Grant County to sell proposed waste site

ROYAL SLOPE - Grant County is planning to sell 240 acres of land off state Route 26 to the Port of Royal Slope for $200,000.

The land was a proposed hazardous-waste site in the 1980s, but the Rabanco facility was never built, said Steve Hallstrom of the Grant County Prosecutor's Office.

A public hearing to declare the land surplus will be held at 9 a.m. on April 25 in the commissioners' hearing room.

State statute requires the county commissioners to hold a hearing where people can show up in support or against the land transfer, he said.

"Frankly, there won't be standing-room-only at this hearing," Hallstrom said.

Cathy Potter, executive director of the Port of Royal Slope, said the property is about two or three miles west of Beverly Burke Road. The land lies within the Royal School District boundaries.

If the land transfer and sale does go through, the port plans to trade the land for a different piece of property adjacent to the port's industrial park, she said.

Potter said it's not often that one has the opportunity to buy adjacent land.

The land the port will receive through the exchange "will fit in with our development of the park," she said.