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Show FROM THE EDITOR m CoHintof repiring special! Umvi This is one of the special occasions when, through necessity, that we have published a special Edition of the Iron County Record. For the interest of our readers the printing of this issue is for the express purpose of publishing the delinquent de-linquent tax list for Iron County and to publish it according to the laws of the State that require that the actual publication be by December 31, 1973. There are a number of reasons why it was impossible for the Delinquent Delin-quent Tax List to appear in our December Dec-ember 26 issue of tho paper, which would have been the usual publishing date. Circumstances brought about by a peculiar land development project in the couty has resulted in the addition addi-tion of some 3500 property owners, that has hampered the Iron County Treasurer's Office in sending out notifications not-ifications and then the preparation of the delinquent list from those notifications. notifi-cations. According to LaMar Jensen, Treasurer for Iron County, the single land promotion scheme resulting in the approximately 3500 additional property owners, has resulted in an extensive burden on the depatment. He also reports that over half of those additional property owners are included in the delinqquent tax list, resulting in one of the largest Delinquent De-linquent Tax Lists for Iron County since the years of the depression. The ironic thing about the particular partic-ular development is that in all cases these additional property holders hold only an undivided interest in a particular partic-ular tract of land. If you'll check "Book E-2" of the Delinquent List you will find that we j-mve published the description of the land followed by a list of Interest holders in that land, some running over 200. The property in question is located lo-cated in Western Iron County in a section known as Hamblm Valley. The promotion of the land and the sale of the undivided interests was through Gerald Martin of California. To give you an idea of what has happened Jensen explained one of the letters that came in mind you one of the hundreds of letters received by the count in connection with this particular land promotion where the holder of one of these deeds inquired if he did in fact own property in Utah or an undivided interest in property. Treasurer Jensen answered the letter and assured the questioner that he did own property, as described pn his deed, in cooperation, or jointly if you will, with 1151 other people. The property owner then wrote back to the Treasurer, not yet understanding under-standing the situation and stated "Simple question, simple answer. Do I or do I not own property in Iron County?" The emotes are not completely accurate, but they are in essence the words used in the letter and describe the plight of these some 3500' property owners and where they stand with this piece of paper they have, called a deed, and which has legally been recorded on the books of the County. That explains some of the complications compli-cations that have developed with property taxes, and the delemma of the County Treasurer's Department; and the tremendous amount of additional addi-tional Delinquent Taxes that you will find in this year's publication. The problem is, however, that the problem is just beginning. For example: ex-ample: After five years, if the taxes on these individual undivided portions of property are not paid, they will have to be sold by the County, for taxes. Who is going to buy them? It would be almost numerically impossible imposs-ible to acquire all of the undivided interests in-terests in these various tracts of lands. But even worse than that the County Attorney, Hans Chamberlain indicates that in the event of death of the property holders, the clearing of titles for these, pardon the expression expres-sion worthless pieces of paper will be a major undertaking that will require re-quire as he suggests a minimum of $300. cash. The problem has been taken before be-fore the State Tax Commission and a ruling has also been asked of the State Attorney General. They indicate to Iron County officials that they must carry each one of these people as a bonefied property tax holder on the Iron County Tax Roles. The rediculous situation points up the need for the State to adopt some hard and fast rules on land development de-velopment that will prevent further such "promotions" in grossly unrealistic unreal-istic land developments. Hopefully such action will be forthcoming from our State Legislature. Keep in mind that these are not subdivisions. There is no water available avail-able on the property in question. Each of the 3500 people who brought these deeds cannot go to Hamblin Valley and mark a spot and say I own it. They are part of a package deal where the particular parcel of land is jointly joint-ly owned, as indicated, by as many as 1152 people. |