the last steps is to publish legal notifications of the town's intent on foreclosing on the liens on those two parcels.

 

"During the week of June 14, the Land Court contacted me for funds to publish notices in the remaining two cases," St. John reported. "I mailed those to court yesterday, and newspaper notices will be sent out fairly soon. And I cautiously say, careful, we might expect a final judgment within 60 to 90 days. And I'm very cautious about this since it's been over four years."

 

MJD Real Estate purchased the property from the obsolete Curtis Fine Papers in 2009 for $15,000 for its trucking business, but also took on the bankrupt company's tax debts. The town faced an uphill battle for years in hounding MJD to pay its taxes. In 2016, MJD's unpaid taxes accounted for 40 to 45 percent of the total delinquent taxes owed to the town.

 

The property has not been maintained and many of the buildings are crumbling and their windows broken. A large smokestack in the rear has collapsed. The complex was valued at $1.85 million at the turn of the century and was most recently assessed at $446,600.

 

 

The board also addressed an Open Meeting Law complaint filed by Patrick Higgins that the board did not approve its March 21 meeting in a timely manner and did not list the documents and exhibits used by the public body in the May 3 minutes. 

 

Chair Christine Hoyt said the March minutes apparently were tabled at the meeting but then not take up again. As to the documents, St. John said when he "looked at the meeting minutes, I could see where documents were presented to the board and they were identified and we knew what they were but we had to scour through the minutes to find them."

 

St. John these technical violations will be acknowledged to Higgins and to the Attorney General's Office. As a response, St. John said he will conduct training with employees to impress the need to follow the law. Hoyt suggested that committee chairs also attend. 

 

Town Administrator Jay Green said attending the meetings will be a requirement.

 

"We have a lot of new staff. Open Meeting Law has become very technical, as this board has discussed before ... As Ed said, these are not transparency ... these are simply technical violations," he said. "[The trainings] are a way for us to sharpen our procedures and a good way to refresh people, particularly when you bring people in from the private sector, who don't have these obligations in the private sector. They have a whole different set of obligations in the public sector."

 

 In other business:

 

• The board, acting as the licensing authority, approved one-day licenses for AJ's Trailside Pub [outside] for Thursday's (June 22) Northern Berkshire United Way fundraiser from 5 to 9 and for the Berkshire Cider Project on July 1 and 2 from 6:30 to 10 and July 6 from 7 to 10, all three at the Adams Theater.

 

• Sherrie Leon was appointed administrative assistant for the Department of Inspection Services and the Assessor's office. She experience in the real estate market including with the state Land Records office mapping Berkshire County and working with contractors. She will start at Grade 6, Step 2 at $20.22 an hour.

 

"We've never been so happy to have somebody that's really qualified for this position," said Building Commissioner Gerry Garner.

 

• The board approved the Events Committee's request to set the townwide tag sale for Aug. 12 and to reduce the $7 tag sale fee to $1 for the sale. Maps will be available in early August.

 

Selectmen Joseph Nowak and Howard Rosenberg questioned reducing the cost and the signs that linger for weeks later. Green said the $7 fee doesn't really cover the paperwork and the time it takes to take down the signs. There was also concern about signs being posted on utility poles or town signs or trees in violation of the bylaws.