205 Main still in county’s hands after bidding process
The county’s situation regarding 205 Main isn’t going away.
Yet.
On Aug. 8, bids were unsealed for the purchase of the property, with the highest bid coming in at $325,000 — ultimately the county would receive $352,000 for the property.
But after paying $600,000, some commissioners questioned selling the property at that big of a loss.
After the bids were opened the Anderson County Purchasing Committee forwarded the decision to accept that bid to the full County Commission without a recommendation.
Monday night Anderson County Commission deferred any decision for at least one month.
Or at least,until a number of questions are asnwered
“I was researching without much success on the specific vote on how the county spent $600,000 (on that building),” Commissioner Joshua Anderson said.
“And I understand there was a memorandum saying there was $15,000 in furniture in the building.
“Where is that furniture now?”
Also on the mind of many of the commissioners was an e-mail received just prior to Monday night’s meeting that was rather vague in its intent.
“Basically, the e-mail said that if we (the county) didn’t accept the bid they wouldn’t be upset,” Anderson County Commission Chairman Tracy Wandell said via phone Tuesday. The high bidder was, apparently, having second thoughts. Bear Stephenson, who oversaw the auctioning of the property, told the county they would probably be wise to defer accepting the top bid.
He told Commission the second highest bid was only $1,000 lower than the highest.
“We got what we could,” Stephenson told the body.
Stephenson did the marketing and conducted the auctioning process without charging the county.
I just wanted to help the county out of a bad situation you’ve been in … For a while,” he said.
Stephenson said he would continue to work for the county to find a buyer for the property if the county did decide to reject the highest bid.