A member of the Vermilion County Board is asking why the City of Danville was allowed to purchase over 120 parcels of land before a delinquent tax auction. Jerry Hawker raised the question at Tuesday night’s county board meeting and talked with us afterwards….
{AUDIO: “I had a constituent who was wanting to bid on one of those and the property was not there. Also they (the City) were able to purchase it at the minimum price of $750 per property.’’}
Hawker says the city spent $96-thousand dollars on the parcels….
{AUDIO: ‘’Ninety-six-thousand-dollars of taxpayer money actually to speculate for future development. And it sure looks like to me inside trading. They know where the developments are going to go – and when. And I just don’t think that’s appropriate, and it seems like all the County Board members – except one – agreed with me.}
Danville Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. defended the City’s action….
{AUDIO: ‘’Essentially what we’ve done is we’ve taken houses that people have neglected – oftentimes for decades – slumlords in particular, who have left these houses for the people of Danville to deal with. And we are buying them off of the property so that we can tear them down – off of the property tax sale. Because people deserve to live in nice, clean, safe neighborhoods – and, unfortunately, property owners – like Mr. Hawker – leave things in disarray.’’}
Mayor Williams also says the City did nothing wrong…
{AUDIO: ‘’We have an agreement with the Vermilion County Trustee that was established under Mayor Eisenhauer that gave us – basically – the opportunity to purchase any property that we wished to from the list before it went to the sale.’’}
The County Board approved the sale of a dozen parcels to some citizens who were the high bidders at the tax auction. The Board, however, delayed final action on the 127 parcels the City of Danville wants to purchase until next month’s meeting.
