LAND PURCHASE ?

We did try to get an answer from the City, but so far nobody seems to know why the City of Branson paid $231,000 dollars for about 7 acres of land without road frontage in the middle of a city park.  Now it is entirely possible the deal was negotiated years ago and is part of an overall purchase agreement whereby the owners/seller delayed a taxable windfall.  It is possible there are underlying legal matters that made this purchase, at an unusually high price, part of an out of court settlement.  It’s even possible that there is a 127 foot long, 6 inch wide, streak of gold in the cave wall beneath the land.  OR it is possible the 7 acres is so special that it is actually worth about $33,000 per acre regardless of its lack of road frontage, limited access to utilities and extremely limited market potential.

I guess we will never know.  Seems the local press has once again decided to simply regurgitate the official press releases from this administration. Interestingly enough, the press release seems to no longer be available on the City web site.  Hmmm.  Well, we want to know why this administration has decided to take the chance on affecting the general financial welfare of this city.  We are told in the approved “newspeak dictated memo” that the monies were taken from the “Tree Fund” since it just happened to have about that much money in it.  The problem is that money was collected illegally over the years and the City has been put on notice of that fact.

So take money from a constitutionally challenged fund and spend it by purchasing a property for what this Broker calculates to be 5 to 7 times the actual value, if in fact the property has any actual value left at all.  Then twist and turn the facts into how wonderful it is that we can enhance the experience of walking thru the woods.  Since after all there are only a few million acres of woods surrounding this community (ie. The Mark Twain National Forest).  Now pass a resolution that the City will restore the home of the previous owner.  A very small home built about 100 years ago that may very well be quite nice when several thousand more dollars are spent restoring it and the barn nearby.  We have no idea what the historic value is.  It might be very high and the city may have gotten a bargain.  What is wrong with simply explaining the motives and logic behind emptying a fund full of illegal tax money to buy a 7 +/- acre parcel with a 100 year old house on it in the middle of a 100+ acre city park with poor or no access, limited utilities and an even more limited market potential?

There has got to be more to this story……

Think we will ever hear the real story?????

Thank God we have this transparency in government movement based down at City Hall.



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