An Onalaskan wrote on Jul 31, 2008 3:19 AM:
" Questions raised by this whole situation:
1. What did the Prinsens originally pay for the land? (Just to get some background information.)Why are they so hesistant to divulge that information?
2. Who voted for or against the buy-out? Why the secretiveness as to who was at the meeting and chose to vote? Are you absolutely sure town residents actually voted? Or someone else?
3. If there are test wells on the land (just out of curiosity) what kind of data has been revealed about the groundwater in the area?
4. What do residential wells in the area outside but around the superfund site reveal?
5. Who owned the land prior to the Prinsens? "
news flash wrote on Jul 29, 2008 9:55 PM:
" NO, the owner claims to have had an appraisal done, but a copy was NOT submitted at the meeting. At the meeting, two (2) appraisals were submitted to the town, one for $12K/acre the other (closer to the toxic waste site) for $6K/acre.
At a minimum, the BOARD should have requested the same organization handling the road condemnation to do an appraisal of this parcel BEFORE bringing this to a public meeting. According to the state of Wisconsin, FMV for the parcel was somewhere around $10K.
What was the purchase price? That question was ASKED but never answered. "
aone wrote on Jul 29, 2008 9:31 PM:
" to an onalaskan, a majority vote is THE
larger amount of any group who show up
to vote on a particular issue. Would
it take an entire electorate to show
up to constitute a majority?
TO NEWS FLASH: The land purchased
for nineteen thousand appraised
for twenty one thousand. WERE YOU
not listening? "
An Onalaskan wrote on Jul 29, 2008 3:44 AM:
" I know a lot more how real estate works than many of the people at the town meeting. Crookedness is crookedness. Whoever voted to have the town government pay a dime for this worthless piece of property (in this time of recession, especially) is either grossly misinformed or up to crookedness themselves. Until the people of the town actually take a stand against this minority who showed up, more poor decisions like this will be made. "
news flash wrote on Jul 28, 2008 11:01 PM:
" There were about 25 people present at the meeting tonight. On a voice vote, guessing about 20 FOR 5 against, the towns' people voted to pay 19K for 1 ACRE of land next to the toxic waste site, land that is valued by the state at only 10K.
The town SOLD 1 ACRE for an APPRAISED VALUE of 12K.
The town also agreed to purchase acreage for a road project at an APPRAISED VALUE of 6K per acre within 5 miles of the toxic waste acreage.
Conclusion, those who thought this was a bad idea, should have been at the meeting. The people who were there have spoken, and they want it known that in the Town of Onalaska, toxic waste dumps draw TOP tax DOLLAR. "
aone wrote on Jul 28, 2008 10:45 PM:
" an onalaskan,It is quite obvious you have no idea how real estate works. You own it. You want to sell it. You set a price. Someone makes an offer on it. That is how market value is set. If it was your property would you want the board recalled? By the way, It was a town meeting that the people present made a decision on. Take your laptop and go home. "
The Captain wrote on Jul 28, 2008 4:52 PM:
" People please read the details of the article. The only reason it is land locked is because the EPA screwed up on having it surveyed incorrectly and they drilled the test wells on the wrong property. Absolutely the town or someone (EPA, Surveyor) needs to pay for their mistake. These owners should be suing someone if the town doesn't buy it. "
gwar wrote on Jul 28, 2008 2:12 PM:
" An Onalaskan, read the article. The land wasn't landlocked until the EPA mistakenly installed wells on the property -- private property. Someone's entitled to some rent at the very least, I should think. "
Senior Advocate wrote on Jul 28, 2008 11:33 AM:
" If the board pays one dime towards this, it should rally an immediate recall of all possible board members that vote for it. "
An Onalaskan wrote on Jul 28, 2008 9:48 AM:
" For anyone interested in the background on the property:
Parcel Number = 10-1419-0
Internal Number = 14639 "
An Onalaskan wrote on Jul 28, 2008 9:37 AM:
" As far at the online La Crosse County land records go for the property:
Taxes on the land last paid: $166.51.
Assessed value: $10,000
Fair Market Value: $10,200
Some very interesting deed activity on this property, I must admit. It is in November of 2006 that things start to get ones attention. If a Tribune reporter is not making a bee-line over to the county courthouse, he our she ought to do so now. Then get the opinion of a real estate broker or an real estate attorney. "
An Onalaskan wrote on Jul 28, 2008 8:54 AM:
" What is 'offered' for the land is not the value of the land. (Likewise, the asking 'price' of the land is not the value of the land.) True value really has to do with MARKET VALUE. Whoever offered $17,900 for that piece of property must have been very naive indeed. He or she should be thankful the deal fell through. Anyone who has lived on the prairie and knows anything about its pollution history knows that property is essentially worth nothing. "
enuffalready wrote on Jul 28, 2008 7:03 AM:
" Possom: Obviously the land is worth $17,900 since that is what someone offered for the land. The value of the land is established by whatever a willing buyer is offering for it.
It seems that another couple of options would be to have the monitoring wells relocated or to sue the company who wrongly surveyed the property for the EPA. "
possom133 wrote on Jul 28, 2008 6:51 AM:
" I bet they didn't pay 17,900 for that acre of land. Fair market value for a acre next a toxic dump, hmmm, 1,000 . "
Exercise wrote on Jul 28, 2008 5:27 AM:
" I'm moving to the Town of Onalaska and going to ask the board/taxpayers to pay for my poor stock investment choices. "
An Onalaskan wrote on Jul 28, 2008 12:06 AM:
" Not one dime should be paid out of town funds for someone else's poor real estate investment. Who buys a landlocked piece of property next to a dump site and expect it to be worth anything anyway? It is almost unbelievable the lengths some people will go to for money -- and to cover up their own bad judgment. "
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