NEW GERMANY - The dilapidated building on 26 Fire Hall Road will not be cleaned up any time soon.

 At a committee of the whole meeting on February 18, council would not endorse a recommendation from its building inspector to hire a contractor to demolish the New Germany building, a move which would have cost the taxpayers nearly $25,000.

 The property, owned by Douglas Projects Ltd. and Bob Douglas of Mahone Bay, has been the subject of an ongoing battle. The first complaint of an unsightly and dangerous property was made to the municipality in 2006.

 The next series of complaints came from the Department of Environment. Mr. Douglas and his company were subsequently charged and found guilty of 12 charges for contravening the Environment Act.

 The environmental issue surfaced when firefighters responded to a call and discovered an oil tank had leaked. Mr. Douglas and his company were each fined $4,050 but no clean-up orders were issued. To date, those fines have not been paid.

 After several orders from the municipality under the dangerous and unsightly premises bylaw were ignored, in July the municipality obtained a Supreme Court order. However, Mr. Douglas still has not complied.

 Building official Michael Bevis recommended the municipality clean up the property and place a lien on it, but council wasn't prepared to spend nearly $25,000 to clean up someone else's property.

 If the municipality cleaned up the area, the property would need to sell for at least $30,000 to recoup the cost as well as back taxes. According to Property Valuation Services, 26 Fire Hall Road is assessed at $9,800.

 In addition, CAO Tammy Wilson noted that anyone who buys the property would have to have it assessed for any environmental issues.

 "It's not an easy sale," said Ms Wilson, noting it is possible there are no environmental issues as a result of the oil spill.

 In the end, council decided it was not worth the risk. Councillor Author Young said if council was prepared to clean up the property it was unlikely that any of the money would be recouped.

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 "The likelihood of us getting any revenue or anything back from this is … almost nonexistent," he said. "Once we do this, the likelihood of more buildings coming for us to clean up is going to be great."

 Councillor Don Zwicker agreed. He said there are many buildings in the municipality that should be torn down.

 "We're not in the business, in my mind, of going around and cleaning up old properties," he noted.

 Council defeated the motion. Officials intend to sell the property in the 2011 tax sale in hopes of recouping the back taxes. Any new buyer would also be made aware that an environmental assessment must be completed and there is an order against the property to have the building demolished.

 "If someone gave us $50 for it, take the $50 and write off the loss in taxes," added Councillor Lee Nauss.

posted on 02/23/10