County sells old Prairie 5 building with 3-1 vote

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
With a 3 to 1 vote at its Dec. 7, the Swift County Board of Commissioners agreed to sell the former Prairie 5 Food Shelf and clothing building to Simeon Peterson for $10,000. Peterson plans to tear the building down and build a new one to house a butcher shop and retail meat sales building.
At its Nov. 2 meeting, commissioners agreed to sell the property by sealed bid rather than marketing it through a real estate agent. Peterson submitted the only bid. The building sits on the north side of U.S. Highway 12 at Benson’s eastern edge.
Commissioner Ed Pederson, District 2-north Benson, and Benson Township was the lone vote against the sale.
Because Simeon Peterson is his son, Commissioner Pete Peterson, District 3-south Benson and Torning Township, said that he would abstain from all discussion on the sale and would be abstaining on the vote.
Swift County went through the bid process because it wanted to be very open and public about the sale, Commissioner Gary Hendrickx, District 1-Appleton, said.  Recognizing Commissioner Peterson’s son’s interest in the building, sealed bids would be a more transparent process than selling the land through a private real estate agent.
“Other people could have bid on it, and it was open to them to do so,” Hendrickx said.
Commissioner Pederson acknowledges that in small county politics it is hard to avoid situations where relatives are involved in some way with a decision before the board.
“I want to make sure that I am not directing any comments at people personally,” Pederson said as he raised his objections to the sale. “I was a bit surprised. The result was that we had one bid. The amount was $10,000. I know that we have sat on the building for over a year.”
Swift County makes more of an effort to sell its delinquent taxes properties that it made in selling the former Prairie 5 building, Pederson said. He also questioned the amount of publicity about the sale.
“I don’t think everyone looks in those public notices to see a building for sale,” Pederson said. “There has been no sign on it.”
The story about the county’s former Prairie 5 property sale was also published in the Swift County Monitor-News, The Appleton Press, and the Kerkhoven Banner.
The stories pointed out that the county’s building committee met and agreed there was no further use for the building. It has been vacant for well over a year, with the Prairie 5 operations moving to a new building in downtown Benson.
Further, it was recognized that there were a couple of challenges with selling the property, which  Commissioner Pederson pointed out at the board’s Nov. 2 meeting. First, the lot is small, he said. Another reason that Prairie 5 moved out of the building was because of questions about its structural condition.
 
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