Alna selectmen said they hope to avoid going to court to address a trash issue on a Golden Ridge Road property.

If the town has to pick up the cleanup costs, the board will work to recover the money, members said. A bank foreclosed on the property several years ago and recent attempts to pinpoint the latest property management firm for it have hit dead ends, selectmen said.

Selectmen agreed March 23 to send a certified letter to a bank they named as the owner of record for 251 Golden Ridge Road.

The board’s letter to American Home Mortgage Servicing in Coppell, Texas, states that town officers have found the property unsanitary and a health or safety hazard.

“(The) outside conditions, and access to the structure by vermin, must be addressed,” First Selectman David Abbott writes.

The dumpster is overflowing with trash and organic garbage, according to the letter. Officials responding to citizens’ complaints found trash scattered around the home’s perimeter and, in the garage, numerous garbage bags, the letter states.

“(The garage) is open to the environment, with evidence of rodent activity,” it states.

The letter asks for a plan within 30 days, to remove a dumpster from the site, and all the dumpster’s contents; remove all trash around the home, out buildings and the rest of the grounds; and secure any openings that let vermin into the home.

“We are hopeful that you or your agents will undertake these actions voluntarily and it will not be necessary ... to seek one of the legal remedies available to us ... the costs of which, including legal costs, would ultimately fall to you,” it states.

If no one accepts the certified letter, the town can publish a notice in a newspaper, then tell a court that no responsible party could be found, Third Selectman Doug Baston said. The court may then order the town to clean up the property and, if the property ever sells, the town could recover the costs, Baston said.

Attempts to seek comment from American Home Mortgage Servicing were not immediately successful.

Latest on town office

Also at the board’s first meeting since town meeting, selectmen expressed surprise at the close call their $10,000 request, for architectural and other prep work for a possible town office move, had at town meeting. Voters passed the proposed funding 24-19 on March 19.

That means at least 40 percent didn’t like the idea of moving the town office into the fire station, Baston said. Selectmen and others at the board meeting mulled possible reasons, including the added tie it would bring with the fire department and the poor price the town office might fetch on the market.

For the town to agree later to make the move, the board will need to show that staying put is not the way to go, selectmen said. “We have to put the idea to rest or it’s going to come back to haunt us,” Baston said.

The town office is too small for meetings, needs work and is less efficient than a town office inside the fire station would be, selectmen said.

The town should know by early April if it has won a $2,000 grant to also go toward preliminary work, including exploring options for how ownership of the fire station might change, Baston said.

Attendance urged for school budget meeting

Selectmen and Ralph Hilton, one of Alna’s representatives to Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12, encouraged residents to be at Chelsea Elementary School at 6:30 p.m. May 19, for the meeting at which district voters can raise or lower the proposed school budget, piece by piece, before the full budget offer goes to a vote at the polls.

Hilton predicted a challenge from Chelsea, whose bill is projected to jump now that the transition to the new cost-sharing formula is complete. “They’re going to be showing up there trying to cut where there’s no place to cut,” he said.

Chelsea voters also attempted cuts at last year’s budget meeting and that may happen again, according to Zack Freeman, a Chelsea representative to the district board. “If it’s anything like last year, they will,” he said in a phone interview March 24.

However, Freeman said he hoped that the cuts would not occur. With insurance and other costs on the rise, it’s nearly impossible to come up with a flat budget, he said.

Chelsea property owners would pay the district $74.91 more this year for every $100,000 of assessed property property value, according to district figures. Alna and Westport Island have fared better under the new formula and would see drops in their education tabs.