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County finalizes deal to purchase Western Builders

By Lisa Majors-Duff

A concern first brought to the attention of county officials some 19 months ago was resolved last week to the tune of $500,000.

By a vote of 4-1, Jackson County commissioners agreed to purchase Western Builders property and use the facility to alleviate overcrowding at the Community Service Center in Sylva.

Commissioner Roberta Crawford cast the single "no" voted to Commissioner Stacy Buchanan's motion to allow county Manager Jay Denton and county attorney Raymond Large to close the deal, which calls for half the money to be paid up front with the remainder due when the property is vacated. "We're glad that it's been put to bed," Western Builders co-owner Roger Bartlett said Monday. "We're not ecstatic and we're not sad. We're satisfied."

The deal agreed to Dec. 16 was tentatively worked out in September after nearly 60 Western Builders employees and company owners appeared before the county board to publicly question the elected officials and the time being taken to reach an agreement.

"There have been meetings and negotiations that have been kept behind closed doors, but Roger and I feel that it is time that you, our employees and the taxpayers of Jackson County know where we stand," Western Builders' co-owner Don Hensley said in September. "This is not a typical real estate transaction. We are being forced to relocate due to the migration of contaminants from the landfill, which is beyond our control."

Bartlett first approached the previous county board of commissioners about the contamination of his property caused by the adjacent county landfill in May 1998. He became aware of the problem, he said, when a local lending institution denied his request to use his business and property as collateral for a loan "due to the possible impact of future contamination."

Western Builders' employees were told of the finalized deal during a company Christmas party Friday, Bartlett said. Their next step, he said, would be to relocate the nearly 30-year-old building construction business into a planned 18,000-square-foot facility.

"We hope to stay in the town of Dillsboro," Bartlett said. "We like the location; it's right in the middle of all the places we work." Though their agreement with the county gives them until December 2001 to vacate the property, Bartlett said he hopes to be relocated by March 2001.

County plans for the Western Builders property call for both the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service and the Soil Conservation Center to relocate to Dillsboro and free up space in the Community Service Center. In its recent application to the Local Government Commission for capital project funds, county officials dedicated $1 million to alleviating overcrowding at the Community Service Center. The $500,000 total purchase price of Western Builders, plus about $250,000 needed for remodeling at both locations, means the county should save money on the deal, county finance officer Darlene Fox said.

Back to Archive: 12-23-99.