No Deal: Cumberland County supervisors reject land swap deal

Bryan Hamlett didn’t feel comfortable agreeing to the proposal. As the Cumberland County supervisor pointed out, they would be approving something without actually seeing proof of what it would cost. So in a series of votes during their Tuesday, July 9 meeting, Hamlett and fellow supervisor Robert Saunders Jr. voted no, shooting down the idea.

Back in April, Cumberland County Administrator Derek Stamey had asked for and been given the authority to negotiate a letter of intent for a land swap. Cumberland’s current registrar’s office doesn’t meet state election requirements. You can’t really ignore that or you face potential fines being handed down. So there are two options. Option One: you rebuild and renovate the current structures. Option Two: You find a newer building in better condition, one that better suits your needs. Stamey had suggested Option Two.

He negotiated a letter of intent for the county to purchase the property located at 1496 Anderson Highway, what some people refer to as ‘the old bank building’. On May 2, he negotiated a letter of intent with Clark Properties for the county to either pay the full asking price of $399,000 or swap some county-owned properties, in exchange for a lower price. Supervisors had to make a decision during their July meeting, because the letter of intent expires on July 31.

The two county-owned properties would be the one at 1548 Anderson Highway, where the Extension office is, valued at $175,000 and the one at 1299 Cartersville Road, the old voting precinct valued at roughly $15,000. In addition to those two properties, the county would also pay Clark $210,000, all in exchange for the ‘old bank building’. The bank building would then become the new registrar’s office.

A problem with numbers

The issue for Hamlett and Saunders, however, was that the numbers just didn’t add up. According to Stamey’s presentation to the board, Cumberland’s current registrar’s office needs roughly $50,000 in renovations to meet state guidelines.

“There’s security upgrades related to locks, doors, we may need to reconfigure some rooms, walls may need to come out,” he said.

He didn’t have a definite number, as the County staff have not met yet with the Department of Elections to put together a plan. They also have not reached out to request bids or get numbers from local contractors.

“That’s just a general estimate based upon me working with the registrar and the electoral board on what the preliminary needs look like,” Stamey said.

And that’s where Hamlett and Saunders had a problem.

“You keep saying we’re gonna save money in the long term, (but) I don’t know what it’s gonna cost us in the short term,” Hamlett said during the meeting. “I’d like to see the actual numbers.”

A need in Cumberland County?

Saunders added that he also wasn’t comfortable voting on something without seeing the final costs. Both men pointed out that even with doing the land swap, the county would be spending $160,000 more than the rough estimate for simply upgrading the space.

Stamey, as well as Supervisor Paul Stimpson III and Supervisors Chairman John Newman, argued that the bank building would be a better deal in the long run, as it should meet the registrar’s office needs for the next 25 to 30 years.

Newman also pointed out that the bigger space of the bank building would help the electoral board hold meetings in their office, rather than elsewhere.

“They should be holding public hearings but don’t have the environment to do that (at the building),” Newman said. “They’ve been having meetings at the library. They don’t have a formal conference room. This building has that. There are some features in the building that would allow for drive up voting, (to) help people literally drive up, not have to get out of their car and vote.”

He’s referring to the back teller window, used during the building’s time as a bank. Newman also argued that trading properties would benefit Cumberland. He pointed out the properties aren’t being used currently and in order to continue to maintain them in the future, it would be quite costly.

Need versus want

The situation, Hamlett argued, came down to a question of needs versus wants. He pointed out that the Cumberland County board members not even two months ago were arguing over what to cut, in order to balance the budget.

“I don’t see why we wouldn’t spend money on fixing properties we currently have rather than acquiring additional properties,” Hamlett said. “There’s necessities in life and there’s niceties. We have the necessities. We don’t need the niceties. Especially when we created a deficit with our current budget. Sixty days ago, we were looking at nickel and dining, cutting, saving anywhere we can and now we’re looking at buying a building we don’t really need.”

Supervisor Eurika Tyree was not at the meeting, so there were just four in attendance. A number of motions were made and each one ended in a tie, with Hamlett and Saunders in opposition, and Newman and Stimpson in support.

First was a vote to allow the land swap. Second was a motion to instead just do an outright purchase of the land. And the third was a motion to defer to the next workshop. With a 2-2 tie each time, the proposal failed.

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