This week's headlines
On April 11, the town trustees approved a contract offer on the building.
The $85,000 offer was part of a buyer's 1031 exchange deal and below the town's $89,000 asking price.
But then, in the process of title work for closing, it was discovered that the south 17 feet of the lot on Highway 65 years ago had been deeded to a person no one ever heard of, and who no one could find. That development, announced to the board during a May 2 work session, pointed to an involved court proceeding to clear the title for sale.
But before that could be accomplished, the town's buyer decided to opt out of the deal based on deficiencies in the inspection report, Mayor Don Suppes told the trustees at their regular May monthly meeting. Any number of items in the inspection report could have provided a basis for cancelling the deal, Suppes said.
The presence of asbestos in the roofing material, common in buildings with roofs that are decades old, was the reason given, he added.
The sale is off, but the town is still involved in the process of trying to clear up the title issue. Trustees hope that an eventual sale can net the town $80,000 to use for construction of a new storage building at Town Hall.
In a separate real estate transaction approved by the trustees recently, an agreement with Ken and Susan Sodowski was finalized for purchase of 3.36 acres that the town's Eckert water tanks already occupy. The town gave two shares of its Surface Creek Ditch and Reservoir Company stock valued at $22,500 each in the deal.
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