Kimball considers buying rundown property for park

Friday, January 1, 1904

photo The city of Kimball, Tenn., is looking to buy this dilapidated property on 20 Raulston Cove Road in an effort to keep it from being a hazard to the community.
photo The city of Kimball, Tenn., may buy this dilapidated property on 20 Raulston Cove Road to keep it from being a hazard to the community, officials said.

KIMBALL, Tenn. - City administrators have decided to make an offer to purchase a small piece of property at 120 Raulston Cove Road that includes a dilapidated house.

On Thursday, the Kimball Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted 4-1 to offer 60 percent of Marion County's assessed value of the property to the bank holding the mortgage.

The county's 2013 assessment values the land at $13,700 and does not consider the structure on it to be of any value at all, officials said.

Mayor David Jackson had suggested the city offer to purchase the property because there are indications someone has been using the house and the structure represents a hazard to the community.

City Attorney Billy Gouger said bank officials have indicated that they will consider accepting less than what is owed on the mortgage.

"Due to privacy laws, they couldn't tell me what that payoff is, so we're somewhat in the dark on that," he said.

The mortgage must be less than the original recorded "paid value" of $35,000 because payments have been made on that over the years, he said, but that is far more than the county's assessed value.

Gouger said it is not possible to build another structure on the property "under the current regulatory system."

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In October, Jackson estimated it would cost the city at least $6,000 to tear down the house because it is "in bad shape and past anything being done to it."

Jackson said the "pie-shaped" property is "not very big," and the city wouldn't be able to build anything on it other than some picnic tables or a small playground.

That's exactly what Alderman Mark Payne would like to see done.

"I'd like for us to have a minipark for the people that live out there," he said. "We could make it something positive, instead of what exists there now."