ALBANY COUNTY — On Wednesday, an election flyer caused a stir, landing in mailboxes across the 31st District for the county legislature where Republican incumbent Travis Stevens is being challenged by Democrat Nicholas Viscio.

The 6-by-11-inch glossy card has a colored picture of two rusted gas pumps with these words: “You’ve already paid $45,012.57 of Travis Stevens’ back taxes for this property. Now you own it and he’s setting you up to pay over $100,000 to clean it up.”

The reference is to a parcel of property that had been owned by Stevens’s great aunt, Margaret, and, before that, by her father, Daniel. The gas station and general store — located at 2170 Berne-Altamont Road near the center of the Knox hamlet — has not been staffed since Margaret Stevens went into a nursing home in 2003; she died at the age of 83 in 2010.

“I personally had no liability in the property,” Travis Stevens told The Enterprise last night.

He went on, “This is my Aunt Si — everyone knew her as Si, not Margaret — she was a pillar in our community. Nick Viscio owes my family an apology. It’s shameful he would blatantly lie to win an election.”

He concluded, “This is the part I hate about politics...My aunt has passed away and it hurts me to discuss her this way.”

According to an Albany County Real Estate Tax Statement dated Oct. 9, 2015, the total due for back taxes on the property is $45.012.57. The statement lists the current owner as Margaret Stevens, care of Ronald Stevens of Schoharie.

Ronald Stevens could not be reached for comment. He is Margaret Stevens’s nephew and Travis Stevens’s uncle, said Travis Stevens.

Mary Rozak, spokeswoman for the Albany County Executive’s Office, speculated it was “an estate matter,” since Margaret Stevens is dead. “There is no Travis Stevens listed,” she said.

The owners of record on the county’s foreclosure notice list only Margaret Stevens and Daniel Stevens, both deceased.

The assessment roll also lists Margaret Stevens as the owner, assessing the parcel at $137,097 with $9,000 of that being for the land.

The county had put the property, which includes a two-story frame building from the mid-1800s, up for bid.

“Since it’s the site of a former gas station, the county would not take title,” said Rozak. “Once you actually take title, you’d be responsible for it.”

In 2014, the Albany County Legislature approved the sole bid on the property — at $5,000 from Michael Morey.

Morey, then 52, planned to re-open the property as a general store and, eventually a gas station, similar to how Stevens ran the business. A Knox native, Morey graduated from Berne-Knox-Westerlo in 1979.

Morey failed to close on the property within the 60 days required, and so the county legislature is expected shortly to consider a resolution to extend the time frame; the matter was on the agenda for the Audit and Finance Committee on Wednesday night.

Once the county closes on a parcel, the property has a clear title. Once Morey, or anyone else, acquires the property, it becomes his responsibility if there turns out to be any cleanup, such as for gas leaks.

Viscio told The Enterprise Wednesday night he did not send the flyer and does not know who did. “I received it just like everyone else,” he said.

Told that Viscio said he know about the origin of the flyer, Stevens responded, “I’m running for re-election. There is someone running against me. I would have to believe there’s a connection.”

Nowhere does the flyer name the sender, as required by law. The return address is listed as 10 Dock Street in Coeymans, which, according to the New York State Board of Elections, is the address of the Foot Hills Democrats.

The allegations on the flyer are very close to the comments Viscio made to The Enterprise in an election profile published on Oct. 22. Viscio said then of the abandoned gas station, “As Travis promotes the need for change, it rots in the center of town, left to his family...It was on the auction block, for back taxes. Somebody bid $5,000 but never paid for it, afraid it would be a brownfield. There’s a potential for us to pay several hundred thousand dollars...Does he pull out the weeds? No.”

The back side of the election flyer says “Travis Stevens says he votes ‘no’ on taxes? He really means, ‘No, I won’t pay my taxes.’

“The once-quaint centerpiece of Knox has been abandoned by Travis Stevens and is now the prominent eyesore of our community,” the flyer says. “After forcing us to pay his $45,000 back taxes bill, county paperwork shows the sole bidder on the property is backing out as it will cost over $100,000 to clean up his environmental Brown Field.

“Will Stevens pay for this? No, you will. On Election Day, tell Travis Stevens: Stay home! Clean up your own mess!”

Viscio said on Wednesday night that, after the profile ran in The Enterprise, he received many calls from people about his comments on the abandoned gas station.

“A lot of people are not happy,” Viscio said. “I’ve sat on the town board for years and had people wag their fingers and say, ‘When are you going to clean up the mess in town?’”

He went on, “No one talks about the eyesore. It’s like the emperor’s clothes,” he said, alluding to the Hans Christian Andersen tale where a king parades about in his new clothes, which are invisible, but no one dares to tell him he is naked. “Pretend it’s something else. I’m tired of that.”

Told that county records show Travis Stevens has no legal connection to the property, Viscio said, “Why doesn’t Travis step up to the plate and take responsibility, buy this out of the family....Individual responsibility is what this comes down to.”

He went on to talk about the other, now closed, general store in town, recently purchased by Vasilios Lefkaditis, with the goal of making it a running business. Lefkaditis is running against the Knox supervisor, a Democratic incumbent.

“Russ and Amy Pokorny ran a great little country store,” said Viscio of Democrats Amy Pokorny, now a town councilwoman and her husband, Russell, now town assessor. “A Republican on our town board — not that the party matters — took it over and ran it into bankruptcy. And caused us to lose our post office. We sit back and are quiet.”

Asked if he agreed or disagreed with the information in the flyer, Viscio said, “It’s aggressive, but there’s a lot of truth in it.”

Helen Lounsbury, of Berne, one of several people who contacted The Enterprise about the flyer on Wednesday, said how fond she was of the late Margaret Stevens and how much she meant to the community.

“Si was always bringing treats for the kids,” said Lounsbury.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” she said of the flyer. “I’m shocked. I never recall anything of this nature in the Hilltowns — there’s been petty back and forth but nothing like this.”

A lifelong Democrat, Lounsbury said, “I just took down Nick Viscio’s sign.”