By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer 

CASCO — An abandoned house that has become a potential hazard has been neglected by the owners. 

This winter, Casco Code Enforcement Officer (CEO) John Wiesemann served the homeowners a notice of violation. However, promises made to remedy the situation have not panned out. 

The single-family home, located at 1358 Poland Spring Road (off Route 11), was built in 1979.

On July 20, on Tuesday last week, the Casco Board of Selectmen voted to deem the uninhabited home a dangerous building and to move forward with legal action.

Going forward, Wiesemannwill contact the Casco town attorney and discuss how to go about getting the rid of the building. 

Chairman Mary-Vienessa Fernandes recalled that about seven years ago, town officials set their sites on several highly visible dangerous structures, and went through the legal process of having those buildings demolished. 

Wiesemann updated the board on the building, which is just past Tenny Hill Road on the right-hand side.  

“There have a been some squatters living there. It is just an accident waiting to happen,” he said. “I spoke to them in January. They said as soon as spring got here they were going to try to work on it.”

The chairman spoke

“Spring has come and gone,” Fernandes said. “The town can be held liable.”

She asked what the next step would be.

Wiesemannanswered, “Talk to the attorney. Once you guys approve it, I will talk to the town attorney.”

The motion was to classify the home located at 1358 Poland Spring Rd. as a dangerous building, and to take enforcement action as outlined by the town’s lawyer.

OTHER BUSINESS 

Also, on July 20, Wiesemannprovided a brief update of the code department.

“I’ve sent a fair amount of junkyard violations,” he said. “Hopefully, people are willing to work on (getting rid of it) the miscellaneouscars and toys.”

After Wiesemannwas done speaking, Fernandes said it was important for the town to educate the public on what’s not allowed on private property. 

“We need to clarify the definition of junky yards and junk yards. And move rather quickly on them. A lot of these yards have old cars that leak oil and we need to take care of that,” Fernandes said.

Both Wiesemann and Administrative Assistant Code Enforcement Officer Mary Temblay have been “very busy” with building permits this year. 

“We have almost doubled the permits from last year,” he said.

Holly Hancock asked if there were many people who had not filed for permits but were doing building or other activity without applying for the permit.   

“Not really. We have done a few after-the-fact permits,” Wiesemann said. “I am out in the field a lot. I’m telling contractors to give me a call.”

Selectman Robert “Bob” MacDonald said the CEO department will be busy, trying to enforce violations that were served over the past year.

“We are going to have a busy year catching up with after COVID. We’ve all heard, ‘I couldn’t do it because of COVID,’ and that can’t be an excuse anymore,” he said.