Monday, October 27, 2008

People in town not paying taxes!

Is this true? Are there some people in town not paying their fair share while the rest of us pick up the slack? Is this a case of our town officials unlawfully looking the other way?

We've received the following letter from a concerned citizen that this may actually be the case regarding a neighbor of theirs.

Hello there,

I wish to inform you that I discovered that I have nearby neighbors who live without permits of occupnacy and have done so for a long time (17 years). This makes me wonder how many other homes are there in town that do not have permits of occupancy and yet peole are living in it? This neighbor is( name has been removed while we investigate this claim),who has a an extension cord to his house from the phone pole to his house that gives electricity. Why are we allowing this to take place for so long? I wish to remain anonymous but my other neighbors are very upset that the building inspector has let him get away with it for so long. We believe that he has something on the building inspector. That he is also selling a piece of his property (a for sale sign by owner) is apparent and we are wondering why we weren't notified that he sub-divided his property.
How many places are there in this town with this problem? We need to tax them as well for it is not fair to others to see this happen.
What do you say?


The letter writer provided us with their name; but wishes to remain anonymous.

15 comments:

the Winchester Informer said...

This is a very serious and quite possibly a very dangerous situation for this homeowner and occupants of this property. Without the proper breakers in place to prevent surge this building could go up in flames at any time. The Informer has many questions for our town officials if this is true. We are investigating this tip and will post back all of our findings.

Anonymous said...

Knowing Leroy and knowing how lax he is I don't doubt this for one minute and I'll bet there is more than one instance of this in town. What's it going to take, a death or two before our elected and their appointed pals get the message and start doing their jobs in a proper manner. I don't know about the rest of you; but I'm really fed up with this holier than thou attitude and lack of professionalism coming out of town offices, they seem to forget the work for us, not the other way around. For God's sake for the amount of money we pay these people the least they can do is make the effort.

Mechanic said...

I just think it is amazing that something like this can happen but at the same time Leroy is hiring someone with no experiance or knowladge of the job to asses and take pictures of problems and concerns of his. So now Leroy doesn't even have to leave his office.

Anonymous said...

Take a drive up fenton hill in Ashuelot and you will see more of this a moter home hooked up next to a trailer with Electric and sewer lines running to the trailer
how does this get buy our code enforcement officer?how do we bring this to his attention.same household runs a yard sale all summer long.last but not least our animal control officer would also find many thing up there.

Mechanic said...

Our "aniaml control officer" is aware of this property and has been told by our police cheif not to pick up any more cats. Aparently is had become the responcability of the town to pay to get rid of the cats, so instead of charging or fining people they just ignor it now.

Anonymous said...

Those of you aware of these problems should bring them to the attention of our BOS, by either calling the town office or attending a Wednesday night meeting and bring up the subject. I'm sure Roberta Fraser, if informed would not ignore these situations.

Mechanic said...

You are rite, I do not attend as many meetings that I should but I do know that the selectmen are the ones that have hired him and I have been told that they were the ones to tell the police cheif to stop collecting cats. I will be attending more meetings from now on tho.

the Winchester Informer said...

We've received the following email from concerned citizen's of Winchester:

" I would like to find out if this rumor is true.The family who's house burned down on gunn mnt rd wanted to temporarily live in a camper trailer while rebuilding. Leroy would not let them hook up to electricity for one reason or another, Yet we have had the same situation on top of fenton hill all summer and these people did not lose a house to fire or other circumstances. Refer to people living in town and not paying taxes blog. Is it true if you know the right people you can get away with anything you want or does it just seem that way?
I wish to stay anonymous
Thank You "

That would be a very good question for our Selectmen to answer at Wednesday night's meeting; or perhaps if BOS member Ms. Fraser logs on she would provide some insight. Doesn't seem right nor fair to deny these poor people access in a camper, which is equipped for just this kind of electrical hook up and at the same time allow someone to run an extension cord ( just how safe is that? ) to their mobile home. That wouldn't even comply with basic service hookup regulations. Perhaps calling PSNH and reporting this to them would prompt the town into action.

Anonymous said...

I just found out today that eventually the family was able to hook up to electric after M Sharra heard what was going on. although the family was halted at first, it did finally work out the way it should of.Its good to see that some things do work out and sometimes our town officials do do the right thing. Now lets see this happen more often.and maybe we could post more of the good things becuase its just getting to depressing and hopeless if we wallow in the bad.....Just an idea

Mechanic said...

I am glad to hear that it did work out and my thoughts and prayers go out to the family. It is great that Mrs. Sherra stepped up to the plate and did her job but why is she not looking into the problem in Ashuelot. It's great that she has the will to be the "good guy" but part of her job is to also be the "bad guy". I am going to try and find her tomorrow and see if she is aware of this situation or not.

Anonymous said...

So where was Leroy Austin, our code enforcement officer in all of this? As for "wallowing" in just the bad; perhaps if this wasn't reported here, nothing would have been done at all, as usual. We wonder why Ms. Sharra found the time to look into this situation when there are more pressing matters to be attended to by the Land Use Dept. Like the resident out on Route #10, that has been excavating and clear cutting all summer and fall with no permits and no visits from the code enforcement officer, nor Ms Sharra despite numerous complaints?

Anonymous said...

Yes, why hasn't someone done something about this situation. There has been an awful lot of digging with heavy equipment, mostly late in the afternoon and on the weekends and most of the trees have been cut down on this property as evidenced by the high pile of firewood visible, we're talking 30 feet high, from the road and yet we have not been notified by any town office or official as to what is being constructed up there and we live right across the highway. Just what is going on and why haven't we been notified regarding what this person is building? When we asked at the town, no one had any answers.

Anonymous said...

Its amazing how the people that you pay with your tax money dont think the town business is any of your business. You can attend board meetings and get what ever answer they feel like giving, intimidation works. Like Margret Sharra told someone at a meeting, (your on my turf now).

Anonymous said...

Depending upon who you are or who you are friends with will determine just how many, if any hoops you will have to jump through to get approval on your applications at town hall. I followed all protocol and still was forced by dear Margaret to go even further to get her approval. Yes, that's right, "hers", she has complete control of the planning and zoning boards and if you don't think so, then just go try and get something done in town without her consent.I sit here scratching my head wondering why she got involved with this situation as it was clearly something that involved Leroy and maybe PSNH, not someone from the planning board. Makes me wonder what was in it for her.

Anonymous said...

LAZY Leroy was informed about the situation in Ashuelot way back in August. He then sent out his "assistant" Gene Parks (that very day no less) to survey the report(s). That's why NOTHING was done.