Last week’s column concerned the ownership of Plummer Lake in Centralia. Briefly, it dealt with the fact that it’s owned by four individuals, Sara Calvert, Carol Kellog Pitts, Louise Vogel and Paula Vogel Voos, who have been quietly paying taxes on the land on which the lake sits, year after year.
They haven’t complained, because those taxes on the land underwater were a little less than $50 per year. This year those taxes have gone up to $500! To my calculations, that’s over 1,000 percent. True, the useless dirt underwater might have been undervalued, but a thousand or more percent increase does somehow seem somewhat excessive to this observing bystander!
It’s a shock to those four ladies in sensible shoes who have been giving free access to the lake all these years. Here, for what it’s worth, off the top of my head as they say, are over 10 actions that could be taken by them in response, all granted free from the Moeller Magical Method of Dealing With Catastrophes, or, “MMMODWC” for short:
Do nothing except pay the higher taxes each year. This isn’t a first choice.
Begin court proceedings to get the taxes reduced. This is costly, time-consuming and usually not successful.
Stop paying taxes altogether. After three or five years (I forget which) the county would have to — by law — hold an auction and the property would go to the highest bidder, whoever that might be, and who could do anything with it that he or she wanted.
Pay the taxes and then prohibit access to the lake. This would of course, include everyone whose upscale property borders its edge. This is not how to gain friends.
Pay the taxes and then institute a fee — daily, weekly, monthly or yearly — to anyone who wants to use it for fishing, recreation or whatever. Difficult and costly, if not impossible, to enforce.
Fix a price and then extend an offer of first choice to the city of Centralia to buy it.
Keep ownership, but lease it to the city for the amount of current taxes and also for any unpaid use that has been granted the city in the past. This would involve legal advisers, who don’t usually work for nothing.
Sell the property outright to another individual, or perhaps to a group such as a fishing club and let them worry about access.
Inquire to see if the state Fish and Wildlife Department might want to buy it.
Donate everything to the city — if they’ll have it — and claim a deduction in their income taxes next year based on whatever amount a professional appraiser thinks it’s worth.
Fill in the hole and sell it as commercial property, which is what a developer would probably do.
I’m sure you can come up with a few other possibilities.
Before I wrote last week’s column I had been told that there was a written agreement years ago dealing with the city’s use of the lake, but now I’ve been told that doesn’t appear to be the case. All I know at this time is that the four Plummer descendants have contacted an excellent attorney to aid them in their eventual decision. I’m nearly sure that there’ll be more to write about this topic in the future.
By the way, with this column I’ve now completed my eighth year of writing these weekly sermons! At a rate of 600 words per column, that equals enough to fill a couple of books, but on the other hand I’ve already received 96 monthly checks, which in my game beats a pair of unsold books, right?
•••
Bill Moeller is a former entertainer, mayor, bookstore owner, city council member, paratrooper and pilot living in Centralia. He can be reached at bookmaven321@comcast.net.
