By:  Diane Benjamin

The Town of Normal wants a new fire station.  Too bad Bloomington can’t give them the multi-million dollar one they built years ago and have never used.

Now Normal is swapping properties so they can build where they want the new station.

I reported extensively on Uptown properties way back in 2012.  Many properties were purchased by the Town for way over the assessed value, many were then given away to developers.

The property that still bothers me is the purchase at 900 S. Linden, 5.9 acres including a house that has now been torn down to expand Underwood Park (I haven’t driven by, but that was the last plan I heard).  The Town paid $725,000 for a property with an assessed value of around $480,000.  http://blnnews.com/2013/01/08/town-of-normal-questionable-purchase/  An appraisal for the property was not available from the Town when I requested it under the Freedom of Information Act.

Normal appears to be doing the same thing again with the property at 404 W. Locust, part of the land swap.  According to the bird-cage liner, the Town is buying it for $750,000.  The assessed value on the County website is $98,786.  Total value is $98,786 x 3.33 = $328,957.  Once again one of these is true:

• the property was seriously under-assessed and therefore the owner paid far less than he should have been paying in property taxes
• the Town of Normal is paying FAR more than they should for the property

The property is student housing and owned by University Court.  The only person’s name attached to the property on the Recorder’s website is Thomas Smith.  PIN is #14-28-251-005.

A reporter for the Pantagraph actually contacted me over my report on the Linden street property.  Of course she never did a follow-up story.  I predict they won’t care about this property either.

It’s incredibly easy for local government to throw your money away when the media doesn’t care.  Is this another government friend profiting at your expense?