County pays taxes on Yaak riverfront property in order to 'protect it'

Lincoln County commissioners voted to pay some $6,101 in back property taxes for a long, narrow 15.2-acre Yaak riverfront property on Wednesday.

The vote was 2-0 with Commissioner Mark Peck absent.

The strip of land is just north of the Yaak River and south of Montana 508 behind the Yaak River Mercantile. It runs west from the Pipe Creek Bridge.

County Treasurer Nancy Trotter Higgins said the county has owed taxes on the parcel dating back to 2004. The tax is levied by the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and goes toward state fire prevention, she said.

Commissioner Greg Larson said the county should seek a way to offer the land piece by piece to adjacent property owners.

He made the motion to pay the back taxes “to protect it” from someone else paying the taxes.

Larson said the commissioners should have a meeting in the Yaak about the property in the future.

Trotter Higgins, who has been county treasurer for 10 years, said the county should have been paying the taxes on the parcel “all along.”

She and the commissioners discussed other parcels with back taxes due, including one from Stinger Welding at the Kootenai Business Park in Libby. Those thousands of dollars in taxes can’t be paid by a third party, however, because Stinger Welding’s bankruptcy case is ongoing, she said.