Supervisors vote to buy Alpha Natural Resources building

By CAITLIN SULLIVAN/Staff

Supervisors voted 6-1 last Tuesday to move forward with a $7.5 million purchase of the building currently housing Alpha Natural Resources. The company is moving its operations to Bristol, Va.
Before the vote, board members listened to a room filled with residents upset their representatives would spend public funds during such hard economic times.
“You are leaders and times are hard,” said Lynn Manweiler of Abingdon. “I don’t feel that this is the right time no matter how great a deal this is. You are leaders and you need to lead us.”
Some said the office was too fancy for government employees.
“The Alpha building is a very nice building … and that’s fine for a private company,” said Kenneth Singleton of Bristol, Va. “The office of county employees should not be any better than an average citizen’s office.”
Richard Macbeth of Abingdon called the board elitist.
“The biggest problem you guys have is lack of communication,” he said. “Why are you here if you don’t care what we want?”
The audience members against the purchase had one board member on their side.
The sole contrarian vote was that of Supervisor Nicole Price. She said she hopes for the best for our county, but economic times are difficult.
“As leaders I believe we should hope for the best and plan for the worst, and I don’t feel like we’re doing that,” she said. “I have difficulty voting for something that will obligate our children and grandchildren when we don’t know what the future will hold.
“This purchase decision comes before we’ve even started the budget process,” Price said. “I think I know why they’re voting for it, that it’s a deal they can’t pass up, and I see it differently.”
Price said she doesn’t see any real support for the building in the community.
“It would be good to have better public access but not for this amount of debt and not right now,” she said.
County Attorney Lucy Phillips laid out the case for why the purchase should move forward.
The current county administrative offices have been located next to William King since 1982 and at the current Treasurers and Commissioner of Revenue offices on Main Street since 1947.
“It was never intended to be permanent,” Phillips said. “… It’s not a positive reflection on the county. There’s not ability left to modify or expand. The bottom line, the county has out-progressed the (space).”
Phillips pointed to limited public access for both the shared handicapped parking spaces with neighbor William King Regional Arts Center and the 69 steps leading to the building from the main public parking area.
She also said the county is leasing the building from the William King Foundation which is planning expansions on the Arts Center.
There were two previous considerations for county offices.
Phillips said the 65,000 square-foot Hawkins/Payne Property on Lee Highway would have cost $12.8 million. Johnston Memorial Hospital, to be vacated in 2011 for the new facility being built off Lee Highway, was more than 200,000 square-feet and would cost $18 million to renovate and allow space for both public offices and private businesses, Phillips said. She said the county was not able to secure a formal agreement with the hospital because “the communication from the hospital …stymied progress.”
Then the Sheriff’s Office moved into the old AEP building off Route 19 late last year for a $2.4 million price tag. Following that, Alpha announced a merger with Foundation Coal Co. would prevent it from fitting in its facility, Phillips said.
“Alpha had the first option to purchase the building at the appraised price,” Phillips said.
The November 2002 appraised value was $8.2 million but the January 2009 assessed value was set at $4.4 million.
“It didn’t feel right,” Phillips said. So the county asked some questions and an error was found. When Blue Ridge Mass Appraisal Company appraised the building in December 2009 they set its value at $7.9 million.
The county had given a $150,000 incentive to Alpha when it first came to the county, under the stipulation the company spend $6 million in private investment and provide 19 new jobs. Phillips said in the end, the company invested $6.7 million and produced 25 new full-time jobs. She said Alpha produced $305,577 in tax revenues between 2005 and 2009.
“All in all, it was a net gain of $155,577,” Philips said. “We were fortunate to have Alpha in the county.”
The building sits on 10 acres, allowing space for expansion that doesn’t currently exist at county offices today, Philips said.
And, it’s not like the county is taking away opportunities for business in the county because there were no new businesses interested in the building, she said.
“Alpha asked $750,000 less than its appraised value,” Phillips added.
Alpha bought the building at appraised value and sold it to the county for three-quarters of a million dollars less.
Philips said the biggest disadvantage to the purchase is the timing.
“Nobody is pleased this has arose at this time,” she said. She also said the library is disappointed because it will not be able to relocate to the Alpha building. Had the county wound up in the old hospital, the library would have had space.
Though it’s a politically tough decision, Phillips said there is urgency. However, she said she didn’t know if a tax increase would be required.
As to questions of why the money wasn’t funneled into schools, Phillips said the county can’t borrow money to operate the school system.
The purchase agreement is expected to close April 1 and includes a $20,000 deposit siphoned from the county’s reserve contingency fund.
Supervisor Dulcie Mumpower said the county put in a lot of thought and consideration into its decision.
“This was not something our board has done in haste,” she said.
For legal reasons, she said, the board sometimes has to keep information from the public.
Another Supervisor, Joe Straten, said the opposition wasn’t as deep as it might seem. He said he’s had as many people congratulate him on the purchase as oppose it.