Town to ask voters for OK to buy pair of properties

Land would be used to expand recycling center
By 
KRISTYN HALBIG ZIEHM
Ozaukee Press staff

Town of Port Washington residents will be asked next month to approve the purchase of two properties next door to the Town Hall.

Town Supr. Mike Didier announced Monday that the Town Board had reached an agreement with members of the Gantner family to buy the properties at 3703 and 3709 Highland Dr.

The purchase price for the house at 3709 Highland is $80,000, Didier said, and for the house at 3703 Highland is $165,000.

The houses were appraised for $27,000 and $157,600, respectively, he said.

However, Dider noted that the town had assessed the house at 3709 Highland for $89,000, making it difficult for officials to negotiate a lower sale price.

“It’s hard to argue with what the town had assessed them at,” he said. “We came in under what we assessed them at.”

The town would buy the properties under a three-year land contract, Didier said. The town was to do a home inspection on Tuesday, Didier said.

“We’re doing our due diligence before this goes to the electors in April,” he said. The house at 3709 Highland would be torn down and the land used to enlarge the town’s recycling operations, officials said.

There is currently a tenant in the house at 3703 Highland, Didier said, and the town would continue to rent that property. 

“Ultimately, we’ll relinquish it to a private developer when the time comes,” he said.

That time will probably be after the City of Port forms a northside tax incremental financing district and extends sewer and water services to the Highland Road overpass, Didier said. The city is currently discussing the potential TIF district. 

“Then it’s really close (to the town),” Didier said, making it practical for the town to bring these services into the Knellsville area.

That will open the way for development in the township, especially along the I-43 corridor.

“It’s expensive now,” Didier admitted, but in the long run it will prove to be a worthy investment for the town.

Although the Town Board has expressed its desire to buy the properties, it doesn’t have the ability to do so. That power lies with the electors, who will consider the purchase at the annual town meeting on Tuesday, April 17.

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Wisconsin’s largest paid circulation community weekly newspaper. Serving Port Washington, Saukville, Grafton, Fredonia, Belgium, as well as Ozaukee County government. Locally owned and printed in Port Washington, Wisconsin.

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