LOWVILLE — Lewis County's fourth annual tax auction Wednesday should easily be its shortest, with only six parcels left on the docket.

And county officials say they're happy with the low number, since that was the intent of the county taking over delinquent tax collection.

The fact that the number of parcels to be auctioned has decreased each year is "very good," since that means more residents are paying their property taxes, said Legislature Chairman Jack T. Bush, R-Brantingham.

"We never went into this to take people's properties," County Treasurer Vicki A. Roy said. "It's to encourage people to pay their taxes."

This year's tax auction, conducted by Haroff Auction & Realty Inc., Schroon Lake, is scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Lowville Elks Lodge, 5600 Shady Ave.

Auction information is available on Haroff's Web site: www.nysauctions.com. Internet bidding also will be available.

Haroff last month printed auction brochures featuring 24 parcels that the county foreclosed on because of unpaid taxes from January 2006. However, all but six were either redeemed before Friday's deadline or, in case of the former Cows R Us on Main Street in Croghan, pulled from the auction because of ongoing bankruptcy proceedings, according to officials in the county treasurer's office.

To redeem their parcels, owners had to pay all delinquent taxes, penalties and fees from both January 2006 and 2007, plus an extra 10 percent of that amount as an auctioneer's fee and 5 percent of the parcel's full value.

County legislators in 2002 chose to abolish the county's tax act in favor of state tax law, which allows the county to foreclose on properties after two years of unpaid taxes and auction them off. Collection of delinquent taxes previously was handled by the county's 17 towns.

The county's inaugural auction in 2005 featured 62 properties.

Last year, 16 properties were auctioned off, while two were later sold privately.

The remaining parcels to be auctioned this year include a cabin on a 7-acre parcel on Texas Road in the town of Croghan; a landlocked 2.1-acre vacant parcel off Sunset Drive in Lowville; a seasonal cottage on 2.3 acres on North Osceola Road in the town of Osceola; a small, two-story attached row commercial building on East Main Street in Turin; a one-story bungalow on Whiskey Lane Road in the town of Turin, and a mobile home on a 4.6-acre parcel on Petrie Drive in the town of Watson.