SHORE THING
Put Your Money on the Mantelpiece

By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave Columnist

July 23, 2012

When I was 10 years old, and wanted something, I wanted it NOW, and I wanted it BADLY.

My mother (who lived through the Great Depression), invariably said: “Put your money on the mantelpiece for two weeks, and then see if you still really want (whatever it was I had to have immediately).

That put me in my own great depression. Two weeks? An eternity for a 10-year-old. Money on the mantelpiece? I didn’t have any money — I wanted my parents to buy it for me!

So, I know of what I speak when I say that Town Council is behaving like a 10-year-old.

The indecent haste with which they voted to buy the Bank of America building is childish at best, and illegal at worst.

— Childish, because when Town Council found out they could buy the building for what seemed like a cheap price ($208,000), they threw caution to the wind, jumped in with both feet, and allowed no public knowledge or comment whatsoever.

Town Council didn’t have any money to put on the mantelpiece, but they sure wanted that impressive building with the stone columns. So they found some money waiting to be spent on hooking up two new wells to the Town water supply, and just took it.

— Illegal, because once again, Town Council is ignoring State code requirements in regard to the Town’s Comprehensive Plan: § 15.2-2232. “No . . . public building . . . shall be authorized . . . until . . . approved by the [planning] commission as being substantially in accord with the adopted comprehensive plan . . . .” Read the full text of the code here: (It’s a mouthful.) http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+15.2-2232

And Town Council also, again, trampled on the citizens’ right to be informed of their proceedings. All of the discussion about buying the bank building was done in secret. As the Cape Charles Wave noted last week, the State has strict laws about closed meetings: “A general reference to . . . the subject matter of the closed meeting shall not be sufficient to satisfy the requirements for holding a closed meeting.”

What’s a “general reference”? How about “Real Estate Acquisition Opportunity”? That’s all we ever knew – meaning we knew nothing.

After the Wave pointed this out July 17, the Town Clerk changed the July 19 agenda item to “Real Estate Acquisition Opportunity – Bank of America building.”

Thank you – but too late. Now the bank’s as good as bought, with never a shred of public comment or consultation with the Planning Commission.

Council’s claimed excuse for doing all this behind closed doors is that they were  “negotiating.” Excuse me, but there was no negotiation whatsoever. The bank’s real estate broker solicited for bids (the Town never made a bid), and realized that the bank could do a lot better by selling to the Town than to a private party.

So the broker offered the property to the Town for the same price as the supposed highest bid — $200,000 plus $8,000 “due diligence” expense.

Why did the broker approach the Town? Because the property to be sold was appraised at $900,000. Sell it privately and you get $200,000. Sell it to the Town, and get a $700,000 tax write-off – something like charitable giving.

Point is, the Town never negotiated anything. The broker handed them a contract, said take it or leave it, and they took it.

Had they been inclined to negotiate, they arguably could have had the building for $10 – the same price they’re getting for the old school, basketball court, and playground parking lot.

But won’t it be great to have a beautiful, expanded public library behind those impressive stone columns? Well – yes – but where will the money come from? The bank building in no way is in “move-in condition” for the library. Proper lighting alone will cost thousands. And operating costs will obviously be far more than the little church building the library is in now.

And finally, as impressive as those Doric columns look, what’s really the best use for that building? Wouldn’t you agree that it’s best suited for . . . a bank?

For all we know, a bank might have bid $200,000 for the building. It would have been great for the NMA Credit Union, especially since it has a vault.

But instead the Town is taking a commercial piece of property off the tax rolls, and eliminating a wonderful opportunity for a bank to locate there.

Wahhh! I want my mommy!

SHORE THING is the opinion of the writer, and only the writer. It is an occasional feature of the Cape Charles Wave.