Some property owned by Cole County deemed no longer necessary will be sold publicly, but not Renns Lake.
In February, county commissioners agreed with an idea by Western District Commissioner Kris Scheperle to sell the properties so the county won't have to continue maintaining them.
On Thursday, the commission voted to move ahead with the sale process.
The sales will be done by sealed bid and the commission will have the right to refuse the bids.
The properties for sale include a lot adjacent to the roundabout at Big Horn Drive. There are also two Osage City lots, not adjacent to each other, on the sale block. These were lots the county obtained through past court actions.
For now, Renns Lake is not on the sale block.
Long a point of contention, in October 2009, heavy rain compromised a 30-foot stretch of the dam at the lake. 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, and Thursday, Hoelscher told commissioners he has had residents contact him with interest in buying the property.
In other business from Thursday's meeting, the commission voted to reject all bids related to replacing county election equipment.
Earlier this year, County Clerk Steve Korsmeyer told commissioners the company that makes the voting machines had told his office the machines would need to be replaced because they couldn't maintain them. That led to the county to start looking at what it would cost to replace them, which would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Korsmeyer reported that just recently the company had recontacted his office saying they could do replacement and repair work that probably would keep the machines working for another couple of years.
Also at Thursday's commission meeting, commissioners approved an agreement with Centurylink for video visitation at the county jail.
Jail Administrator Victor Pittman told commissioners the system allows for communication from greater distances, and an advantage to it would be to allow lawyers to visit with prisoners more quickly and possibly speeding up the court process, freeing up jail space and personnel.