APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – The Outagamie County Board is scheduled to decide Wednesday night if they will use eminent domain to acquire land for the purpose of building a new sheriff’s department.
On Wednesday morning, Appleton Mayor Tim Hanna spoke out against the measure, largely because of the optics in how businesses and the community feel about government.
“I’m just worried about the message we’re sending,” says Hanna. “We all like to talk about economic development and being business-friendly and promoting business growth and expansion. But when it comes right down to it, what do we do about it when given the opportunity.”
Wednesday’s special meeting of the county board will be for members to vote on a recommendation to take the property for fair value, under state law.
The property is located in Appleton’s Northeast Business Park, which is close to Interstate 41 and Highway 441.
Hanna says that the seller of the property had negotiated with other buyers and accepted an offer from a local business looking to expand and bring more jobs to the area.
“Now the other party, which happens to be the county, says we’re upset with the process, we really want that piece of property,” Hanna told the media. “So we’re going to use our power to ace you out of a legal contract.”
According to the Outagamie County Board Resolution No. 28-2016-17:
“The Goodland Drive site was listed for sale with a list price of $1,999,999.00. The county tendered an offer at the appraised price of $1,930,000.00. The county’s offer is believed to be the first offer tendered. A subsequent offer was tendered by another interested party for an amount understood to be in excess of $300,000.00 less than the county’s offer. Despite the other offer having been tendered later and for a price significantly less than the county’s, the seller opted to submit a counter-offer to the other party at list price. Further, despite Bechard Group, Inc.’s advice to the seller to submit a multiple counter-offer, which would have allowed the county to compete for the property, a single counter-offer was submitted by the seller and accepted by the other interested party.”
Hanna argues that if he were the county, he would’ve handled this situation differently.
“If we’re looking at a building, and all of a sudden a neighboring business comes and says we want to expand, I’d say ‘Hey, Hallelujah,’ thank you very much, how can we help you,” says Hanna. “We’ll go explore other options, it’s not like the county doesn’t have other options.”
The meeting takes place at 6:30 p.m. at the county’s administrative building on Walnut Street in Appleton.
