The Switzerland County Council will hold a special meeting tomorrow (Friday) to take official action on purchasing the land for the Markland Business Park.
The session will be held in the meeting room in the basement of the Switzerland County Courthouse, and will begin at 4:30 p.m. The meeting is open to the public, and those wanting to attend should use the Pike Street entrance to the courthouse.
The county’s Economic Development Corporation took out an option to purchase 117 acres just east of the Markland Dam bridge from Roy Lee Patterson at a cost of $20,000 per acre, making the total selling price $2.34 million. The Economic Development Corporation put down earnest money in the amount of $47,000, and then began the process of working with the county council on finalizing the sale.
The Switzerland County Redevelopment Commission held a public meeting on the plan on Wednesday, August 16th; and at that time it was noted that the agreement to purchase had to be finalized by September 30th.
The Switzerland County Redevelopment Commission met on Thursday, September 21st and officially approved sending the sale to the county council for funding; but no meeting was held before the end of September.
After that date passed without a decision, County Council president Mike Jones said that the deal was still open, and that he felt that the decision needed to be in a special meeting, rather than as a part of the council’s regular meeting, which was held on October 14th.
He also noted that it was important that all seven members of the county council be in attendance for the discussion and the vote – and that made things difficult in trying to find a time when everyone was available.