Beacon Falls seeks water lien payments

0
33

BEACON FALLS — The town wants residents along Burton Road, Cook Road, Cedar Circle, and Cedar Lane to get up to date on payments towards water liens placed on their homes nearly 10 years ago.

The liens, which are approximately $4,000, were placed on each house when the water lines were installed along those streets in 2003.

Residents were given two options on how to proceed with the lien, they could either pay it all off immediately or they could make payments towards it over 30 years.

It was brought to First Selectman Gerard Smith’s attention recently that not everyone has been making any payment towards the lien.

He said that people were waiting until they sold their homes to pay it off.

Smith explained that the town wants people to get up to date on their payments, and it is willing to work with residents to make this happen.

The first thing that residents would need to do is to pay off the accrued interest on the lien.

“The interest has been compounding since day one. We are just going to start to get to them up to date,” Smith said. “We’ll have an amnesty program to get them up to date.”

Mildred Jurzynski, the town’s tax collector, doesn’t know if this renewed effort to get people to make payments towards the lien will have any real affect.

“Most of the people there did not want it, did not need it, but it was put in anyway,” Jurzynski said.

Jurzynski has an interest in the water lines apart from just being the one who has to collect money from the residents.

“I’m on [the water line]. I didn’t need the thing, but it was put in,” Jurzynski said.

Although she has a private well and is not connected to the water line, she keeps up with the payments on the lien, she said.

Payments towards the lien are over $300 a year. Most of that money goes towards paying off the interest, with very little going towards the principle, Jurzynski explained.

Smith said that, within the next 30 days, the town will begin notifying people who are delinquent on their loans via flyers in the mail.

He does not foresee any penalties in the near future for those who are delinquent.

“We’re going to gently request everybody get current,” Smith said.

Jurzynski remained doubtful about whether that approach would work towards people who have their own wells and did not want the water line.

“People are very upset and refuse to pay it,” Jurzynski said.