Moses Lake rescinds free offer of land

City decides to sell instead

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake City Council agreed to sell a piece of property to the First Presbyterian Church after initially agreeing to deed it at no cost.

At a Feb. 13 council meeting chaired by Deputy Mayor Richard Pearce, council unanimously agreed to deed a right-of-way located on Toevs Avenue back to the church at no cost. At a Feb. 27 meeting, council began having second thoughts about their action and put the offer on hold.

At Tuesday's meeting, council decided to charge the church for the property.

Normally council requests half of the assessed value of the property.

Grant County PUD commissioner Bob Bernd, on behalf of the church, requested the property at no charge because they were the original owners and there were no improvements done to the space provided by the city, he said. The church has a limited budget as donations are a primary income.

Initially council decided to deed the property to the church at no cost because since the city took it over 47 years ago there were no improvements made. The church requested the land to accommodate their current expansion efforts.

Council rethought their decision later because a second request for a different piece of property came before council requesting the same terms. According to the council, the Toevs Avenue property appreciated in value and money was spent to maintain it and they wanted to be compensated accordingly.

The motion to give the property for free should have been called out of order because their was no ordinance in place to support the decision, Pearce said.

"Once you do it with one person, you have to do it with all people," he said.

At the Feb. 13 meeting, council decided to hear all requests on a case-by-case basis but later decided it was not the best way to handle the situations.

Council discussed several different values to charge the church ranging from 20.9 cents per square-foot to 63 cents per square-foot.

Finally council agreed upon a value suggested by Pearce.

He moved to charge half of the assessed value of 37 cents per square-foot, for a sum of approximately $3,000. He calculated the number is based on last year's assessed value of property near the right-of-way.

Council unanimously approved the motion.

Council denied a second request for the return of property at no cost located on Main Street to a group of citizens.