Though the Orono, Maine property recently paid all of its property taxes, the town has decided to withhold the club’s victualer’s license until past-due personal property taxes and sewer bills are paid.
Even though the owner of Penobscot Valley Country Club in Orono, Maine paid all its property taxes on November 7, town leaders have decided to withhold the club’s food license until past-due personal property taxes and sewer bills are paid, the Bangor (Maine) Daily News reported.
Anyone who wants to serve food in Orono needs a victualer’s license, the Daily News reported.
“They came in Friday and made a partial payment but they’re still outstanding on personal property and the sewer,” Town Manager Sophie Wilson told councilors before they voted.
Town councilors voted unanimously to approve the victualer’s license once the past-due bills are paid. The automatic foreclosure on the golf club, which is listed under Penobscot Golf Holdings LLC, was scheduled for December 3, the Daily News reported.
“They paid over $70,000 Friday on property taxes,” Annie Brown, Orono tax collector, said Monday. “They paid on what was going to foreclosure.”
The club on Route 2, featuring a historic 18-hole golf course that first opened in 1924 and a modern clubhouse, was purchased by Bath-based Harris Golf Co. in 2007 for $3 million. Jeff Harris, president of Harris Golf, said in September that he makes a conscious choice not to pay property taxes on time in protest of the high tax bill the town charges, the Daily News reported.
The Friday payment went toward Harris Golf’s $137,396 bill for unpaid property taxes, which dates back two years, the Daily News reported.
“They have not paid their personal property taxes…they’re outstanding $18,050,” Brown said. The amount of the outstanding sewer bill was not available Monday, the Daily News reported.
Orono Town Council members approved the golf club’s spirituous, vinous and malt liquor licenses because they are state licenses, but made the local victualer’s license “contingent on the payment of personal property taxes and sewer,” the Daily News reported.
Harris Golf is a golf course developer, contractor and operator that owns or manages 10 courses in Maine, five of which have past due tax bills. The overdue taxes are owed at the Falmouth Country Club in Falmouth, Old Marsh Country Club in Wells, Sunday River Golf Club in Newry, Wilson Lake Country Club in Wilton and Penobscot Valley Country Club, and all five towns have issued liens. The total owed is more than $500,000, the Daily News reported.
When property taxes are not paid within a year, the property is liened per state law, Orono Finance Director Matt Currier explained. Once a property goes into lien, there is an automatic foreclosure 18 months from that day, the Daily News reported.
“We’ll be paying them before that date,” Harris said in September of the bill on the Orono golf club.
Harris did not return a message left by the Daily News for comment.
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