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Sunday
March 21, 2010 Since 1922 |
BHISD gets sweet land deal
By Jane Howard Lee
Contributor Published November 18, 2009 Barbers Hill ISD is making a sweetheart of a land deal, thanks to someone’s failure to pay property taxes.
BHISD school board trustees voted Monday to approve purchase of 13 acres on Farm-to-Market Road 565 East for just $12,957.
The previous owner of the property failed to pay the county and school taxes on it from the late 1980s until 2006, when it was seized for that omission and became subject for a tax sale.
The school district has been holding the property in trust ever since.
The land went up for auction in a tax sale in February 2007, but no one bid on it, probably because not only is the land undeveloped, but it is quite low, according to John Koonce, BHISD’s Assistant Superintendent of Finance, who explained the proposed purchase of the land to the trustees before they voted on the issue.
Other potential buyers probably looked at the property and were put off by the low elevation but school district officials found the property’s location outweighed other considerations, Koonce said.
“It is adjacent to other school land, so it is valuable to us,” he said, noting that the price worked out to less than $1,000 per acre — far less than the going rate for property in the area.
That adjacent property is a 200 acre tract that also fronts FM 565 East.
Monday’s approval vote opted to pay off the county’s portion of taxes owed on the land, plus court costs, and take full ownership. “It may be many years before it is utilized but this land is going to be very valuable to us,” commented BHISD Superintendent Dr. Greg Poole.
Contributor Published November 18, 2009 Barbers Hill ISD is making a sweetheart of a land deal, thanks to someone’s failure to pay property taxes.
BHISD school board trustees voted Monday to approve purchase of 13 acres on Farm-to-Market Road 565 East for just $12,957.
The previous owner of the property failed to pay the county and school taxes on it from the late 1980s until 2006, when it was seized for that omission and became subject for a tax sale.
The school district has been holding the property in trust ever since.
The land went up for auction in a tax sale in February 2007, but no one bid on it, probably because not only is the land undeveloped, but it is quite low, according to John Koonce, BHISD’s Assistant Superintendent of Finance, who explained the proposed purchase of the land to the trustees before they voted on the issue.
Other potential buyers probably looked at the property and were put off by the low elevation but school district officials found the property’s location outweighed other considerations, Koonce said.
“It is adjacent to other school land, so it is valuable to us,” he said, noting that the price worked out to less than $1,000 per acre — far less than the going rate for property in the area.
That adjacent property is a 200 acre tract that also fronts FM 565 East.
Monday’s approval vote opted to pay off the county’s portion of taxes owed on the land, plus court costs, and take full ownership. “It may be many years before it is utilized but this land is going to be very valuable to us,” commented BHISD Superintendent Dr. Greg Poole.