Deadline near for county tax foreclosure sale
Property owners with delinquent taxes and who have been notified by the county of a foreclosure sale have until 10 a.m. April 4 to contact the county attorney's office.
Information was given to Marion County Commission Feb. 21 by county clerk Carol Maggard.
To date, seven property owners have paid their delinquent taxes and a $180 per parcel redemption fee for a total of $14,500.
Twenty-four properties remain uncollected and could be sold in a sheriff's sale.
Property owners on the list must make contact or pay the tax bill to avoid foreclosure.
In other business:
— The commission instructed communications director Michele Abbott-Becker to apply for a grant to help fund a generator for the courthouse.
Initial plans were to use a grant to purchase two generators — one for the courthouse and one to replace a 20-year-old generator at the jail, and take the old generator from the jail to another location to be used as a shelter.
Abbott-Becker said she will have to ask the state to approve a change of scope of the project.
The plan was changed because bids for the project were $40,000 more than anticipated. One generator for the courthouse costs $67,000, plus a five percent administration fee for the grant, and installation costs.
— Maggard reported Tom Brown of Savant Services will be on the agenda for the March 13 meeting to discuss the county's strategic plan.
— Updates to the county's technology plan will be considered. The plan has not been updated since 1999, which cost $7,150 at the time. The commission will look at options at a future meeting.
— David Brazil, county sanitarian and transfer station manager, reported all charges for disposal of construction and demolition waste have been paid for 2005.
— Brendan Kraus, rural Marion resident, requested permission to burn an area to dig a well. The commission said there were no exceptions to the burn ban.
Commission chairman Dan Holub told Kraus he could weld, as needed for the well, but needed to have water supply and other means of putting out a fire should one occur.
Commissioner Bob Hein said he has had numerous requests to burn but no exceptions have been granted or will be.
— Cooperative Grain & Supply of Hillsboro had the low bid of $15,606 for 6,000 gallons of diesel and 2,000 gallons of unleaded fuel. Fuel prices were an average of $2 per gallon for diesel and $1.68 per gallon for unleaded.
Cardie Oil Company of Tampa also presented a bid of $16,824 for the same amount of fuel.
— An agreement was signed by the commission to commence bids and construction of a bridge project north of Lehigh.
— Jim Herzet, county road and bridge superintendent, requested and received a 10-minute executive session with the commission to discuss personnel. Road supervisor Steve Hudson also was in attendance.
The meeting reconvened with no decisions.
— Herzet was instructed to seek bids for a trailer to haul a backhoe and a skid steer.
— Three new employees were approved for payroll — Timothy Boese in communications, and Duane McCarty and James Philpott in the sheriff's department.
