Henry County approves abandoning Mount Union streets, alleys

MT. PLEASANT — The Henry County Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved vacating a number of streets and alleys in Mount Union.

The streets and alleys exist only on paper. Most are grassy areas adjacent to properties in the former city.

“Secondary Roads has no use for these properties,” county Engineer Jake Hotchkiss said.

The streets were on maps that were platted in 1876 and in the 1890s. While they exist on paper, there is currently no road or street there.

Henry County took over maintenance of streets in the city after it disbanded in March 2017.

The parcels will go up for sale on June 25 at 9 a.m.

The board set a minimum bid of $25 per parcel. They decided that the Recorder’s Office fees will be covered by local-option sales tax funds. Other county offices are waiving their fees.

Asked how much the county Engineer’s Office has spent on this project, Hotchkiss told the supervisors, “You don’t want to know.”

Board Chairman Marc Lindeen noted “this is an unusual case” where it is not a good idea to cover the county’s administrative costs, which is usually the case when someone buys a vacated property.

The office has researched each of the properties and contacted adjacent property owners about the plan to vacate the streets and alleys and offer the property for sale. Some of the parcels are just 8-foot strips.

Anyone can bid on the properties, but property owners with adjacent property will be given priority, according to Jelen McCall of the county Roads Department.

Part of the problem comes from a lack of records kept by the city. Few records were passed to Henry County when the county took over the city after it was dissolved.

Bob Stott, a Mount Union property owner at Tuesday’s meeting, said he already purchased one of the parcels, a purchase he said was approved by the Mount Union City Council.

“What happened in the City Council did not get recorded at the county,” McCall said, which means there is no record of that purchase.

“What we are doing right now is trying to clean up what was done,” Hotchkiss said.

“In legal terms, it did not happen,” county Auditor Shelly Barber said, noting the lack of documentation in the county records. “We cannot do anything if it is not recorded in the recorder’s office.”

If not sold on June 25, the county will retain ownership of the property.

“If someone does not bid, that will become state or county land,” McCall said.