BY JIMMY LAWTON

North Country This Week

NORFOLK – The Norfolk Bakery, LLC is facing tax foreclosure following a split vote Monday by the St. Lawrence County Board of Legislators.

The resolution says that the bakery acquired the property with a significant tax delinquency and was notified at the time of the acquisition.

“In light of the fact that the current title holders of the property were not the party that created the original tax delinquency, but were instead subsequent title holders of the real property, the county of St. Lawrence and Norfolk Bakery, LLC, entered into a mutual agreement settling out all of the details of payment and collection of the delinquent taxes, at the conclusion of which the count county would evaluate and forgive a portion of the tax delinquency,” the resolution says.

The county and bakery entered into an agreement in 2018 that provided for the repayment and forgiveness of certain real property taxes, however, following the execution of the agreement the bakery defaulted on the terms and foreclosure proceedings recommenced.

In 2020 the county and bakery reached a second agreement where the bakery proposed to pay $3,000 on signing and $1,000 per month for 33 months beginning June 1 2020 and a final payment of $565.85 for the balance of the taxes less all interest, penalties and fees, at which point the county would forgive the remaining penalties, fees and interest.

However the county says the bakery failed to make any payments since the agreement was made, which has prompted the county to move forward with foreclosure proceedings again.

Additionally the county agreed to sign an agreement between the New York Environmental Protection and Spill Compensation Fund to evaluate and potentially remediate any contamination on the property.

The resolution prompted some resistance from legislator John Burke, who represents Norwood.

He noted that the bakery was coming out of a tough year with the pandemic and questioned the timing of the delinquency proclamation.

“I won’t be supporting this,” he said.

Legislator Kevin Acres said that the county has worked to help the bakery extensively since 2018; long before the pandemic and that it was time to move forward with the process.

The resolution passed 11-4 with Margaret Haggard, Suzanne Fiacco, Tony Arquiett  and Burke voting against it.