Cash-strapped Millville turns to ‘yard’ sale

Town hopes to generate revenue by putting townowned parcels up for auction

MILLVILLE — The town is putting several town-owned parcels up for auction in October, which officials are hoping will generate considerable money for this cashstrapped town.

The town is collaborating with Paul Zekos, head of the Zekos Group, Municipal Auction Strate- gies of Shrewsbury, which will host the live auction on a date to be determined.

The actual list of properties going on the block has not yet been compiled, but most of them have been foreclosed on by the town for failure to pay property taxes.

Town Administrator Jennifer M. Callahan says the goal of the auction is to bring in money to the town’s general fund and put the properties back into private, tax-paying hands.

“The town has become somewhat of a land baron through non-payment of taxes and has never had a bonafide land auction,” Callahan said. “This is one way of generating one-time money that could replenish the town’s reserves and help the town going forward. Plus, there is no cost to the town.”

Callahan says she is working with the treasurer-collector, tax as- sessor and town’s tax title attorney to cull the available parcels and determine exactly which ones will be be auctioned off.

She said Zekos’ company has worked with 81 municipalities and has years of experience conducting municipal auctions of tax possession properties. The auction company will receive a percentage of the

money the town receives.

The town is looking at all possibilities as it struggles to close a massive $300,000 structural deficit and balance the town operating budget. To do that the town has been forced to implement significant cuts in service, including eliminating municipal trash service; closing the Senior Center and laying off all its employees; shutting off 64 percent of the town’s street lights; cutting all stipends; eliminating vacant positions; and reducing town hall department hours.

In May, annual town meeting town voters overwhelmingly passed a town operating budget contingent on the passage of a $1 million Proposition 2½ operational override at a special election June 19, but the override failed. That means the town must now implement significant cuts in service in order to balance this year’s budget.

The override was being sought by the selectmen, Finance Committee and administration as part of a strategic financial plan to right-size the budget and reset the tax rate to address ongoing operational deficits due to continued use of one-time revenues to fund increases to the school budget.

The Finance Committee had proposed two town operating budgets at the annual town meeting back in May – an override-contingent budget of $6,3343,733 and a $6,183,222 budget with no override – depending on the outcome of the override vote.

The selectmen and Finance Committee repeatedly warned that the town could no longer balance the budget by using one-time “rainy day” revenues, which is why they advocated for the override. The tax override, they say, would have right-sized the budget and provided increases in the tax rate phased in over eight years to balance future budgets.

But a majority of the voters who went to the polls on June 19 rejected the measure by a vote of 589 to 339. The override would have permanently added $1 million to the town’s tax levy, which would have resulted in a total tax increase of approximately $1,415 over a period of eight years for the average $250,000 single-family household.

With the $6,183,222 budget with no override now in play, officials are tasked with making further cuts in the budget to close the deficit, which could entail laying off essential personnel, including police officers, firefighters and town hall staff.