Assembly refunds property purchase

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough Assembly unanimously decided Tuesday to refund a developer the money he’d paid for a Chickaloon-area parcel after a survey of the area turned up cultural artifacts.

The parcel, portions of which are on both sides of Purinton Parkway, is 40 acres in size and was sold over the counter last year, with the transaction closing July 15. The buyer was Asbury “Butch” Moore IV. Sale price was $72,000.

Just two days prior, the borough’s Cultural Resources Division began a two-day survey of the area, identifying several archeological sites. What exactly those sites were is unclear both from a recording of the meeting and documents relating to the matter, but the borough said none of them were of enough significance to require preservation.

Moore spoke at Tuesday’s meeting, saying that he felt a change to borough code was needed to keep this from happening again.

“This material defect was not disclosed to me prior to the purchase,” he said.

Assemblyman Mark Ewing noted that the law actually says that the seller has to disclose any known defects, emphasis on “known.” He said either way, he was fine with the refund.

“I’m all in favor of giving this guy his money back,” Ewing said. “We made a mistake and we need to make it right.”

Borough Attorney Nick Spiropoulos said there was no lawsuit danger if the borough declined to give a refund.

“The body obviously thinks it’s the right thing to do, but he has no legally actionable claim at all,” the attorney said.

Assemblyman Warren Keogh, who represents the Chickaloon area, asked Acting Community Development Director Jeff Dillon about the timing of that survey of cultural resources.

“Can you offer any explanation of this remarkable coincidence?” Keogh said.

“I think it was just that — a coincidence,” Dillon said, noting that the surveys are done on a particular region, not on one particular parcel.

Moore thanked the borough for taking time to deal with his situation and had a couple minor requests and one major one — that he be allowed to recoup interest on the money he paid.

“I think I deserve the interest. I’ve waited six months and the borough has had use of my money and I paid interest on it through another loan,” Moore said.

The assembly agreed with him, bumping up the refund amount up $2,000 to reflect interest and $399 for fees Moore paid for the sale.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.