Clark County Board of Supervisors Approves Application for a Grant for the Purchase of More County Land
Monday, January 18th, 2016 -- 11:36 AM
-The Clark County Board of Supervisors approved the Forestry and Parks Department to apply for a grant to help reimburse the cost of purchasing more land to become county forest.The land, 320 acres located just south of County Road MM, is owned by Meteor Timber. They decided to sell the land and would prefer it be used for public purposes. That's why they approached the county because they wanted to see it turned into county forest for the public to use. It's located right next to county forest land already, so it won't be a 320 acre square surround by private land.
Contrary to a rumor saying the company cut all of the timber off of it before they decided to sell it, there is still a lot of timber left. It was stated that it could be cut in the next 10 years and the area has some of the best soil in the county. The area was appraised at $1,425 per acre. With this, in order to help pay for the cost, the county would enroll 120 acres of land owned by the County Highway Department into the County Forest Law. This would provide a 50% match value to help pay for the Meteor Timber Purchase. That land, off of County High I, is appraised at $1,400 per acre.
In the end, the purchase from Meteor Timber would come to $461,000. If they receive the grant, it would pay for 50% of that cost coming to $230,500. Adding the land near County Highway I into the County Forest Law would provide them with an additional $84,000. This would bring the total to $314,500 leaving the county with $146,500 to pay for. That money would come from the County Land Acquisition Fund which was created after the county sold some county land in the past. No money would be borrowed or come from the tax levy for this purchase.
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