Wendy Plummer of Buxton stands in her yard last week beside a floral memorial for her son created by his friends. Robert Lowell / American Journal
A disabled Buxton woman will appear before the Select Board next week about the poor condition of her property on Old Thompson Road.
Longtime resident Wendy Plummer, 60, says she has been relying on neighbors’ help to get by and now fears she and her three dogs will be cast out of their mobile home with no place to go.
“I cry myself to sleep every night,” Plummer said. “It’s killing me. I pray every night I don’t lose this place.”
Her mobile home and garage sit back from the road. The mobile home needs a new roof and new steps. Two cars and a camper, which she does not own, were in the yard last week. Filled trash bags sit on small trailer. The inside of the mobile home is cluttered and disheveled.
The five-member Select Board will consider whether the structure is unsafe, unstable or unsanitary and whether it presents fire or health hazards, according to the meeting notice Plummer received. The board will then decide on any action to take.
“The board will hear testimony. They will make a decision on what needs to happen. They may give her a certain time to repair the structure, or they may order it to be demolished,” Code Enforcement Officer Patti McKenna said in an email to the American Journal.
No Select Board member responded to an email request for comment sent to their office.
Plummer also owes back taxes on the property. The unpaid taxes have piled up since her husband’s death in 2011, she said, but her son, Nathanial Bean, who died in April at age 27, had been making some payments. The town did not respond to an American Journal email seeking the amount of overdue taxes.
Plummer’s mother left the mobile home and garage to her nearly 20 years ago, but Plummer never had the will probated because of financial difficulties, she said.
Repeatedly breaking into tears during an American Journal interview in her home last week, Plummer said she wants to be proud of her property.
Previously an assistant retail store manager, she was diagnosed in 2016 with fibromyalgia, which causes widespread musculoskeletal pain, and has been unable to work in recent years. She said she’s been approved to receive $628 a month in disability payments from Social Security, but she hadn’t received a first payment as of last week. A letter said she would have a payment by Jan. 10.
She does have an EBT card from the state for food.
Good Samaritans have delivered groceries, kept the lights on and paid telephone bills, she said. Someone recently dropped off five gallons of heating oil and a woman with a pickup truck hauled away 20 loads of debris. Another woman has offered to help Plummer with home repairs if the town allows her to stay, she said. A call to a state weatherization program was unsuccessful because she can’t receive that assistance due to the overdue taxes, she said.
The dangerous building hearing will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2, at the town hall, according to the notice Plummer received. She will be given time to appeal any decision, McKenna said.
Plummer’s mother, husband and son all died in the home.
“I will never get over losing Nathaniel,” Plummer said.
Her daughter visits on weekends, she said.
“I don’t have any place to go. I’m scared.”
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