Offer made on Ball and Dodd property

MEDICAL LAKE – At its first meeting of 2021, the City Council tabled a discussion on an offer to purchase the former Ball and Dodd Funeral Home location at the southwest corner of the West Brooks Road, North Lefevre Street and State Route 902 intersection until more information to evaluate the offer is known.

Chief among that information is the current appraised value of the property by the county and projected sales tax revenue the offer could bring to city coffers.

City Administrator Doug Ross told the council at the Jan. 5 meeting that a representative from national retailer Dollar General Stores had approached the city with an offer to purchase the 43,475-square-foot property at 111 W. Brooks Road for $200,000. The property, which according to information from Spokane County's SCOUT parcel system, was purchased by the city in June 2002 for $175,000.

Ross said most of the site is zoned C-1 (Commercial), although a portion is also zoned R-1 (Residential) and would need to be rezoned in order to meet the purchasers needs. A rezone would need to go before the county Hearing Examiner as well as the city's Planning Commission as part of the annual Comprehensive Plan amendment process that takes place between Aug. 1 and Sept. 15. - with no guarantees either entity would approve a change.

Ross said he was told by Dollar General their intent was to put a store on the property, although nothing would hold the retailer to that even if they purchased the property. The city has declared the property as surplus, and has set a purchase price multiple times in the past as offers have been considered, only to fall through. In this case, the offer from Dollar General may be more tangible.

"I'm getting pushed for it but I'm very comfortable saying this is a big thing and when they (council) make a decision they will make a decision," Ross said.

One of the questions regarding the offer came from Councilman Don Kennedy, who asked what the property's appraised value from the county was. State law requires an entity like a city sell public property at a minimum of its fair market value. Anything less could be seen as an unlawful gifting of public funds.

"We don't know what the market value is," Kennedy said. "We know what the offer is. Sometimes the market is the offer."

"Sometimes it's not as much as the offer," Ross added.

According to SCOUT, the county Assessor's Office has put a value of $130,430 on the land, which no longer has buildings on it. However, the Assessor is required to make an exterior observation of properties at least once every six years, and the next inspection of the Ball and Dodd site is scheduled between October 2020 and May 2021.

Councilman Tony Harbolt asked what the projected sales tax revenue from the property might be, something Ross said he didn't know but would add to his list of additional information to get. In responding to a question on what the money might be used for if the sale were to take place, Ross said money to purchase the property originally came as a loan from the water/sewer fund to the general fund, and that the loan had been repaid. Money from the sale would therefore go into the general fund.

"My guess is we would carry it over in our beginning and ending cash balance until we had a need to spend the money, buying a big piece of equipment, redoing the network, something like that," Ross said, adding the city typically tries to keep a balance of $400,000 – $500,000 in that year-end balance, which money from the sale of the Ball and Dodd property would augment.

Mayor Shirley Maike said the property was first put up for sale around 2007, and has been looked at several time since then. She asked the council to think about a number of aspects when it comes to selling the property.

"What circumstances have changed in those 14 years that may or may not hold true that we still want to sell the property?" Maike asked.

Council voted to table further discussion until more information was presented. In an email Jan. 10, Ross said the city is in the process of hiring a real estate appraiser to look at the property, and that county assessments are "in some instances much lower than actual fair market value."

Also at the meeting, Ross said he wouldn't be approving any special event permits in 2021 until at least June 1. He said he hoped that would help groups plan for events without moving forward on incurring costs, only to have city space for those events become unavailable because of changing conditions surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.

"My gut tells me, as we get going, maybe it becomes May 1," Ross said. "Maybe the governor says we're moving to X this phase and we're moving to May 1. It could be Aug. 1."

"We're not canceling anything," Ross added. "We don't have the authority to cancel events. I'm just not going to sign off on anybody using city property for special events prior to June 1."

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.