County approves real estate swaps
The Young County Appraisal District has a new chief appraiser in Jesse Blackmon and, soon may move to a new headquarters with a larger parking lot and more space than the current building. Young CAD Board Secretary Mike Sipes and Mr. Blackmon informed County Commissioners on Feb. 27 of a plan to sell the agency’s current building at 724 Oak St. in Graham to Oak Street Baptist Church for its Open Door Christian School campus. Young CAD then would buy 505 Fifth Street from Sonic Oil & Gas, and lease back part of the building to Sonic to defray the costs, Mr. Sipes said. The Young CAD must gain approval for the transaction from the 14 members of the taxing district, including the Olney Independent School District Board of Trustees. The OISD board unanimously voted to approve the transaction at its meeting later that day. Sonic plans to sell the building to the county for $650,000 and rent back about a third of the total square footage for $40,000 per year prepaid for the next five years, Mr. Sipes said. The oil company has another fiveyear option for $48,000 per year. “Eventually, they will be paying us more than we are actually paying them,” he said.
The County planned to sell its Oak Street building to Open Door School for $270,000. “We will take $200,000 of the sale price and put it toward the Sonic building, leaving a mortgage of $250,000,” Mr. Sipes said.
Mr. Blackmon told the commissioners that the transaction would solve access problems for county residents, especially during tax season. “There are certain times of the year – especially when we are going through the heavy tax collection time, the appeals or protest season – that parking lot gets full and the lobby can be a hot mess … so that has always been one of the [concerns] especially as things have been growing around us,” he said.
County Commissioners also ratified the new lease agreement with the City of Graham on the Young County Arena and named three members to the seven-member Arena board of directors. The board members will serve threeyear terms that will be staggered, County Judge Win Graham said. The board named Precinct 4 Commissioner Jimmy Wiley and Precinct 3 Commissioner Stacey Rogers, as well as Shannon Plowman Potts, who served as treasurer of the Young County Museum of History and Culture.
The City of Graham plans to spend around $40,000 to fix a problem with the arena’s HVAC system and will present the County with an estimate of the facility’s deficit and planned capital improvements before the lease term begins, Judge Graham said. “We will start with a clean slate,” he said.