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Special to EDC: A (news)paper trail to guide you
This week’s Economic Development Commission story finds those officials in an enviable position – they are in possession of some $300,000, though they’re not quite sure where the money came from. The “paper trail” they need to clear things up is absent, they say, and they’re not sure about budgeting the money until they understand how.
We’re a little surprised at their confusion. It only took us about 30 minutes to piece together the trail of newspaper clippings that allowed us to insert some facts into our report of their Sept. 25 session.
EDC members appear to have two questions: First, how much of the property once owned by the former Buster Brown plant, which was purchased with EDC funds, is still owned by Jackson Development Corp., which was created in 1997 by the EDC (this newspaper has historically referred to the JDC as “the property-owning offshoot of the EDC”) to buy and hold title to property on behalf of the EDC; and second, why did JDC transfer $300,000 to the EDC in July?
Now for the answers.
Based on our research, the Jackson County Economic Development Commission and the town of Sylva bought the former textile plant and its 15 acres in May 1997 for $550,000. Sylva officials, at the request of then-EDC Chairman Tom McClure, conveyed their interest to the JDC on Nov. 5, 1998. Sylva then held a lien on the property, which was secured by a $300,000 deed of trust. That lien was paid in full ($304,000) on June 28, 2001, when Diversified Expositions bought the old Buster Brown building and 5 acres for $625,000. Sylva Mayor Brenda Oliver, currently an EDC co-chairman, is the one who provided confirmation for The Herald’s July 19, 2001, edition that the money was back in town coffers.
So, to answer EDC members’ first question, that leaves 10 acres of the original 15 that are currently owned by the JDC.
With regard to where the $300,000 transfer to the EDC from JDC came from, that answer took less research, because that money is also from the 2001 deal with Diversified.
To answer EDC members’ second question, we used information reported in this newspaper’s July 6, 2006, edition. The mortgage came due from that 2001 sale, and the JDC, which had used Diversified’s initial payment to reimburse the town of Sylva, used the second $300,000 to pay the EDC back for the money it put up to buy the former Buster Brown plant.
And so, as far as we can tell, EDC officials can go ahead and spend the $300,000. It’s theirs.
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