But supervisors balked at selling to an adjacent property owner in Moriah's Witherbee hamlet.

Scozzafava said the property at 31 Wasson St., Witherbee contains a duplex dwelling, and the owner on the other side offered the county a $2,000 bid for it.

Back taxes are $13,800, and the owner won't answer subpoenas, Scozzafava said.

"The place is an absolute mess. We've had zero cooperation from either the landlord or the tenant."

Police have been called to the house as recently as Oct. 3, he said, because of conditions there.

"We're going to get it cleaned up one way or another."

County Manager Daniel Palmer said the best way to handle that one might be that if it doesn't sell at auction, the county could then sell it to the adjacent resident.

"To treat someone else differently is going to cause all kinds of problems," Manning said, because others would want the same deal.

In the last tax sale, the county did sell properties in Jay and Minerva to adjoining residents.

Auctioneer Edward Haroff will be placing signs at the tax-sale parcels this week, with the brochure out Friday or Saturday, Diskin said.

He said that if a property is sold before the tax sale, "it will stay in the brochure, and they'll cross it out with an X."

The sale starts at 10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, at the Ticonderoga Best Western.

lmckinstry@pressrepublican.com