(This story by Chris Mays was first published in the Brattleboro Reformer on June 13, 2017.)
WILMINGTON — The Hermitage Club is avoiding a tax sale that would have seen some of its properties sold during a public auction.
“The Hermitage Club paid its Wilmington tax payment per the agreement at end of business today,” Hermitage Club President Jim Barnes wrote Friday in an email.
The company owns and operates a private ski resort at Haystack Mountain, a golf course, and hotels and restaurants in Dover and Wilmington. According to reports, Wilmington select board members had expressed concerns Wednesday about the company not having yet made the first monthly payment as agreed to.
Altogether, the agreement calls for the town to collect $152,786 in taxes related to a parcel of land for chair lifts, the White House Inn, golf course, ski lifts, undeveloped lots and 34 Look Rd., which previously was known as Nordic Hills Lodge.
Every little bit of revenue helps at this point. The town is looking at a potential deficit of $175,000 to $200,000 as it reaches the end of the fiscal year coming up on June 30.
Wilmington Finance Officer Christine Richter confirmed the Hermitage paid $29,000 to the town on Friday as part of the agreement and another property owner called her that day to say she would soon be sending in a payment.
“It’s definitely going to help,” Richter said. “It’s not quite as short of a revenue fall as originally anticipated. But it’s not going to wipe it out completely.”
Richter said other property owners, who have only missed the February installment, will continue to make payments and that should make a difference with the bottom line.
The Hermitage agreement involves properties that would have went to tax sale on June 22 if no payments were made. Altogether, the company owes the town about $400,000 in taxes.
“What we do is payment agreements if properties are up for tax sale,” Richter said. “Several [Hermitage] properties had two [missed] payments, which qualifies for tax sale at that point.”
Some Hermitage-owned properties are only behind by one payment, so they are not yet at risk of going to tax sale.
Up for tax sale on June 22 is the land and runway at Deerfield Valley Airport, which the Hermitage sold to 4V8 LLC last summer in an effort to hasten state permitting for its master plan.
Also on the list are three downtown properties owned by Lorista Holdings LLC: the former Poncho’s Wreck building, the Vermont House and 1 East Main St., the space across from Town Offices at the traffic light where work has stalled on a hotel project.
It is unclear how the Hermitage and Lorista are related. The Vermont House is featured on the Hermitage’s website and the company’s name is on the signage at the inn.
Richter said she has not spoken with representatives from Lorista in a while.
“One of them had contacted me shortly before we started the tax sale process and made it sound like some of them would be paid but I haven’t heard anything since then,” she said.
The list of 17 properties to be auctioned off at the upcoming tax sale was compiled on May 9 and posted on the town’s website on May 22.
