Potsdam Puts Land Up For Sale Tonight

POTSDAM - The Potsdam Town Council is expected to formally place 29 acres of land the municipality owns on Lawrence Avenue up for sale tonight, according to Supervisor Marie C. Regan.

Mrs. Regan said the board will be asked to approve the solicitation of public bids for the vacant tract of farm land the town bought near AA Kingston Middle School in 2006 from Violet A. Cook for $40,000.

Town officials had originally hoped to build a $3.2 million, three-story municipal complex on the site, but voters rejected the initiative in April 2008.

The town board declared the parcel "surplus property" in early February and announced its intention to put the land up for sale.

Since last month's meeting the town has had the land appraised and re-assessed, according to Mrs. Regan. She expects the board to approve her request tonight to begin accepting bids from members of the public interested in purchasing the property.

Mrs. Regan said the Potsdam Day Care Center located at the end of Castle Drive in the village has already approached the municipality about purchasing the vacant town land for a new facility, but she said it is her belief that putting the property up for public bid is the best political option for the town.

"According to law, we don't have to put it out to bid. If it is a reasonable market value," Mrs. Regan said. "But no way with the climate in the public that there is now."

Mrs. Regan would not say what the 29.5 acre parcel of property was recently appraised and reassessed for. She refused to release the information without a formal Freedom of Information Law request being filed.

"I just don't want that across the front page. I would rather have interested bidders do that," Mrs. Regan said. "And again, I am asking the board to put it out to bid, and I am sure they are going go along with it. I'm pretty sure they will."

While town officials are preparing to sell their Lawrence Avenue holdings, they are still finalizing the purchase of another downtown property across from the Post Office at 18 Elm Street owned by Kip E. and Kevin J. Blanchard.

Town officials announced their intention to buy the former Sigma Pi fraternity house for $60,000 at the end of February as a potential site for a new town court complex.

Mrs. Regan said Monday the deal has still not been finalized and is in the hands of Town Attorney Francis P. Cappello

"Frank is working out the final arrangements on the deed. I think there was some little quirk that needed to be taken care of. So it hasn't actually changed hands but its in the process of being taken of by Cappello," she said.