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BISBEE — The Bisbee City Council tried to auction off a 25,000-square-foot lot for $250,000 in Old Bisbee that used to be a municipal swimming pool just a month ago and had no takers.
A new plan was devised by John Charley, the city’s community development director, that would allow the parcel to be sold for the lower price of $200,000 and would permit it to be split into 4,000-square-foot residential lots. He also recommended eliminating all other R-1 uses that includes health care facilities, nursing homes, halfway houses, cemeteries, police or fire stations and schools among others from a long list.
He said that if someone were to divide the property into four or more lots, the developer would have to go through the subdivision process.
Mayor Ron Oertle said the city’s insurance company would like to see the property sold just from the liability standpoint. The 13-foot-deep pool has been drained, but it could cause injury if someone trespassed.
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However, he said the property could be worth more money over the next few years and asked why sell it now.
“The privacy of the neighbors needs to be taken into consideration,” Oertle said. “If I lived up there I’m not sure I would want to look out at two or three houses.”
City Manager Stephen Pauken said it is not an optimal time to sell real estate, but the property sale is in the city’s new budget.
“If we don’t sell it, there are other projects that we won’t be able to do,” he said.
Pauken would like to see a creative architect get the property and develop the challenging site with its concrete and its big hole in the ground.
For Councilman Ken Budge, the new proposition was intriguing, though he thought the price should be set back at $250,000 for the parcel.
“The council has a responsibility to get the most for our assets,” Budge said. “The neighbors can have their say during the subdivision process.”
Oertle said “$200,000 is a give away.”
“The property value will increase with time,” he said. “We, as a council, have the obligation to the people in the community to hold onto assets that will be worth a great deal of money. And the lifestyle of the people who live up there is not being taken into consideration.”
When it was time for the vote, Oertle and Councilman Boyd Nicholl voted against the motion made by Budge. Budge and council members Bennie Scott, Luche Giacomino and Ray Rogers voted for it.
There was no mention as to when the property would be placed back up for sale.
With Freeport McMoRan Inc. discussing the removal of the old mine shaft headframes in Bisbee, the council drafted a resolution that asks the mining company to hold off demolishing them.
Pauken said a headframe is defined as specially engineered steel structures set over vertical mine shafts that allow workers to descend and remove ore from substantial depths.
“Bisbee’s headframes represent the largest remaining stand of headframes in the world,” he added. “At one time, 40 mines in Bisbee were marked by their headframes, now just these few remain. Bisbee’s headframes represent a part of our architectural identity as an industrial community while playing a role in tourism …”
Pauken said the headframes also are personal links for thousands of families with ties “to Bisbee, to our shared heritage and to our shared future.”
“They are the starting point of innumerable stories about mining and community,” he said. “The headframes are landmarks not just for mines and miners, but also for the minerals that carried the Copper Queen’s name throughout the world.”
The headframes are built above shafts that run from 734 feet to more than 3,300 feet deep.
The resolution “encourages Freeport McMoRan Inc. to delay any decision on the disposition of the headframes and other artifacts on the mining landscape of the district until the company and the community have had the opportunity to determine how each of these assets can fit into our shared future.”
In other business, the Bisbee City Council on Tuesday:
• Approved a $10,000 grant application from the Arizona Department of Commerce to fund continuing work on the city’s data base system. The GIS system will offer residents, city employees and interested persons the opportunity to gather information about the city’s infrastructure, land records, zoning, maps and other data via the city Web site.
• Approved a change order for the SouthEastern Arizona Governments Organization new addition to the Bisbee Senior Center in the amount of $3,600 for required trenching and materials and electrical load calculations.
• Approved a contract with Sprint to provide service for 30 cell phones for city employees for the sum of $851.14 per month. By going with Sprint, the lowest bidder, the city will save more than $10,000 a year.
• Approved the city’s support of a resolution enacted by Sierra Vista to support statewide efforts to increase physician recruitment and retention in the state.
• Approved the appointments of Allana McDonald and Anna Herbert to the Bisbee Youth Council with a residency requirement waiver.
• Approved a park, facility and right of way use permit for Grassy Park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sept. 6 to sell tickets to a garden tour.
• Approved a park, facility and right of way permit for the use of city streets for the Fourth of July parade on July 4 from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Herald/Review reporter Shar Porier can be reached at 515-4692 or by e-mail at shar.porier@bisbeereview.net.
Ask the th Graders wrote on Jun 6, 2008 11:48 AM: