If the village of Fredonia could utilize a piece of property, its best option may be to purchase through foreclosure. During Monday evening's special meeting, the village board discussed a list presented to it from the Chautauqua County Department of Finance which listed foreclosure properties within the village.
According to administrator Richard St. George, he was informed that the village would have the right of first refusal for the properties listed.
"I don't know where these properties are in the foreclosures process, or whether these people are still there," he said. "Current owners have until Jan. 18, 2011 to redeem the property before it can be given to the municipality."
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OBSERVER Photo by Michael Rukavina
The Village of Fredonia Board reviewed a list of 16 foreclosure properties within the village during Monday’s special meeting.
If the village is interested in any of the properties they will have to contact the tax department for the amount due prior to Jan. 18, 2011.
"I know they've sped up the process for foreclosures going to sale," Mayor Michael Sullivan said of the notification. "It used to be a three-year process before they could start the sale and now it's down to two. They used to give us notification and asked us about the properties before they list them. They are apparently now making them available to the municipalities; I believe for the existing amount of taxes that are due."
The board seemed interested in reviewing the 16 properties which included three on Main Street, two on Eagle, and a number of single properties on various streets.
"We'll have to look at the list, see if there is a municipal purpose for getting it. Some of our comprehensive plan meetings have talked about finding properties for parking lots, because we have no on-street parking during the winter," Sullivan said of the potential. "If one of these properties is a piece of vacant land in an area where we need parking it might make sense to pick it up. If it is something in the town of Pomfret. for example, in the watershed near the reservoir. It might be worth asking the town to exert its right and pick it up."
Sullivan compared it to years ago when vacant railroads properties that were abandoned could go to adjacent property owners.
"It does give the village or municipality the first right before they do the public auction, so that we're not expected to go out and compete against private owners to get land that might have a value to the village," Sullivan said. "Because the last thing you want to do is have someone buy it up and then turn around and sell it to the village at a huge profit."
The board will review properties and then gather information on the school, town and village tax information.
In other news:
The Board approved that the position of working supervisor at the DPW be posted internally.
The Board approved the police security contract with the Fredonia Central School District in the amount of $38 per hour for each officer provided to the district. Officers are used for sports events, dances and other district sanctioned events.
The Board approved eight seasonal positions for village winter recreation programs.
Comments on this article may be sent to mrukavina@observertoday.com
