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[112]Florida

City of Brooksville accidentally sells its water tower

A botched legal description temporarily leaves the city without its
tower.

When a local resident asked about purchasing a building at the base of
Brooksville's water tower,
When a local resident asked about purchasing a building at the base of
Brooksville's water tower, [ Phyllis Day ]

By [113]Barbara Behrendt
Published Jun. 11
Updated 3 hours ago

BROOKSVILLE — The scenic city of Brooksville may not have a Brooklyn
Bridge to sell. But recently — and accidentally — the city sold its
water tower.

Lucky for city fathers, the accidental buyer, Bobby Read, agreed to
deed the tower back to Brooksville after the mistake was made. But the
error has caused a flurry of social media attention and a rift between
residents and political figures.

The issue began last year, when Read approached the city. He asked
about the small building with a garage at the water tower’s base. It
had been used as storage for various city departments, but Read was
hoping to use it as a gym. That began discussions with city leaders who
had specific tasks to complete, including declaring the building
surplus and subdividing the land.
Brooksville's water tower, next to the building purchased from the city
by Bobby Read. Read later deeded the water tower back to the city.
Brooksville's water tower, next to the building purchased from the city
by Bobby Read. Read later deeded the water tower back to the city. [
Phyllis Day ]

The pandemic delayed city action in 2020. But at their April 19
meeting, the city council members, sitting as the Brooksville Community
Redevelopment Agency, heard the formal request by community
redevelopment director Chris Anderson the Brooksville to sell Read the
building.

“We see no reason not to sell this site for commercial,” Anderson said.

The sale price was $55,000. City Council unanimously approved the sale.

Then, the seemingly routine deal when awry.

City Council member Blake Bell said he was told that during the closing
of the sale, which was May 5, Read told city officials he thought the
legal description was more extensive than what he was buying. But
officials signed over the property anyway, using the legal description
they had.

Several days later, when Read went to the Hernando County Property
Appraiser’s office to get an address for his new business location, he
was told that the parcel he bought included the entire water tower
site.

County official records show that a warranty deed, recorded May 14,
then transferred the water tower site back to the city.

While Read acknowledged the city’s mistake to the Tampa Bay Times, he
said he did not want to comment on the situation.

Council member Bell said he is happy that Read will get to redevelop
the building, but he is not happy with the mistakes that were made. He
said he believes the city lost needed parking in the deal.

“I don’t know where the blame falls here,” Bell said. “We’re council
members and we rely on the city manager. We assume that he has done his
due diligence.

“I’m unhappy that we lost control of our water tower but, number two,
we also gave away a lot of parking with it,” Bell said, noting that
city residents had been asking him if public parking would be lost and
he gave them bad information that had been given to him.

John Lee, owner of Brooksville’s Coney Island Drive Inn, was also upset
about what happened, along with the fact that the city didn’t make a
general offering when it decided to sell the parcel to Read in the
first place.

“Last month we accidentally sold the water tower. What should we do
today,” Lee posted on his Facebook page Thursday, calling out city
leaders.

“This is encouraging me to inform voters to replace the city council
and the city manager,” Lee told the Times.

City Manager Mark Kutney said that there were only a few parking spaces
that were part of the deal with Read, and the city is working with
Hernando County officials to secure more parking spaces nearby.

He also said the issue with the tower is now resolved, blaming the use
of a bad legal description for what happened. Anderson, the
redevelopment agency director, resigned after the incident, he said.

“We’re human,” Kutney said. “Sometimes we make a mistake.”

As for the community uproar about the incident, he said it was simply a
sign of political divisions “and a lot of sour grapes.”

Brooksville Mayor Pat Brayton said he hopes that all is well now that
the tower is back in city hands.

“It’s all taken care of now. We’re all good,” he said. “We just need to
be darn sure that it doesn’t happen again.”
Up next:[114]Florida unemployment office axes call centers despite
thousands who still need help
__________________________________________________________________

* Barbara Behrendt - Pasco County Reporter
[115]Barbara Behrendt
Pasco County Reporter
__________________________________________________________________

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