By Michael V. Hannigan/HCNow
The Athens City Council met in executive session Tuesday night to discuss a potential deal to sell Central Park and the Emergency Operations Center (EOC or old armory) to Trinity Valley Community College.
No details are publicly known at this time, which is normal. A real estate deal takes time and negotiations and state law allows governmental agencies to do that behind closed doors to help the process.
That’s all very typical.
What isn’t typical, however, is when the deal involves two governmental agencies and a piece of public land.
In this case, one entity funded by Athens taxpayers is dealing with another entity funded by Athens taxpayers to sell a piece of property owned by the Athens taxpayers.
In addition, the land in question is under-utilized but bounded on all four sides by development, so its future use has to be carefully thought through.
Put simply, any potential deal — or failure to make a deal — could have far reaching consequences.
That’s a lot of public trust tied up in the negotiations. I just hope the people in the room are dealing from the right motives … namely, doing what’s best for the citizens of Athens.
And that doesn’t mean trying to score the highest or lowest sale price, or protecting their own budgets, but rather creating the best situation for the citizens.
Trying to get the best for your board isn’t always the same as getting the best for the citizens. The battle between the City and AMWA sure taught us that.
So I hope the elected officials from the City of Athens and TVCC make sure a fair deal gets worked out that will benefit the citizens of the City for years to come.
Because there are a lot of people trusting them right now.
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