Details About IDA Land Purchase For Sewer Expansion
By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor
As covered in the April 24th issue of the Sentinel, the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) held a special called meeting on April 19th to vote on the purchase of property. This purchase of a narrow, roughly 500 foot long strip of land for $60,000 led to questions from the public about the hefty price tag.
The land in question is just south of the future industrial park (former Price farm), with an approximate location in front of Trantham Services Truck Shop.
Evan Stone (IDA executive director) told the Sentinel,“It’s a narrow strip of land that has what was a private extension of the Trenton sewer system.”
Stone said the IDA was first told about the possibility of purchasing the land by Ted Rumley (county executive). Stone said, “Chairman Rumley came to us earlier this year and said, ‘Hey, you may have an opportunity to buy this.’ Even before we had bought the land, we had already made plans, we had already sat down with the city’s engineering firm to see what it would take to get the sewer to that new portion of the Trenton/Dade Business Park.”
When asked why the purchase was so expensive, James Cantrell (IDA chairman) said, “That’s about half the price of what a sewer system would have cost for that distance that we purchased. It’s just a small strip of land. We only purchased it so we can get to the sewer, work on it, add onto it.”
Stone added, “We have just recently put in 400 feet of sewer line to Trenton Pressing. That was $117,000, and we already had the land.” (This has been covered previously in the Sentinel, such as in the January 17th issue.)
When contacted by the Sentinel, the private land owner did not wish to make a public comment.
When asked if the land was appraised at $60,000 or above, Stone said, “The main price was to get the sewer line.”
The Sentinel asked what the result of the meeting with the city engineers was. Stone said, “We just had a preliminary meeting…It can be connected to the city sewer, that’s not an issue.”
Stone noted again the limitations in expansion that the IDA faces. “The Industrial Development Authority has very little room to grow because we have to look at the opportunities of having the infrastructure in place. If we can’t connect to the infrastructure at a reasonable price [for example], we couldn’t go to Sand Mountain and do anything. We couldn’t go to Rising Fawn and do anything. We couldn’t go to New Salem and do anything. It’s only a small area that has the sewer capabilities.”
