Newberry to Purchase Land Adjacent to Cemetery

NEWBERRY ‒ The City of Newberry is purchasing property that could potentially be used to expand the City’s cemetery. City Commissioners voted to acquire two and a half acres of land adjacent to the City’s cemetery to be used “for a municipal purpose.” Listed property owners are M.J. and Ellen Coleman. The land is located on Southwest 15^th Avenue, Newberry and is listed as Parcel #02538-004-000. The land is currently vacant with zoning listed as Agriculture.

City Manager Mike New presented this item to Commissioners and explained that this past summer, Kevin Coleman, acting on behalf of Ellen Coleman, contacted the City to inquire whether the property might be of interest to Newberry due to its proximity to the City’s cemetery.

After evaluating the request and the parcel’s location, the property was appraised as of Aug. 31, 2020, at a value of $35,000 by Applied Economics Group.

The City determined that the parcel is ideally located to support expansion of the City cemetery and also offers opportunities for other uses that could be beneficial to the City including future roadway expansion or as part of the stormwater facilities.

The property owner will accept the $35,000 appraised value for the property. However, the FY 2020-21 budget doesn’t include funding for this property, but did include $50,000 in contingency funds when the budget was approved. Since that time, the Commission directed $17,000 in contingency funds to go toward the cost of the lawsuit against the County. The remaining $33,000 in the contingency fund could be used to purchase the property. Should the Commission wish to use those funds, New said he could find another $2,000 from the approved General Fund.

New said the City could fund the purchase out of the FY 2021-22 budget, but he had the impression that Coleman wanted to sell the property soon.

New offered three options for Commission consideration. The first was to authorize him to execute a land purchase agreement to acquire the property from Ellen Coleman for $35,000. The second was to authorize him to execute all documents necessary to convey the land from the owner to the City and the third was to direct what source of funds should be used to acquire the property.

Initially, Commissioner Rick Coleman determined that even though he was related to the seller, he didn’t believe there would be a conflict of interest and said he intended to vote on the issue. However, as the discussion included the possibility of the City eventually deciding to extend Southwest 15^th Avenue to County Road 337, he realized that if that were to occur, it would be a benefit to him and his immediate family. After discussing it with the City Attorney, Commissioner Coleman decided to abstain from voting on the issue in an abundance of caution.

Also not voting on the measure was Commissioner Paul Norfleet who had technical difficulties entering the meeting virtually.

However, a quorum remained. Commissioner Tim Marden made a motion, which was seconded by Commissioner Monty Farnsworth to use the money from the Contingency Fund and obtain the balance needed from the General Fund to purchase the property.

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