Millville voters to decide Monday on fate of old pub

MILLVILLE – Special town meeting voters Monday will be asked to approve a proposed deed in lieu of foreclosure agreement between the town and owners of the former Mug Pub property on Central Street, which would pave the way for the town to demolish the condemned building.

The town meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Millville Elementary School auditorium, 122 Berthelette Way.

The boarded-up building and dilapidated property at 35-37 Central St. has been vacant for more than 15 years and is one of the town’s biggest blights. The selectmen opted not to foreclose on the property, but decided instead to negotiate a deed in lieu of foreclosure agreement with the property owners, who are listed as Kenneth and Suzanne Beale and Patricia J. Spencer and Nicole Y. Beaudet of Slatersville.

A deed in lieu of foreclosure is a transaction where the property owner voluntarily transfers title to the town in exchange for a release from any tax obligation.

Town meeting voters on Monday will be asked to approve the deed in lieu of tax

foreclosure, which will allow the town to acquire the title without the need of going through the cost and time required to obtain a judicial foreclosure.

If voters approve the article, the town would go out to bid to hire a demolition company, which would take a wrecking ball to the building before the end of the year.

According to Town Administrator Jennifer M. Callahan, the tax-title proper- ty is not only a major eyesore, but a public safety hazard. The town has recently cordoned off the property with orange highway barrels to prevent pedestrians from using the sidewalk in front of the building and motorists from using the parking lot.

The 6,216-square-foot mixed-use building is zoned residential/commercial. The first floor housed a tavern years ago and then became Benoit’s on the Hill, a family restaurant that was in operation in the 1950s and 1960s. The restaurant later became known as the Candlewood Restaurant in the 1970s and 1980s.

The restaurant was ran and operated under other names and owners as well, including Suzanne’s Inn and Fieldstones before it became the Mug Pub.

The building sits on 0.118 acres and the value of the structure is listed at $192,500.

The demolition work would be paid for with grant money Callahan was able to secure through the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office Abandoned Housing Initiative Strategic Demolition Fund, which has awarded the town a matching grant of up to $20,000.

Millville was one of only four communities in Worcester County to get the grant, which funds strategic demolition projects across the state in an effort to help communities reduce blighted properties.

Municipalities that apply for funding must demonstrate an immediate community need for demolition and an absence of any other viable remediation measures for the property. Those applying must also show plans for post-demolition site redevelopment.

Callahan said the former Mug Pub property has been an eyesore and public safety hazard for years. In 2013, the town’s building inspector and zoning enforcement officer found the building to have serious code violations.

The town has been trying to address the blighted 35-37 Central St. property for years, but it was Callahan who put it on the fast track after the town was awarded a $1 million MassWorks grant for a $1.3 million town project to reconstruct Central Street from the intersection of Ironstone Street and Bow Street to the Providence Street intersection.

Central Street is the town’s most traveled road, spanning Lincoln Street to Providence Street near the Rhode Island town line. Central Street handles approximately 6,000 vehicles as day, 16 percent of which are heavy trucks.

Callahan said it didn’t make sense to take on the project with the former Mug Pub building standing in the middle of it all.

“It needs to come down because of the Central Street road project, but more importantly, because it is a public safety hazard,” she said. “It’s too close to the street.”

As for what the town intends to do with the property after the building is demolished, Callahan said the selectmen will discuss those options after the town meeting.