Massachusetts: Ayer farmer Ralph McNiff pays $29G in taxes to keep his property - and keep his poor animals living (and dying) in squalor

This article is being added to the blog because in 2016, Ralph McNiff had animals seized and a shutdown ordered at his dump - what he has insisted is a "farm" for all these years, but was really a junkyard full of dead and dying animals

MASSACHUSETTS --  Livestock farmer Ralph McNiff has paid $29,300 in back taxes on his Westford Road property dating back to August 2008.

Town Treasurer Stephanie Gintner said the payment was deposited into town bank accounts on June 30, the deadline to pay or else face eviction, according to a deal McNiff stuck with selectmen on May 4.

Photos, captions from 2016. Ayer still dealing with McNiff

Gintner said, in return, the town will return to Land Court to seek reversal of a February judgment conveying title to the town after McNiff failed to pay the taxes.

Interim Town Administrator Jeff Ritter said McNiff's attorney, Sherrill Gould of Littleton, was handling the filing with the town's assent so as to prevent any additional legal expense for the town.

  

 

Selectmen had threatened to evict McNiff, his cattle and pigs from the five-acre Westford Road property if he failed to meet the June 30 payment deadline.

Ritter said a recent Department of Agriculture inspection of the animals last week went positively for McNiff.

Messages left with McNiff and Gould on Tuesday were not immediately returned.

At their meeting last Tuesday, selectmen expressed relief that the showdown was over regarding the back taxes. Board members were also hopeful that McNiff would honor the spirit of their closed-door discussions to work to beautify his farm.

"The two legs of that commitment was to pay taxes and to get his farm up to optimum standards," Selectman Jim Fay said.

Fay said he'd hoped that McNiff, 68, would avail himself of an opportunity presented by a volunteer agricultural group to lend a hand to help reorganize the farming operation.

READER COMMENTS
Good God! BEAUTIFY the "farm"? That place is just a JUNKYARD with animals running around it! The town should have taken the dump when they had the chance! The battle over this schitt-pit has been going on for YEARS and the property owner has shown NO good faith in any attempts to clean up this filthy eyesore. What makes anyone think that this will change things? Sure, they guy has a right to make a living, BUT the junkyard style farm could use more than a little cosmetics. Bulldoze it and start over.

Get a whiff of the place when you drive by - it's foul. We locals call it the Deliverance House. The word in town is he's been here forever and has influential friends.

I feel for sorry for the adjacent property owners

sorry but his millionare brother stanley left ralph the bulk of his estate and ralphs just jerking ayers chain pretending he has no $$$$...frickin child molestor how come he isnt on the sex offenders registry?

(Lowell Sun - July 11, 2010)

Earlier:

• Massachusetts: Officials disagree over status of McNiff's 'farm'