Council unanimous in vote to sell land

While the decision to sell the former McCook Army Air Base came early for the City Council, the question of how to sell it remains up in the air. The possibility of keeping the land was never raised.

It was standing-room-only Monday night as the McCook City Council voted 5-0 to sell the property as soon as possible -- either through sealed bids or through auction.

Nearly 60 McCook residents attended the meeting as the council debated the best way to market the property.

Local real estate agent Melanie Goodenberger said her company, Century 21 Realty, has been approached by local parties interested in the land, and would like the opportunity to market the property.

Councilman Phil Lyons told the Council that local real estate agents handle land deals every day. "It's important our local realtors be given the opportunity to market this property," he told fellow council members.

"The goal we have in all of this is to sell the property. If we can avoid writing a check on the first of the year, we need to do that," said Public Works Director Marty Conroy. "It shouldn't matter who markets this, as long as it is marketed."

Representatives from three farm and ranch real estate agencies, Mason Morse Ranch Co. of Aspen, Colo., Farmers National Co. of Culbertson and Agri Affiliates of North Platte, attended the meeting to offer their services to the city.

John Childers of Agri Affiliates told the council that while his company would like to be chosen to market the land, the important thing the city must do is select one firm to market it.

All three representatives agreed, the city's best chance of selling the land for the best price would come in the form of a public auction.

"An auction pits one bidder against the other bidder. If you have a public forum, the process of bidding will bring higher bids," Childers told the council.

Ron Sabata of Farmers National Co. said he was surprised by the city's pessimistic view that the property would have to be sold at a loss. "That's a very good piece of property out there," he said. He went on to explain that if the city conducted an auction with a seller refusal right, the city still would have about 12 months to market it "if something doesn't work out." John Strattman of Mason and Morse told the Council if it is going to have the property sold before Jan. 7, the deadline when the city must pay Kim Swearingen for the property, it should get started right away. "It's going to take time to expose people to this property," he said.

Strattman also told the Council his company would market the property locally, nationally and world-wide. "You need to cooperate with the neighbor, but you need to let the world in," he told the Council.

Speaking on behalf of Dustin Winters, the current leasee of the property, Michelle Armstrong of McCook said Winters is interested in purchasing the property.

Before going to a national company to market the property, "at least give the local people the opportunity to purchase this land," she asked the council.

The council agreed to allow sealed bids to be submitted by anyone interested in purchasing the entire parcel of land directly from the city and to open bids from all realty companies to market the land.

The deadline for both processes is at noon, Tuesday, Oct. 15.