By Chris Moore

chris.moore@panews.com

 

BEAUMONT — The Jefferson County Commissioners continued to weigh the options for the county to buy property from individuals who live in unincorporated areas and whose homes were adversely affected by Tropical Storm Harvey.

Both options would allow the county to purchase property and resell it. However, the amount that the county would have to spend and the amount that property owner would make vary.

In a home acquisition, the county would buy the property at post-disaster market value. Following necessary environmental tests, the county could demolish the homes and sell the property.

The other option is a home buyout program, which allows the county to purchase the property at the pre-disaster market value. In this program the county would have to maintain the property until it is sold.

Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick said that the county has tried to arrange a workshop with the Texas General Land Office, but was only given a 48-hour notice, which did not allow sufficient time to post under the Open Meetings Act.

Branick said that the better option for the county is the home acquisition program.

“I think that (GLO) is going to tell you the same thing that I’m going to tell you,” he said. “The better thing for the county is the acquisition program, because you don’t have to maintain the property in perpetuity. If someone else acquires it, it would be up to us to elevate it to put it above the flood zone.”

Branick said the county has $2 million available to use one of these programs and he estimated around 700-800 homes could be eligible to apply.

“We have to see how many people are interested,” Branick said. “If we have more people interested than there is money, the money is going to be gone. If the average home is $100,000, that’s only 20 homes.”

Commissioner of Precinct 2 Brent Weaver said that he believes the government is putting the homeowners in a tough place because one of the options is not beneficial to the property owners.

“It’s tough to ask them to take less money after they have just been through flooding,” Weaver said. “If someone has a home that (cost) $250,000, a post-disaster market value is going to be significantly less.”

Commissioner of Precinct 4 Everette “Bo” Alfred said that the commissioners could be in a no-win situation.

“We’re going to be making a decision for the betterment of the taxpayers in the county,” he said. “When we get down to it, we might have people that say that’s not the way we want to go. Either way we go is a no win.”

Branick said that both Nederland and Port Neches have elected to not participate in the program at all.