County Commissioners approve sale of abandoned eyesore to local businessman (updated)

Update – On Friday, Sep. 14, the county officially sold the Jasper Wood Products building to Paul Voegerl Sr. The Dubois County Commissioners signed the deed to the Jasper Wood Products building and property over to Voegerl that morning and Voegerl presented county attorney Art Nordhoff Jr. with a check for $30,000 later that day.

Original story – The Dubois County Commissioners approved the sale of the Jasper Wood Products building on Monday.

The abandoned building has belonged to the county since 2010 after they took possession of it over a property tax lien. The property had been offered for sale twice for $30,000 and most recently advertised at auction with no responses.

County Attorney Art Nordhoff Jr. told the commission he needed to know what to do and then explained the four choices available.

• The county could move forward with plans for a grant to demolish the entire structure. The grant process included DLZ Engineering of Indianapolis completing an estimate for the cost of the demolition of the building. The grant would be for up to $500,000 and the county would provide a 10% match in addition to the engineering fees associated with DLZ Engineering. The grant amount would leave only be enough to demolish the older structure and would leave the concrete floor/foundation.

• In association with this grant process, an offer for the building has been made with the stipulation that the county continue with the grant procedure to demolish the older dilapidated south portion of the building. This would leave the newest concrete block portion for a business.

• Another option was to sell to an undisclosed company from the “south”. This company proposed to purchase the building for $30,000 and then demolish it and sell whatever it could salvage for a profit. According to Nordhoff, the City of Jasper suggested the County enter into a lease with this company rather than selling it so they could maintain control of the property. The company stated they would not enter into a lease for the property.

• The final option available was to sell the property to a recent interested party. Voegerl offered to pay $30,000 for the property with plans to expand his current business, Jasper Embroidery, and provide a business incubator. Voegerl is interested in the newer concrete block portion as the location for the expansion and offices.

Todd Fromme of Universal Technologies, a growing business located on Vine Street a block away from the Jasper Wood Products property, offered to purchase the property if the county continued with the grant process. He stated he would pay the approximate price of the engineering fee and the 10% match for the building if the county would continue with the grant process to tear down the southern portion of the structure.

Nordhoff told the Commissioner’s the grant for demolishing the building was only available to the county or another government entity. He asked the commission if they wanted to go back to Fromme but stated the direct sale of the property was what the commissioners originally planned on doing .

Based on that fact and the potential the county would not receive the grant and then have to refile, they decided to approve the sale to Voegerl and cancel the grant procedure. The County may incur fees associated with the work DLZ Engineering has completed thus far, but it is unknown what those fees will be.

Citing that Voegerl was a business member of the community, the Commission approved the sale to Voegerl.

Nordhoff stated the sale could be completed within a week. He also explained the county would have no authority to stipulate what Voegerl does with the property, but the Jasper Code Enforcement would have jurisdiction to issue code violations to bring the property into compliance.

Voegerl stated he could be started on the cleanup of the property as early as this fall.