The Red Bank board of commissioners learned of an opportunity Wednesday morning and immediately made plans to take advantage of it. Action Plumbing, that was located on Dayton Boulevard, closed and moved out of its building around six weeks ago. The address is 3105 Dayton Blvd. which is separated from the Red Bank City Hall by just one business.
Mayor John Roberts received a phone call from Northwest Georgia Bank to let him know that there would be a foreclosure sale of the building at an auction Thursday at 10 a.m.
The mayor set up a special called commission meeting for Wednesday afternoon to discuss acquisition of the property for the city. He said that employees are running out of space in the current city hall building, noting that the police department is especially cramped in its space.
City Attorney Arnold Stulce said that having the opportunity to acquire the property so near to city hall would not come along often. He also told the board that the tax assessed value is $346,000, which is public record. To help determine what price to bid, he ordered a professional appraisal that was ready by 8 a.m. Thursday. That appraisal valued the property at $375,000. He recommended that the city manager be authorized to offer whichever is the greater amount of the two appraisals. The commissioners passed a resolution which authorized the city manager to bid on the property.
Finance Director John Alexander told the commissioners that the city had cash available to make the purchase, so a loan will not be needed. The cost of any renovations, are unknown since no one from the city had the chance to inspect the building before the auction.
Thursday morning the city manager faced two other bidders and came out the winner by offering $275,000. City officials will be allowed inside the building only when cash changes hands. By looking in windows it appears that the interior is half open space with a few offices in the remaining section.
It was built in June 2004 making it 11 years old. Tim Thornbury, public works director, has been inside and told the mayor that it is in good shape. It is known that the footprint of the building is 2,000 square feet. Mr. Smith said it will take some thought to determine exactly how it would be used. One possibility that has been considered is to use the existing city building as a justice center housing the police department and city court. The administrative employees, including the city manager, finance director, court clerk and office of the public works director, would be moved into the new space.
With renovations to conform to the city’s needs, City Manager Smith said he thought that the building would serve the city well.