County weighs selling some property tracts

Four suggested lots include Renns Lake

Some property owned by Cole County deemed no longer necessary will be sold publicly and more could be coming, including possibly Renns Lake.

At Tuesday's meeting, county commissioners agreed with an idea by Western District Commissioner Kris Scheperle to sell a lot adjacent to the roundabout at Big Horn Drive to the highest bidder.

The commission also could put two Osage City lots, not adjacent to each other, on the sale block. These were lots the county obtained through past court actions.

Scheperle said he wants to get rid of the properties so the county won't have to continue maintaining them.

Renns Lake has long been a point of contention. In October 2009, heavy rain compromised a 30-foot stretch of the dam. To prevent a dam collapse, emergency crews and landowners spent several days pumping water out of the lake to ease pressure on the dam.

Lake owner Patricia Renn didn't have the money to repair the dam, so her family deeded the property to the county. The county removed part of the dam to prevent the lake from building back up, which they feared could cause the dam to fail completely.

Residents tried unsuccessfully to form an association to take over the land from the county. Some landowners sued Renn in 2010 and that lawsuit is still pending.

Eastern District Commissioner Jeff Hoelscher pointed out no one on the current commission voted for the measure to take the lake in 2009. He said he thought selling the property was a good idea, but he would like to give property owners around the lake the first chance to buy it.

In other commission business, commissioners are looking at possible capital improvement projects at county facilities, which could be funded with the $846,000 coming in 2015 from sales tax money.

The commission also has $583,000 in a receivership fund that could be used. Former Cole County Circuit Judge Tom Brown transferred the fund to the commission about eight years ago. It consists of money from untraceable owners' utility refunds in PSC rate challenge cases.

The money can be used for one-time purchases that could benefit the community. The costs for just a few of these capital projects would easily wipe that out.

Maintenance Director Greg Camp put together lists of what needs to be done at each county building. The greatest cost is to replace 99 windows at the courthouse, due to some not being put in correctly and leaking. Camp estimated it could cost as high as $714,000.

Replacing windows at the annex would cost $245,000.

Commissioners said they would like to get bids, possibly seeing if they could find a company that could do both jobs, maybe for a lower price than doing the jobs separately.

Although these are deemed as high priority needs, Camp has told the commission the top priority at all facilities is an HVAC system at the Prenger Family Center for an estimated $190,000. The current system is severely antiquated.

The commission already has sought bids for the replacement of voting machines, estimated to cost $220,000. Whether the commission will replace all the machines this year or do half this year and half next year is yet to be determined.