Daviess County officials have already acquired one major parcel of property left over from the I-69 construction project and it appears they are considering buying some more of the surplus land. Earlier this year the county, along with the Daviess County Economic Development Corp. purchased the former Daviess-Martin REMC building that served as the I-69 offices for several years along with some adjacent land.
Now the county is studying some of the other pieces of property the state acquired but did not turn into roadway. "I think there is about 200 acres, but they are in little bitty plots, most of them just slivers of ground," said President of the Daviess County Commissioners Tony Wichman.
"It is my understanding that in some places they purchased the land and then went back and value engineered the road they found they did not need that much property," added Ron Arnold with the Daviess County Economic Development Corp. "Now, they are looking to dispose of that land, so what we need to do is sit down and determine if there are any useful economic development purposes for them."
The purchase of the former REMC property was about getting a prime piece of development land under local control to try and be certain that it is utilized well. Other potential development property may be harder to locate. "I can't say for certain there is something, but we at least need to look at it," said Arnold. "If we can identify a piece of property that can be used we will then have to figure out what the long term plan for it might be. I would anticipate that if we do locate a parcel of land that works we might have to work with the adjoining land owners for development."
"We feel like there may be some places that are good for economic development," added Wichman. "There's a site up near Odon that could be a good spot for light industrial or manufacturing or even retail shops in the future."
One thing the county wants to know is how much the property will cost before officials start jumping in and buying land. In the past the state would often just donate surplus land along construction sites to local government agencies. Those days are now in the past. The state now is required to sell the land at appraised value. The land is offered on a priority basis that does put the county close to the top of those that can make the purchase.
"These decisions still come down to dollars and cents," said Arnold. "If you decide you want to do something you've got to figure out where the dollars are coming from and how quickly you can turn those dollars."
County officials say much of the land will probably be offered back to the original owners, but there are a few parcels they might consider utilizing. "Some of these pieces of land are just triangles that are only good for the farmers who have the adjoining land," said Wichman. "There are some other pieces like at the new cul-de-sacs that could be a spot where we could store materials for work later on. There are some other opportunities there, but until we map them out we don't know what is going to be available."
"With some of the things we're working on it would make sense to purchase some of this property," added Arnold. "Whether we do that might just come down to price the state wants."