Collector wants to take land auction indoors

JACKSON, Mo. -- Debt-ridden land doesn't have to be sold in the heat on the Cape Girardeau County Courthouse steps. It could be sold in the air-conditioned comfort of the courthouse and will be in the future if Collector Diane Diebold has her way.

"Hopefully, next year we can be inside. We won't have to mess with the flies. We won't have to mess with the heat or rain or whatever the good Lord throws at us," she said after conducting the annual auction of tax-delinquent properties on the lawn and south steps of the courthouse on Monday.

Diebold said she hopes to hold the auction in the large, second-floor circuit courtroom next year. Some counties already are doing that, she said. She sees no reason why Cape Girardeau County shouldn't follow suit.

Diebold said she probably could hold the auction in a meeting room in the Cape Girardeau County Administration Building just across the street from the courthouse. The collector and other nonjudicial offices are housed in that building.

Brought in $12,902

By state law, counties annually put tax-delinquent land up for sale on the fourth Monday in August.

This year's sale attracted a dozen bidders. Bidders bought 18 of 54 tracts of land, some for a couple hundred dollars or less. In all, bidders spent $12,902 during the nearly hour-long sale.

The sale has been held outside the courthouse in Jackson for decades. At one time, state law required such sales to be held at the courthouse door, but the law -- which dates back to 1939 -- has been amended over the years to allow the auction to be held "in or adjacent to the courthouse."

The courthouse grounds historically have been a place to conduct public business, according to Harold Kuehle, who served as Cape Girardeau County collector for 32 years, retiring in 1999.

"I always found it more convenient, even if it was hot out there," said the wheelchair-bound Kuehle, whose handicap never deterred him from holding the sale outdoors. When it rained, Kuehle moved the sale into the courthouse hallway.

Diebold endured the heat and humidity on Monday, removing her black jacket to stay cool. Diebold said the flies were a bigger problem as she stood facing the courthouse steps from behind a portable podium on the courthouse lawn.

"They were trying to bite me all day," she said.

A house for $200

Several bidders said they didn't mind the heat.

"I kind of like it out here," said Oak Ridge, Mo., resident Danny Stratton as he sat in his striped overalls on a stone pillar that borders the steps. He has been buying land at the annual auction since 1994.

Stratton spent over $1,600 on seven parcels of land in the city of Cape Girardeau. All but one are vacant tracts. The other includes a house on North Spanish that he bought for $200. Stratton figures the owners may end up buying back the property and paying him interest.

"If they don't, it would be a nice place to rent," he said.

Under Missouri law, land sold at the collector's sale can be redeemed by the tax-owing owner within two years after the sale. The owner must pay the taxes and interest to the person who bought the property at the sale. If the owner doesn't redeem the land, the buyer receive a collector's deed to the property. The interest amounts to 10 percent the first year and 8 percent the second.

"About 50 percent of the ones sold are redeemed," Diebold said.

Still, bidders like Mike Louden of Cape Girardeau said that the auctioned land can be a good investment for the interest money alone. Louden spent over $6,500 for five properties.

Louden shrugged off any talk of the heat.

"It doesn't matter," he said.

But it does matter to others, like Scott County Collector Mark Hensley, who prefer air-conditioned comfort.

Hensley has been auctioning debt-ridden land in the courthouse lobby since 1999. His predecessor did the same. "I don't remember the last time it was held outside," he said.

Hensley said the Scott County sale often lasts two hours or more. "I would probably speed it up a little more if it were outside," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123