CEDA Advisory Board Hears Report on Region

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  County attorneys were given the authority Monday to take whatever legal action is necessary to remove the Big Sandy Soil and Water Conservation District trailer from county property after efforts to agree on a relocation site have apparently failed.
  In the meantime BSSWCD Director Bobby Hall confirmed Big Sandy will file a motion in court later this week seeking declaratory judgment compelling the county to honor its prior agreement on the site.
  That agreement, according to the county, is flawed.
  Frank Kilgore updated members of the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors on the property dispute, noting that in March, the county had sent a letter asking the group to work with the county in its efforts to locate a gym, and a ballfield there.
  Currently, the Big Sandy office trailer is located on the former D.A. Justus Elementary school site. Originally, the district office was located inside the former elementary school after it closed. However, prior to a deed on the site being executed, the Hurley flood of 2002 occurred. It was subsequently torn down.
   The soil and water conservation district office then moved an office trailer on site, however, a public hearing was never held on the matter and the material changes which occurred after the initial agreement to allow Big Sandy to use the property necessitated a hearing being held before any transfer occurred, county attorneys have explained in the past.
  Kilgore noted the transfer was declared void when it was determined a public hearing had never been held on the matter.
  In the meantime, however, Hall pointed out the county gave the soil and water conservation district $10,000 to purchase the office trailer and another approximately $4,700 to be used to develop the septic system on site.
  Kilgore told board members Monday he had reviewed attorney general opinions and court cases. He said Big Sandy holds no deed to the property and further he stated due to the lack of a public hearing, there was no binding resolution in effect.
  He added Big Sandy had been offered eight different alternative sites on which to relocate and had been asked to accept one of those sites by June 1. As of Monday’s June 5 meeting, he said, none of the proffered sites had been accepted.
  "We have tried to accommodate them in every way possible," Kilgore said.
  Hall said, however, that the sites offered were not suitable, either because they were too small, too remote, not owned by the county, or in such a bad state of disrepair that it would have cost Big Sandy too much to do any renovations.