Big Horn property finally sells

Moorcroft has sold the North Big Horn property. The town has owned the empty commercial property north of the Texas Trail Museum for more than a decade and has been trying to sell it almost as long. Due to restrictions, though, there have been no bids on said land when advertised.

These numerous restrictions will follow the property through any future sales. "That's probably one of the reasons it's taken forever, because there are a lot of restrictions on it," Councilman Dale Petersen explained to the audience.

A couple of these limitations include the allowance of only business/commercial building on the lot and of the allowable commercial entities, only particular types are accepted.

Mayor Ben Glenn, through his company, Glenn Construction, offered the only bid to be received in the years the property has been for sale. The mayor excused himself from the discussion and left the building during the council's consideration of the offer.

Council members asked questions regarding past valuation and possible time requirements for development and an audience member questioned the mayor's power to lift the constraints in the future to facilitate a return to residential use.

Clerk/Treasurer Cheryl Schneider and Town Attorney Pat Carpenter were able to answer all questions from the body and, regarding the audience member's concern, Mayor Pro-tem Paul Smoot assured the audience, "Ben could not do that."

He went on to share his reason for not approving such a reversal in the future of Moorcroft's business district: "My sole opinion is a revitalization concept of downtown is really what is needed here. My idea, as I become an aged person in this town, is to do whatever I can to try to move this [street] back to center."

The bid was $25,000 with no contenders and was accepted.

"We're not in the real estate business and we don't want to be," said Smoot. "We want to divest ourselves of properties like this because it doesn't do us any good. We need to focus on [town] business now."