Jasper Board of Public Works approves sale of 5 city properties
Jasper — The City of Jasper is making good on its promise to attempt to sell several city-owned properties to recoup money that was spent to purchase the Jasper Country Club Golf Course Property several months ago.
A public hearing was held Tuesday morning on the possible sale during the Board of Public Works and Safety.
The city appropriated 1,030,610.19 from the rainy-day fund to purchase 59.42 acres of country club property in April.
Jasper Mayor Terry Seitz reported during the purchase of the Golf Course property that the money would come in the form of a loan from the rainy-day funds and would be paid back by the sale of several properties that the city deems no longer necessary to hold.
The properties would also return to the city’s tax rolls.
The properties include the 18 acres known as the Lechner Property in the Precious Blood area; the 13 acres of 30th Street Park; the 30 acres north of the Municipal Golf course known as the Bockelman property; between 10 and 11 acres of property in the northwest corner of St. Charles and Truman Road; and the .08 acres of property at the corner of 15th and Newton Streets.
Only three people spoke at the hearing: Mike Matthews, Paul Lorey and Mike Braun representing Meyer Distributing, along with two others representing Streicher Construction.
None of the three opposed selling the properties.
Matthews lives on Virginia and wants to make sure that the buffer between his property and 30th Street Park would remain intact. Mayor Seitz said that it would be a part of the decision process.
Braun and representatives of Streicher Construction are interested in the 30 acres of the Bockelman property. They view the land as a valuable are for business development in the future.
Braun is in the middle of a five-year plan to expand his footprint in Jasper and spoke about the large contiguous property for development in the city limits, which would fit nicely with getting the property back on the tax rolls. “Both of us (Meyer and Streicher) either individually or together would be interested in that property at appraised value,” Braun explained.
Lorey asked the city to keep a buffer of property between the Municipal Golf Course and the Bockelman property. He also supported getting property back onto the tax rolls.
Board Member Dave Prechtel said he opposes the sale of the Bockelman property at this time until a firm direction is in place by the city on the development of the golf course property. He proposed waiting until those plans are firm before putting the Bockelman property up for sale.
Board Member Tim Bell agreed with those sentiments saying “I don’t have a problem selling it down the road, but I don’t think we’ve put forth a good effort for all of our departments to take a look at that property and its uses.”
Mayor Seitz stated that his original position on the purchase of the Country Club Golf course property was that the City would attempt to recoup as much of the money spent on that purchase by selling the other city properties.
Seitz then made a motion to put the five properties up for sale. Bell voted ‘yea’ with Prechtel voting ‘nay.’ Seitz’s vote for the motion made it 2 to 1 and the motion passed.
“I came before the Park Board in May to say that the only reason we could consider and eventually purchase the Country Club Golf Course is because of those parcels” said Mayor Seitz.
City Treasurer Juanita Boehm said that there is no timeline or immediate rush for paying the money back to the rainy-day fund, but Seitz complimented the City Council for realizing the need to pay it back as soon as possible.
Seitz said that they could use the money from the sale of properties to help develop the County Club Golf Course property.
The decision now goes on to the City Council for their vote on the motion to put the properties up for sale.
