WATERVILLE — Councilors on Tuesday rejected a request to sell run-down property on Messalonskee Stream after learning the building on it was built illegally and is in the shoreland zone.

The woman who had wanted to buy the 12 Glidden St. property for $9,000 — Janet Converse Kanai — withdrew her offer after learning about the issues associated with it, according to City Council Chairman Fred Stubbert, D-Ward 1.

The city took the property because of nonpayment of taxes. Glidden Street is off Cool Street.

Before voting 5-0 to reject selling the property, Stubbert told the council the building was built illegally — it was not built according to code — and the city needs to demolish it and clean up the property. There are junk cars and hazardous materials on the site, he said.

“The building itself is not worth anything, anyway,” Stubbert said. “At this time she (Kanai) has withdrawn her offer and this is moot. We just need to eliminate this item and vote it down and later we may have a buyer, but I doubt it.”

The building was never finished, it’s wide open, its windows are broken and trash is strewn around outside.

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Had the council voted to sell the property, the proceeds from the sale, minus $3,684 due in taxes and other fees, would have been placed in the city’s capital improvement reserve account.

Stubbert asked City Manager Michael Roy whether the property had been offered for sale to abutters; Roy said it had not.

In other matters Tuesday, the council voted to award a $29,560 contract to Williams Roofing Co., Inc., of Waterville, to install a standing seam metal roof on the public works/parks and recreation operations facility building. Williams submitted the lowest of eight bids for the project.

Roy and Public Works Director Mark Turner updated councilors on more than $1 million in upgrades that have occurred in the public works complex on Wentworth Court over the last seven years. Roy said the roof project will represent the last of that work.

In 2007, an addition was constructed on one of the buildings to make way for the facility maintenance workshops. Those workshops were formerly in the basement of City Hall, at the airport and at the former C.F. Hathaway building on Water Street. The cost of the project was $150,000.

In 2008-09, a 120-by-80-foot sand and salt storage shed was built to replace a smaller airport hangar that housed the material. Sand was previously stockpiled in an open air site in the middle of the public works complex grounds. The cost for the project was $220,000.

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A new fleet maintenance facility with separate welding fabrication shop was built in 2009-10 for $650,000. Previously, fleet maintenance and equipment repairs were performed in a building constructed in 1954.

In 2012-13, interior renovations to the former fleet maintenance building were started, allowing for offices, locker and break rooms for public works employees to be increased in size. The garage area was increased to allow parks and recreation grounds maintenance crews to move to Wentworth Court from Western Avenue. A new roof was installed and structural improvements made to the fleet storage garage. Project cost: $150,000.

Last year and this year, a new 20-by-60-foot wash bay was built on the back side of the former fleet maintenance facility and a new truss and sheathed roof structure added to replace a flat rubber roof membrane. The standing seam metal roof will be installed by Williams Co. this fall. Project cost: $100,000.

Amy Calder — 861-9247

acalder@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @AmyCalder17


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