It took more than an hour of discussion, but the Murray County Commissioners accepted a high bid of $338,000 for the old highway department property located on Highway 30 on Tuesday, July 21 after the online auction listing closed the evening before. The winning bidder was not disclosed during the meeting.
The online auction was set up in a way that the commissioners had the right to accept or reject the highest bid after the auction closed.
According to Board Chair Mark Carlson, the bid amount he referred to as “middle of the road” made the decision more difficult. A low bid would have been easy to reject, he said, and a high number easy to accept.
Commissioner Roger Zins called the high bid amount “quite a shortfall.”
“We over-estimated the amount badly,” Zins stated, adding that $800,000 had already been spent for the second phase of building at the new highway department site. “I don’t like the number, but I’m not opposed getting this back on the tax rolls.”
A large part of the discussion centered around where the items currently being stored at the old highway building would go. The Murray County Sheriff’s Office has been using the facility to securely store items and evidence. While some of the things can be stored in coldstorage, other pieces need to be in a temperature-controlled environment.
The cost of converting a space at the recycling center for the sheriff’s office use was discussed, with the board finally settling on that possibility as the most economical at this point.
Also discussed was the possibility of rejecting the bid and holding on to the property as a future transfer station, which might be needed several years down the road. They talked about rejecting the bid and separating parcels or even trying to sell the recycling building instead, but in the end, a motion by Zins to accept the bid and add a possession date of September 15 was approved unanimously.
According to information from the Murray County Assessor’s Office, the old highway department property will bring in an estimated $18,600 in property taxes once it is back on the tax rolls. The current evaluation of the property is $629,500.
The funds raised in the auction must remain with the highway department.
In other business, the commissioners approved a resolution awarding the sale of $2,940,000 in General Obligation bonds to fund improvements on CD 22 and 41. During the discussion regarding the bonds, commissioners learned Murray County is in a strong financial position and has relatively low debt on the books compared to peer counties.
Commissioners approved a recommendation from the personnel committee for the hiring of Christina Harris as the Human Resource Manager contingent on a satisfactory background check and drug test, at an hourly wage of $41.91.
An agreement to share a county engineer with Pipestone County until the Murray County position can be filled was approved.
A donation of 10,000 yards each of clay and black dirt for the county landfill was approved, contingent on Double D Gravel winning a project they are bidding.
Approval was given for the purchase and outfitting of a new plow truck and a motor grader for the Murray County Highway Department. Both were budgeted for 2027, but lead-time and projected costs for next year suggested the cost saving of ordering now would be prudent. Approval was given to the Sheriff’s Office to purchase new dash cameras.
Commissioners also amended a resolution made during their last meeting regarding per diem for citizen boards, removing the SAWS Commission from the original resolution as that group has its own reimbursement process.
