MIDDLEPORT
FMC to offer homeowners cash bonuses
MIDDLEPORT — FMC Corp. announced Friday it will begin paying cash bonuses to homeowners here who sell houses within its environmental study zones, but it will no longer buy houses that fail to sell.
Brian McGinnis, FMC’s remediation project manager, said the company’s new Home Value Assurance Program will take effect Jan. 1, while the old Property Price Protection Program will expire next June
15. Between those two dates, eligible homeowners will be able to choose the program they like better.
FMC has been working for years on cleaning up soil in parts of the village where testing has shown elevated levels of arsenic, blamed on the company’s agricultural chemical plant.
In 2003 and 2007, the company paid to strip all the soil and vegetation from batches of residential properties and replace it with clean fill. It did the same at Royalton-Hartland Central School.
Village residents have griped that the publicity about the problem is hurting the real estate market here.
However, McGinnis said, “If you look at the real estate market in Middleport and surrounding communities like Gasport or Medina, it’s pretty similar.”
Village Clerk-Treasurer Rebecca Schweigert agreed: “People are certainly buying houses, whether they’re in the Price Protection Program or not.”
Under the new policy, “What I think we will see is a slowdown in the number of people deciding to move,” Schweigert said. That’s because FMC will no longer be guaranteeing to buy unsold houses in the contaminated areas.
Under both plans, the homeowner hires two appraisers, who are paid by FMC, and the average of the values they set is the target price.
The plan FMC has been using since 2003 called for the company to make up the difference to the seller if the home was sold at a price below the target and to buy the house if it didn’t sell in six months.
“We’re not buying homes anymore,” McGinnis said.
FMC has had to buy more than 40 houses in Middleport and has been able to resell only about half of them.
Under the new offer, if an eligible home is sold for less than the target price, FMC will make up the difference or pay 10 percent of the target, whichever is less.
McGinnis said there also will be a bonus paid to the seller of 6 percent of the sale price if the home is bought in the first 120 days it’s listed. The bonus is 4 percent if it sells in the second 120 days and 2 percent if it’s sold between 240 and 360 days after listing. If it is still unsold, the seller has to wait 90 days and then can enter the program again.
Eligible homes include those located in the study areas set up by the Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Environmental Conservation whose owners have a soil sample report. Those who have received letters saying their property didn’t need a cleanup, or where there already has been a cleanup, are not eligible.
McGinnis said that leaves about 240 homes of the 360 in the impact zones that would be eligible for the program, which will last through 2011.
Public information sessions will be held at 1:30 and 7 p. m. July 29 and 10 a. m. and 1:30 p. m. July 30 in the FMC outreach office, 15 Main St.
