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02-02-04: Former bug-infested home sold

Area man plans to remodel home sprayed by health department
By SEAN RICE
srice@dailystandard.com

A Jill Avenue residence in Celina that sat unoccupied for six months, except for cockroaches and other pests, has been sold and the nearly $15,000 in back taxes and fees paid.
The new owner, Nickey W. Schmidt of St. Marys, settled the property’s back taxes and bank liens and has plans to completely remodel the home, Mercer County Auditor Mark Giesige said this morning.
The house at 228 Jill Avenue was a topic in county health board and Celina City Council meetings this summer after neighbor Thomas Chivers complained of the “army of bugs and vermin” that was poised to march to his property. The Celina-Mercer County Health Department picked up the approximate $900 bill to have Buckeye Extermination fumigate the property. The new owner also repaid those costs to the county.
Mercer County Common Plea Court evicted the former owner for $11,000 in unpaid property taxes, Giesige confirmed.
The property, valued at about $90,000, was twice to sheriff’s sale and did not sell.
Citi Financial of Wapakoneta held the remaining mortgage on the property.
The next step for the house would have been a special auditor’s auction to recoup as much of the back taxes as possible, Giesige said. He has held only four such auctions in his eight years in office.
“We have never, in one of these auditor’s sales, even gotten the court costs covered by the sale,’ Giesige said. “This is wonderful, it is really a good outcome.”
Giesige said the new buyer is the same person who purchased and refurbished a Margo Lane home years ago after the occupant was evicted due to the small army of domestic animals and rats living inside.

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