County moves to fix purchase snafu

Had OK’d purchase price that was $6,000 too low

by Larry Chowning –

The Middlesex County Board of Supervisors (MCBS) recently closed on the purchase of 5.43 acres of land on General Puller Highway (Route 33) between Saluda and Cooks Corner.

Back in March, the board agreed to purchase the property and the March minutes reflected that supervisors agreed to pay $93,000 for the property. The actual purchase price was $99,000. MCBS corrected the minutes and voted in July to appropriate $99,000 for the property.

“The amount ($93,000) for the purchase of the property brought before the board in March was incorrect,” said County Attorney Heather Lewis. “You voted to approve it but it was an incorrect amount.”

The 5.43 acres of land joins a 30-acre tract of land that was purchased by MCBS in 2006 to be used to build a sewage treatment plant for the village of Saluda. It was going to be designed to discharge into Urbanna Creek. The 30-acres backs up to a marshy cove on Urbanna Creek…