MILTON — City leaders are one meeting away from approving the intent to purchase Theresa Messick’s downtown property.
Despite online criticism and one nay vote from Milton Councilman Alan Lowery, the council approved the item during Monday night’s Executive Committee meeting. Councilman Jimmy Messick, Theresa’s husband, abstained from voting.
The same item will appear separate from the consent agenda during next week’s regular council meeting.
Messick and his wife have faced online criticism due to Theresa’s $125,000 asking price on property appraised at $49,960.
“I had put on a Facebook page about what we were about to do, and asked the community for their opinions,” Lowery said. “Overwhelmingly, the answer was to not purchase this property at $125,000.”
Councilman Grady Hester said the property’s acquisition is vital to keeping the courthouse downtown.
“The question must be asked,” Hester said. “Do you want the courthouse to stay in Milton? If you do, then vote for it. If you don’t want it to stay in Milton, then vote against it.”
Higher asking prices are to be expected in such a situation, Hester said.
“If you have ever been in business and build on a piece of property,” he said, “people (are) going to raise the price on you adjacent to what you are building.”
Milton attorney Brad Johnson, who previously served on the city’s courthouse committee, spoke on Theresa’s behalf after being retained to serve as her legal counsel during the property-selling process.
Theresa acquired the property in 2006 for a business, Johnson said.
“She has never listed it for sale,” he said. “She would prefer that the courthouse project not require, nor necessitate, the acquisition of her property. She would rather keep that parcel, quite frankly.”
Messick’s property was not originally required for the courthouse project, Johnson said. However, circumstances in which previously sought properties were deemed ‘financially unavailable’ by city officials, along with wetland concerns, made the Messick property a necessity.
Johnson shared city attorney Heather Lindsay’s opinion, stating Councilman Messick acted ethically by consistently abstaining from conversation and voting in relation to his wife’s property. He also suggested such situations should not be considered out of the norm.
“As members of the council live within city limits, it is not surprising that the city’s acquisition of land for public use might, from time to time, indirectly or directly impact a property that has a connection to a council member,” Johnson said.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Milton council favors Messick property purchase