The property that was once owned by Sysco for construction of a facility in Hamlet is now going to auction on November 11 with no reserve.
Starke County Council President Dave Pearman brought up that action to his fellow council members and the Starke County Commissioners Monday night. He commented that the county put forth $1.6 million about a decade ago for the construction of a Sysco distribution plant in Hamlet, but the company did not make good on their promises.
“Over one million dollars came from Starke County and obviously they’re going to write it off otherwise, they wouldn’t have put it up as no reserve,” commented Pearman. “Anyway, in my heart, I feel if there’s an opportunity for someway for us to tie it up a little bit – I talked to Marty [Lucas, County Attorney] about it and he’s looking into it.”
Pearman thought about putting some type of lien on the property in order for the county to get back its investment into the transaction.
Councilman Howard Bailey agreed.
“Whoever purchases that property, as far as I’m concerned, shouldn’t purchase it with a clean title until we’re paid our million dollars back,” stated Bailey. “They told the people of this county that they were going to come in in good faith, the Starke County Economic Development Foundation invested very heavily to get them in here, and we basically gave them everything they wanted to come to this county. They put us off and they put us off. In my personal opinion, with the assistance of Mr. Lucas, if we can recover our million-six, we need to recover it.”
The Starke County Council members, with the support of the Starke County Commissioners, unanimously approved a motion to authorize County Attorney Marty Lucas to look into the legal means of placing a lien, a claim or injunction on the auction. If paperwork is complete, Council President Dave Pearman is authorized to sign the necessary documents.
