County Eyes Purchase of Part of Fairgrounds
The Howard County Roads Department made significant headway in an effort to relocate the county yards last Tuesday, after members of the Howard County Board of Commissioners agreed to move forward with negotiations with the Howard County Agricultural Society concerning the purchase of roughly 4.7 acres of property at the Howard County Fairgrounds for this purpose.
For comparison, the current county yards at 408 Elm Street in St. Paul are about 1.6 acres.
“It’s about 2.5-times the size of what we have now,” noted Howard County Chairman Kathy Hirschman.
During an April 5th meeting of the ag society, members had voted to allow the sale to the county for a purchase price of $50,000. Several ag society board members had also been in attendance for last week’s county board meeting.
According to Hirschman, Howard County Surveyor Tim Aitken was expected to survey the site in the weeks to come; Howard County Attorney Dave Schroeder will begin work on a purchase agreement once the surveyor “gets all the legals found and everything.”
The county chairman also noted that the county would be willing to buy the property directly for $50,000, or to “buy it from the ag society for a dollar and then…make a $50,000 donation to the foundation.
“This is entirely up to you guys,” she told the ag society members in attendance.
The ag society members said they would bring the possibility up at their next meeting; Hirschman said she would like to have the purchase agreement signed by that time.
The Howard County Agricultural Society, said Hirschman, would “of course” be given right of first refusal on the land under any contract the two bodies agreed to.
“I appreciate working with the ag society on this,” Hirschman told those in attendance. “I hope it will be a win-win for everybody.”
Later in the morning, Aitken and Highway Superintendent Janet Thomsen had been present to look over some rough plans that Aitken had drawn up for the site.
Discussed was the prospect of placing a roads department building at the new yards measuring about eighty feet deep and between 120 and 160 feet wide, containing an office and four or five bays, including a wash bay.