Macon County will now own the old Gulf gas station next to Town Bridge as part of a property exchange with the N.C. Department of Transportation.
The exchange was approved during the July 12 Board of County Commissioners meeting. No money will be exchanged as part of the trade.
NCDOT will receive approximately 7.86 acres that the county owns on Co Op Road. The property includes two tracts: 7 acres valued at $189,500 and a .86-acre tract, acquired in 1982, valued at $11,250.
DOT plans to use the property to expand its maintenance facility, according to David Uchiyama, NCDOT communications officer. The state already owns adjoining property.
Commissioner Paul Higdon voted against the trade. He said he had been opposed to how the county acquired the co-op property from the beginning, so he could not vote in favor it.
In 1971, the county deeded the 7-acre tract to the Macon County Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association with the stipulation that should the association ever decide to sell or dispose of the property that $15,000 of the sale would go to the association and the balance to the county.
The property was never sold and had a tax lien against it. The 2020 tax notice for the property showed the association owed $5,902.14 in taxes, including $5,111.29 in prior year taxes. Higdon said had the county let the property go through the tax lien process, the property would have gone back to the county. Instead, the County Commissioners voted in April 2021 to purchase the property from the association for $87,500. Higdon and Commissioner Josh Young opposed the purchase at that time.
Higdon said he could not support the purchase based on the wording of the deed and giving $87,500 of taxpayers’ dollars to the association, as opposed to the $15,000 stated in the deed.
In an interview Monday, Higdon said the exchange was probably the best use of the property since DOT already owns adjoining property there. “The county does not need to be in the real estate business,” he added.
East Main St. property
DOT purchased the .37-acre tract located at 651 East Main Street in 2015. The property is valued at $273,290. County Manager Derek Roland said the county has no immediate plans for the property. At the July 12 meeting, Commissioner Ronnie Beale said the building may become a new home for the Friends of the Greenway, as Mainspring Conservation Trust is interested in the building where FROG Quarters is now located. “Hopefully that will work out and it will be a valuable piece of property,” Beale said.
Chairman Jim Tate said the project is something that had been talked about since his first year on the board in 2011, and he is glad to see it come to fruition as his term is coming to an end. Tate did not run for re-election this year.