For lots of folks, foreclosure is a four-letter word harking to the dust-bowl desperation of a certain Steinbeck novel, but in the static eyes of the Man, it’s just business as usual: no tax payment, no property.

Island County government this week commenced proceedings on 2002 property foreclosures, with the commissioners approving a $14,923 bid from Island Title for entitlement action on 42 chunks of land. The two other companies to place bids were First American Title and the Land Title Company. Island Title’s bid was the lowest.

According to Katy Wells of the treasurer’s office, the current process involves properties that have owed back taxes since 1998, since it is the county’s policy to allow a 3-year window for payment before the bureaucratic engine of foreclosure begins.

“This is just the beginning of the foreclosure process,” Wells said on Tuesday. Next Wednesday, April 17, notices of delinquency will be filed with each property’s owner of record, who will be given ample chance to get their properties out of arrears. A public auction on foreclosed land actually doesn’t take place until Nov. 22, Wells said.

At this juncture, Island Title will produce title reports on 15 acreage parcels, 27 platted parcels and one throw-away parcel with an assessed value of less than $1,100. Title reports give the owner’s name, a legal description of the land and a report of any and all liens on a particular property.

“We have to get a cost amount set for the foreclosure proceedings,” Wells said, adding that only when all means have been exhausted on salvaging the property for the original owner will it go up for sale.

“Basically, we’re just trying to make sure that anybody who has an interest in these properties is notified,” Wells said.

County Treasurer Maxine Sauter praised Wells’ work, saying that her office “probably has the lowest amount of foreclosing in the state.”

Sauter predicts that by the time properties go up for sale, “we’ll probably have very few” on the block. She added that she and her staff work “up to the very last minute” before they put a property up for final auction. Sauter would prefer her office forecloses on no land at all.

“I really have a tough time with that one,” she said, “but we’ve got to do it.“