County to Purchase Bank

County commissioners offered $180,000 for the Commercial Bank Building on the corner of Main and Monroe Streets.  The building and property are appraised at $230,000.  The bank board replied that the lowest bid they would consider is $200,000.  There could be office space in both the front and the rear of this building.  Currently, the Juvenile Court secretary is working out of a corner in the small courtroom.  The Keep Union County Beautiful  (KUCB) Director is working out of the Historic Maynardville Bank building.  The detectives will soon have to move out of the construction area in the basement of the courthouse but cannot share a space with other people (such as the Director of KUCB) because of chain-of-custody and privacy issues.  Mayor Lay indicated that there were no other properties priced as reasonably as the Commercial Bank building. The building is apparently in excellent condition. 

The commissioners were most concerned about the combined purchase of this building, the jail renovation and the school roof repair projects causing a tax increase for Union County citizens.  Mayor Lay provided financial details on how this loan would work.  The commissioners already approved a $1,533,000 Debt Service loan at (not to exceed) 4.5% interest for 8 years.  The $200,000 for the Commercial Bank building would be added to this loan at the same rate.  In calculating the county revenue over this period of time (with a modest 1% per year growth factored in) present county revenues would be able to cover the debt and still leave a healthy Undesignated Fund balance.  When asked by a commissioner if this meant that the county would not have any tax increase in the next fiscal year, Mayor Lay said that was something he could not address in terms of increased taxes for the General Fund (the account used to run the county).  But as far as Debt Service, no increased taxes would be needed to fund these particular projects.