Milton council votes to buy historic home

The Town of Milton has agreed to purchase a riverfront property for possible future use to expand town hall.

Mayor Marion Jones says it is an investment in the town's future.

“Even though I find entering into an agreement of buying another piece of property quite scary, I also believe that it is part of a vision for the town of Milton right now that is at a cost that is affordable,” she said. “It seems to me that purchasing a piece of property right there in our close vicinity makes very good sense.”

The 112 Federal St. property, directly across the street from town hall, sits on a nearly half-acre parcel and contains a 1,472-square-foot, four-bedroom historic home.

Milton Town Council voted 3-2 Nov. 4 to purchase the property at its listed price of $150,000. Councilmen Mike Coté was concerned about the financial implications and voted against.

He said an opportunity to take advantage of a bad real estate market does not come around often, but he still could not vote in favor of the purchase.

“Doing this will use up a good portion of whatever savings or cushion we have in the general fund,” he said.

Not knowing how much money will be needed to upgrade the property only made him more wary of moving forward.

“We don't know the cost of those things,” he said. “Because of the unknowns, I'm going to say no.”

Councilman Emory West also voted against due to the town's financial position. Vice Mayor John Booros and Councilwoman Kristin Patterson were not present for the vote.

With a heavy investment already in the current town hall building, Jones said, it made sense to pursue the property across the street. It could create a campus where town services could be easily found. Another possible use for the building, she said, could be a new home for the town's chamber of commerce or other civic organizations.

Councilman John Collier liked the fact that the property backs to the Broadkill River.

“The riverfront is very important to the people of this town, and you hear that touted over and over again,” he said. “If we own it, we control it. Therefore, I think we need to step out on the limb a little bit and take the chance.”

The town hall building at 115 Federal St. was purchased for $656,500 in October 2006. Offices were previously in what is now the police department building at 101 Federal St. The town hall building had already been renovated into office space before the town bought it. The new building is not equipped for offices, and likely will need to be renovated when town officials determine how it will be used.

Former Mayor Cliff Newlands is critical of the purchase. During his term as mayor, council explored the possible purchase of the clubhouse facility in Shipbuilders Village on Mulberry Street. At the time, council was considering suing it for the police department or as a town community center. Those discussions, he said, were out in the public; whereas, in this case the public had no idea of the council's plans until a vote was taken. He questioned the legality of council's actions.

“Council spent eight months openly discussing the purchase of the Shipbuilder’s property,” he said. How can discussion of the Coulbourne Federal Street property be held in executive session only? This is a violation of open meeting laws. The people have a right to know what’s going on.”

Town Solicitor Seth Thompson said the council has the legal right to discuss land acquisition behind closed doors in order to preserve anonymity while negotiating a sale.

“One permitted purpose for an executive session is preliminary discussions on site acquisitions,” Thompson said. “This is to avoid someone exploiting F.O.I.A. and thereby placing a municipality at a disadvantage in attempting to obtain a fair price for a site that it is considering purchasing.”

Thompson said the Attorney General’s Office has found that the exception covers any discussions until the conclusion of a contract of sale in order to protect the public body's competitive position. Prior agendas listed possible land acquisition as a topic of discussion in executive session, and a possible public vote on land acquisition has been properly noticed the last two months, Thompson said.

At the Nov. 4 meeting, council entered executive session prior to discussing old business. When it reconvened, it discussed the property sale in public before voting.

“The executive session needed to occur prior to the final discussion; there was no attempt to limit those who could listen in the open portion of the meeting,” he said.