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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

Sam explains old mill purchase plan

Question: "I can't wait to hear how the City is going to be able to pay nearly $8 mill with no tax dollars involved in the purchase or improvements. That'll be neat trick" -- Pmurg.

Sam Taylor: Over the next four months we'll be doing the due diligence on all of these issues, including the financing. Our general idea that we've had some initial conversations with ignite CDA on is the City would make an initial purchase and then flip it over to them and ignite would repay us - therefore we'd be out nothing.

Because the property is not part of the City yet, and therefore not in an ignite urban renewal district, the City must make the initial purchase and work on the annexation so that we can work toward including it within an urban renewal district. There are a lot of moving parts and these next four months will allow us to solidify the plan. If, in the end, we can't answer all questions to the community's satisfaction, we don't have to purchase and we're out nothing - but we at least got to take advantage of this amazing opportunity to be first in line for a potential purchase.



D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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