By JOHN EBY
Niles Daily Star

CASSOPOLIS – Cass County sold 26 parcels at last Friday’s tax sale for $247,500, County Treasurer Linda Irwin reported to the Board of Commissioners Thursday night.

“The amount to make the delinquent tax fund whole is $127,000,” Irwin said, “so we made a profit of $120,000. We still have 17 parcels to sell at this next sale, so we should make over $150,000 profit this year.” The second sale Sept. 29 in the Kincheloe room of the 1899 courthouse, will be the first sale Cass County has hosted. Registration will be at 11 a.m.

Sales start at noon.

“We will offer the 17 parcels at no minimum bid,” she said. “Usually everything sells. This year I don’t think everything will sell. We have a church in Vandalia with a condemnation order on it, so anybody who buys it has to either bring it up to code or tear it down. I think that will prohibit anybody from bidding on it.”

Vice Chairman Ron Francis, R-Cassopolis, agreed. Though side walls are brick, the roof is “gone.”

Irwin said if the church remains unsold, the Land Bank can take it for free and “we can work with a developer if we get somebody who would want to rehab it. Or, we could partner with the village and Penn Township if they get funds to demolish the building.”

“The Historical Commission was interested in it for a museum,” the county treasurer related, “but they went to look at it and it’s just too far gone. If the Land Bank took it, we could give it to the Historical Commission. It is beyond repair, I believe.”