Saline Agrees To Buy Karpenski Property for $100,000

The will purchase 3.5 acres of land adjacent to People’s Park on Monroe Street.

At Monday night’s meeting, Saline City Council voted 4-2 to authorize the purchase the property at 207 Monroe Street and to authorize city attorney Allan Grossman to close on the property by April 30.

Mayor Gretchen Driskell and council members Dean Girbach, Pat Ivey and Glenn Law voted in favor of the purchase. Council members David Rhoads and Brian Marl voted against the motion. Council member Linda TerHaar was absent.

The city will pay $100,000 to buy the property, once owned by Marjorie Karpenski, from Thomas, Gary and Denis Green.

Girbach said the city has been considering the purchase of the property for many years. He said city council has seen many possibilities for the property, including cemetery expansion, park expansion and expansion of the wastewater treatment plant.

“At the time, it was too expensive, so we turned it down. I understand the financial concerns we face, but we also have to balance those against what we can do for the city. This is a good price for us to purchase this property and hopefully it can be beneficial to us in the future,” Girbach said.

Ivey agreed.

“There are very important potential projects that could occur and that property is a keystone to those projects,” he said. “If we look back 10 years from now, I believe we will say this was a prudent use of the city’s money.”

Driskell added that if the city chose to dispose  of the property at a later date in a better economy, it would probably see a dollar-for-dollar return, if not better.

“We have $2 million in undesignated fund balance, and that includes the budgeted expense for this purchase,” Driskell said. “I think we have room for this decision.”

Marl and Rhoads disagreed.

“I will be voting against this motion, as I have previously stated, though I appreciate the work of City Manager (Todd) Campbell and attorney Grossman,” Marl said. “I believe this is bad public policy and an inappropriate allocation of $100,000.”

Rhoads initially supported the concept of buying the property but changed his mind when a committee studying the cemetery needs found there was no need for expansion.

“Given the financial constraints we are operating under and what we are asking our employees to give back, this is difficult to approve,” he said.