County tax sale yields profit

LOWVILLE — Lewis County officials expect a profit of more than $150,000 from last week's annual tax auction.

"It was definitely a good sale," county Treasurer Vicki A. Roy said of Wednesday's auction at the Lowville Elks Lodge on Shady Avenue.

At the county's fifth annual tax auction, conducted by Haroff Auction & Realty Inc., Schroon Lake, 23 parcels sold for a total of $231,550. Administrative and auctioneer's fees were tacked on to the winning bids.

Owners of the auctioned parcels owed the county $74,909.35 in back taxes and interest, leaving an expected net gain of $156,640.65.

The county also made $51,084.75 on 25 foreclosed parcels that were repurchased prior to the auction, according to Mrs. Roy. To redeem their parcels, owners had to pay all delinquent taxes, penalties and fees from both January 2007 and 2008, plus an extra 10 percent of that amount as an auctioneer's fee and 5 percent of the parcel's full value. County revenues stem from the latter, 5 percent fee.

The county's 2009 budget anticipated tax auction-related revenues of $15,000, based on what the county made at last year's auction when only six parcels were sold.

That means the county should see more than $190,000 in unbudgeted revenues.

While that is a significant amount, Mrs. Roy said she'll advise legislators to hold onto the unexpected money in case of budgetary shortfalls in sales tax and interest revenues, rather than finding ways to spend it.

The county foreclosed on three other parcels but didn't include them in the auction. One in the town of Greig was pulled due to a state Department of Environmental Conservation lien, while another in the town of Diana had issues with its tax roll listing, according to Mrs. Roy.

The third property, a 44-acre parcel located across North South Road in the town of Greig from existing county reforestation land, will be added to the 1,200 acres of county land in the Brantingham area, said Robert C. Diehl, the county's trail coordinator.

The property could be used for all-terrain-vehicle trails or other recreational purposes, he said.