To the Editor:
This is a letter regarding the sale of county property to the city of Tomahawk. The land—and building—in question was the Lincoln Industries property along Kaphaem Road, roughly eighteen acres, just west of 51 and south of 86. There was no appraisal. The property was worth a conservative quarter-million dollars. Tomahawk got the property for one dollar.
I’m not against the transfer of some or all of the property; I voted against the resolution that enabled the transfer.
An argument for the sale was the old Lincoln County fairgrounds that went to Merrill for one dollar along with a 1.2 million-dollar insurance payout to rebuild the grandstand. I voted for that sale, but only after prolonged discussion between county and city.
The Tomahawk possibilities—new fire station, medical heliport, additional cop shop for the county, etc—was interesting and some was plausible. But a grocery list is not a plan. We on the county board had no idea whether Tomahawk needed all eighteen acres or the Lincoln Industries building. No design work had been done. We had no plan to work from and we had no understanding of how large a footprint the eventual plan would entail.
We on the county board, including the Administrative and Legislative (A&L) and Forestry committees, did not create due diligence procedure. We had a property. We let it go, in a rush, without careful consideration. Tomahawk got a deal. The county looks incompetent.
Paul Gilk
Merrill