County makes legal move against Rutland over land sale

POMEROY – Documents filed in the Meigs County Court of Common Pleas late in the afternoon yesterday confirm reporting done by the Meigs Independent Press regarding a disputed Rutland land development.

The original report can be viewed here.

Meigs County Prosecutor James Stanley acting in his capacity as attorney for the Meigs County Commissioners filed a temporary injunction and restraining order around 4 p.m. Wednesday asking the Court to halt sale of the land by the Village of Rutland.

Also filed were a verified complaint for injunction, a sworn affidavit from Meigs County Commissioner Randy Smith.

The request contends that the sale of the property is in violation of an April 2012 agreement between the Village and the Meigs County Commissioners.

Smith’s affidavit outlined the relationship between the Commissioners and Rutland Village.

He stated that on April 26, 2012, the County and Village entered into a contract transferring all debt and assets from the Rutland Water and Sewer District to the newly formed Meigs County Water and Sewer District.

Smith stated that the property now in question was used as a storage building (more commonly known as the former Meigs School District bus garage) for the Rutland Water and Sewer District and contained material “critical to the operations of the water district.”

After the contract was signed, then Mayor Lowell Vance provided the county with utility bills for the storage building, which the county has paid ever since.

Smith further stated that it was not until he appeared at the August 2016 Rutland Council meeting that he learned the building had been emptied by village personnel.

Smith was at the meeting to address rumors of a sale of the property as reported earlier and provided copies of the contract to all council members and current Mayor April Burke, the village clerk and members of the public in attendance at the meeting.

According to procedure the Village was responsible for transferring the property to Meigs County. Smith stated in the affidavit that he also “addressed and provided copies of the utility bills and correspondence to the Village regarding their failure to transfer assets from former Prosecutor Colleen Williams.”

The affidavit reads that after addressing the Commissioners concerns, Mayor Burke responded that anything pertaining to the sale of the property was “just talk” and expressed gratitude to Smith for letting her know “as they were unaware that the contract existed.”

Smith said he observed signage on the building from the Rutland Police Chief that stated any trespassers would be prosecuted when he went to Rutland to retrieve the water bill payments from the payment box situated across from the property in question.

He also observed the locks on the former bus garage had been changed and contacted the village clerk, asking to be placed on the Dec. 2016 council meeting agenda to discuss the locks and signage. Burke advised Smith that she would not permit him to be on the agenda to discuss the property.

The concern of the Commissioners is that the county assumed responsibility for over $500,000 of debt for the Village in order to prevent lenders of the Village from collecting the debt from residents.

Sale of the property to to which the Commissioners have a legal claim will compromise the counties “right of possession and ownership of the property because it would be unlawfully granted to a third party.”

While Rutland Village officials were either unavailable or refused to comment on the issue, it was understood that Dollar General and the Village were to close on the property in question on Jan. 26, 2017. This prompted the injunction being filed by Meigs Prosecuting Attorney Stanley.

There has been some confusion about the national store chains coming to the Village of Rutland because Family Dollar has also been looking at acquiring property to build a store in the village. The litigation filed Jan. 25, however, solely concerns the Village and Dollar General.

For more information, see the link below where the Meigs Independent Press broke the story on the property dispute between the Meigs County Commissioners and the Village of Rutland.