Marshall County Attorney Jim Clevenger discussed the proposed property purchase at 716 North Plum Street with the County Commissioners during their meeting last week.
Since late last fall the Commissioners have discussed purchasing the property for the Building and Grounds Department to use as storage for equipment and maintenance of equipment.
An agreement to purchase was approved earlier this year although the county had concerns of contamination and zoning restrictions. While the county eventually signed an agreement to purchase they have been waiting for months for the paperwork from the sellers to be completed. One of the sellers is out of the country and the power-of-attorney signed in Honduras was not accepted by the title company.
Commissioner Kevin Overmyer said, “We started this thing back a few months ago and we kind of got ourselves boxed into where we really couldn’t get out of it. Under the circumstances, how much longer do we have to wait?”
Clevenger said if the county want’s to purchase an insured piece of property, he wasn’t sure they knew how to get it accomplished. The three property owners are brothers with one out of the country.
Commissioner Overmyer asked the County Attorney to send them a letter and let them know that if they can’t get the deal completed within a short time, since they wouldn’t let the county out of the deal when they wanted to drop out, then the county will take the offer off the table. He said, “We can’t sit here and wait. It’s already into July. The maintenance department wanted to get in there and get a roof put on it and get it cleaned up so they could start using it this winter. Northing has happened since March.”
The commissioners agreed to give the property owners until the first of August to get the required paperwork competed and approved or they will take their offer off the table.
