Mountain View County councillors voted last week to cancel the 2011 property taxes for the owners of The Bergen Store after hearing how the couple has struggled to deal with flooding and sewage issues since buying the property in November 2007.ìWe bought a mess and we're trying to correct a problem,î Scott Bales, appearing with his wife Bonnie, told council's policies and priorities committee on Wednesday.After buying the one-and-a-quarter-acre property, the couple discovered there had never been a septic system on the site and instead five separate lines from holding tanks were pumping groundwater and wastewater onto their neighbour's land, they wrote in a letter to the county. Because the neighbour's property is at a higher elevation, the water would flow back and flood the basement of the house situated behind the store, they said.ìWe didn't know all this till we bought the property,î Bales told P&P. ìWater comes back to our property, circles around and fills the house with water. Every time it rains the house floods.îAs a result of continuous flooding for about 30 years, he said, black mould had spread throughout the house but had been painted over prior to the purchase. When the insurance company sent workers out to do the cleanup, they refused to enter the house because of the mould, he said. The couple also learned that the foundation walls of the house were caving in.The store itself was never contaminated because a dual pump system had been installed to prevent the building from flooding, Bales told the Gazette after the meeting.The Baleses are in litigation with the previous owners and are spending $1,000 a week on legal fees and expect to spend about $550 a week during the winter to pump out the property, he told P&P. They have installed nine pumps and are ìstill digging, still trenchingî to correct the drainage flow.ìI pump 1,500 gallons of water every two days off the property and I haul it away.îAlthough the flooding has been stopped, ìthe house has to be torn down and the property has to be excavated and cleaned up,î he said.The property had been appraised and assessed at between $700,000 and $800,000 but a recent appraisal lowered it to $133,000 as bare land ñ provided there are no additional remediation costs.The Baleses have paid all their back taxes but requested cancellation of this year's bill. The assessment of the land is expected to drop before next year's taxes are calculated.ìWe don't have the money and we're just teetering on the edge of losing the store,î Bales said to councillors. ìWe hate to ask Ö but we're just running out of options. We don't want a rebate. The county is working with us.îìI'd rather see you there and continue with the business,î Reeve Paddy Munro told the couple. ìI know this problem has been ongoing since the day you got there.îMunro's motion to recommend council forgive the 2011 taxes ñ worth about $5,700 ñ was carried unanimously and CAO Tony Martens was asked to keep council updated on measures being taken to address stormwater issues in the immediate area.The decision still has to be ratified by a council vote.
