County to oust tax delinquents

Be warned, deadbeats. Pat Wells wants to sell your house, land or any other real estate that you owe taxes on.

Wells, the Douglas County treasurer, is preparing paperwork for auctioning 23 properties whose 1994-1997 property tax bills remain unpaid.

Through the current tax year, owners of the lots and homes owe a collective $86,310 in property taxes, interest and fees. By law, the county can sell the properties to satisfy the delinquent bills.

Look for a sheriff’s deputy to begin the auction some Saturday morning this summer, rattling off addresses of properties to go to the highest bidder.

Delinquent property owners have until the moment the auction starts to pay up.

“Let’s hope this prompts the last people to pay their taxes,” said Bob Johnson, a Douglas County commissioner.

Already this year, owners of 62 properties have ponied up $385,234 in previously unpaid tax bills for 1994-1997.

Kevin Carlyle, Eudora, intends to be No. 63 as early as this morning. He owes $1,814.38 for taxes, interest and fees on a vacant lot at 530 Ash St. in Eudora, a place across town that he visits once a year to mow.

To keep it, he’ll have to come up with $926.33 for the money owed from 1994 to 1997.

“I’m going to try to pay it up,” said Carlyle, who once lived in a mobile home on the lot. “I don’t want to lose that property. It’s been on the back burner for so long  you know, out of sight, out of mind.”

Commissioners recently gave Wells permission to move forward with the auction, an annual event to clean up the books on previous tax years.

The auction is expected to draw from 10 to 20 potential buyers, Wells said. She’s already taken calls and e-mails from more than three dozen potential bidders, from Lawrence to Troutdale, Ore.

Buyers must provide cashier’s checks for the full purchase price; the county will keep enough to cover the taxes, interest and fees owed for 1994-1997, while the new owner must pay off any other tax bills before taking possession.

But Wells would prefer to take payments in her office, not on the steps of the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center during an auction.

“It’s easier for everyone,” Wells said Monday. “I just want them to pay their bills and take care of their obligations with the county.”