CHICKASHA – The City of Chickasha successfully bid on portions or all of several lots that were included in the Grady County Treasurer’s resale process earlier this month for taxes owed.
The city previously provided “notice of its liens” to the Treasurer’s office. Accordingly, the city requested that “the minimum bid” established on each of those particular properties include “all taxes, abatement costs, penalties, interest, costs, and amounts owed” to the City of Chickasha.
Subsequently several unclaimed properties were deeded to the city “because of liens we had attached” for events such as mowing weeds, Mayor Zach Grayson said. Now the city will put all of those properties up for sale, he said.
“If we sell them, hopefully we’ll recoup whatever amount we’ve spent on those lots and we’ll wipe the liens off our books,” Grayson said. In addition, “Maybe the buyer will renovate the property and get it back on the tax rolls.”
The fair market value of each property is less than $25,000, according to a resolution the City Council approved.
The council “finds that such properties are not needed for municipal purposes” and are “surplus to the needs of the City,” according to a resolution the council adopted.
Consequently, the lots will be “offered for sale at public auction in order to return the properties to productive use, encourage redevelopment, and recover a portion of the public funds expended in connection with nuisance abatement and related municipal activities,” the resolution explains.
City Manager Jim Crosby was authorized to schedule a public auction of the taxdelinquent lots.