County Commissioners and Skinnersville Civic Center (SCC) leaders inched closer to an agreement last week in a three-year-long negotiation aimed at adding some property to the civic center’s Roper facility.

However, a resolution presented for commissioners to adopt was delayed, pending some modification to address the SCC requests to provide separate deeds for the existing building and the additional parcels the county is granting to SCC.

Chester McDowell, speaking for SCC in the Monday, February 9 meeting, told commissioners his group was not satisfied with the proposed resolution because SCC had no input into authoring the resolution and because there are discrepancies in the 1978 deed referenced in the agreement.

After a 40-minute discussion, Commissioners agreed to amend the resolution to provide separate deeds:

• One deed for the .3-acre plot where the SCC building sits; and

• A separate deed for the .84-acre property that is being added to the SCC holdings.

An SCC request that the properties be conveyed through a general warranty deed was refused, with County Manager/Attorney Curtis Potter pointing out that to do so would set a new precedent and open the county to potential future risk...