The long anticipated purchase of property on Greenville Drive, described by town officials as an “eyesore”, has turned into a legal mess.
Williamston Town Council approved a resolution in June 2022, to allow Mayor Rockey Burgess to negotiate with the owner, to purchase the property. Burgess stated at the time that the town was paying $325,000 for the property and that he had a “handshake deal” with the owner.
The property actually consists of three properties with different owners. There are legal problems with two of the properties.
Burgess was negotiating with Larry Smith, who owned two businesses operating on the properties at the time, Main Street Motors and Design Depot.
The properties are identified as 610 Greenville Drive TMS number 244-02-07-001; Lot 5 Highway 20 TMS number 244-02-07-006 and Lot 4 Highway 20 TMS number 244-02-07-002.
The purchase price for the property at 610 Greenville Drive, is $97,500. The property is owned by Jonita Oconnell of Hendersonville, NC.
The property, which had the Design Depot business located on it, was purchased by the Town from Larry Smith. However, according to both Smith and Williamston Mayor Rockey Burgess, the property was supposed to have been recorded with Anderson County by the attorney handling the purchase closing, as having ownership transferred to Smith, but the deed was either not filed or “lost in the mail”.
The two properties identified as Lot 5 and Lot 4, were purchased for a total of $227,500.
Lot 5 has the main building, known as the “Quonset hut”, located on it. The property was owned by Deborah Thompson and is now owned by the Town, with a clear deed, according to Mayor Burgess and Anderson County Tax records.
Lot 4 however, also has a problem. The property was sold for delinquent taxes at the Anderson County Tax Sale in Nov. 2021. Powdersville Holdings purchased Lot 4 for $9,000.
The owner of property sold at a tax sale has one year from the sale date to redeem the property by paying the outstanding tax bill and related fees. According to the Anderson County Tax information, the property was owned by Deborah Thompson.
Since the property tax was not paid and redeemed, the tax sale purchaser became the owner.
Richard Dixon, of Powdersville Holdings, said that Powdersville Holdings received a clear deed to the property on Feb. 17, 2023 and stated that Powdersville Holdings is the current owner of that property.
Closing on the deal was handled by Cox and Cole Attorneys. Attorney Lee Cole, of Cox and Cole, is also a town councilman. Mayor Burgess said Cole was chosen to handle the closing at the request of Smith.
Mayor Burgess said the town’s funds for the purchases were transferred to the presumed property owners at closing.
Since the closing, the business owners (Main Street Motors and Design Depot) have been in the process of relocating a building and clearing trash and debris from the site.
Smith told The Journal that he was in the process of removing the debris and had purchased property across the street for storage, for some of the items removed from the previous site.
Town employees have also assisted with the task.
During their cleanup, town employees found a mannequin in one of the buildings. As a joke, or just being funny, the mannequin was placed in a town vehicle, wearing a town jacket. The mannequin is dark gray.
Williamston Councilman Tony Hagood saw the mannequin at the town maintenance shed and took issue with it, stating that is was racism depicting him, being the only black person on town council. The issue prompted an “Emergency Meeting” of Council at 7 am Tuesday morning July 18.
According to the notice sent to councilmembers and The Journal, the “emergency meeting” was being held to allow questioning of town employees about the mannequin incident. Due to it being a “personnel issue”, it was held in private.
(The incident was discussed in detail during a Council work session held Aug. 1)
To complicate things further, the Town was threatening to cite Smith with a notice to comply regarding cleanup on the properties.
A poster referencing the “missing mannequin”, with a photo, showed up recently on a storage container on Smith’s property located across from the property on Greenville Drive being purchased by the Town.
As a result, Smith has been fined $1080 for violating the Town’s sign ordinance.
It is unclear at this time what the status of the two properties with legal questions is.
When the deal was authorized by resolution in 2022, Mayor Burgess asked council to approve the property purchase “for economic development purposes”.
Burgess described the property as an “eyesore” and said the town plans to purchase the three lots, raze the area and provide greenspace, other municipal services or possibly market the property.
“This is a step in the right direction,” he said in 2022. “It (that part of town), the African American community, has been neglected. It is a prime opportunity.” Burgess told Council, “It will be the start of revitalization in that area of town.”
Councilman Hagood, who represents Ward One in which the property is located, agreed it has been an eyesore and made the motion to approve the resolution. He thanked the mayor and other council members for voting to move forward with the resolution.
