That included some members of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly who have suggested that had the borough been able to finalize a foreclosure rather than seeing the land go to Emmitt and Mary Trimble in a purchase, the increase in property values since 2000 might have delivered more cash into borough coffers from an auction sale than the borough got from the Trimbles.
That will never be known, given that the Trimbles are now the full and legal owners, but considering the borough made $168,000 in interest in five years on their $314,955 investment — not to mention collecting several thousands of dollars in property taxes — whether an auction would have brought more is debatable.
Assembly members began inquiring about the land sale to the Trimbles in late summer. In September, Grace Merkes of Sterling asked the borough legal department to review the matter to determine if anything illegal had occurred.
Borough Attorney Colette Thompson delivered her analysis to the assembly Oct. 10, concluding that, as far as the borough was concerned, nothing illegal or underhanded had happened to put the land in the Trimbles’ hands.
Nevertheless, assembly member Milli Martin of Diamond Ridge publicly decried the done-deal sale, saying she’d been “stunned” that the NPVLC board would have allowed the purchase by the Trimbles without considering letting the land revert back to the borough “where it likely should have been,” she said.
“This was purchased with taxpayer dollars, and yes there was some interest that accrued, but the value of that land has sharply increased,” she said. “It was under-assessed and the taxpayers, really, in my humble view, have been cheated.”
She also said, “Maybe there is no legal implication, but morally, it leaves a real, real bad taste.”
Trimble, who was in the audience, bristled. Later during an assembly break, he had words with Martin, telling her, in effect, that he took serious exception to her characterization of the land purchase, which he said had been entirely above board.
Other members of the assembly also commented on the land sale, expressing some discomfort.
“When the board felt the walls closing in around them, why didn’t they let the land come back to the borough, rather than let a private individual buy it?” commented assembly member Pete Sprague, of Soldotna. “That’s the problem I have.”
Assembly President Ron Long said there may have been a need for periodic bench marks and reality checks that could have kept the assembly better appraised.
“I have to say that we really share some of the blame,” he said.
By Oct. 26, after more than two weeks to reflect, Martin recalled Trimble being “extremely angry with me” over use of words like “cheated” and “morally,” and admitted she might have chosen her words more wisely.
“I was frustrated, and I was probably using the wrong words. I did not intend that,” she said.
“My frustration is not with him, but with the process. In my humble view, the public was not best served.”
She said she would have preferred the land to revert back to the borough for sale at auction, but according to Thompson, nothing in the legal documents required the NPVLC corporation to do that. In other words, the borough had not retained any right of first refusal.
“I know there are some hard feelings in Anchor Point,” Martin said, adding later, “It’s done. It has happened. I am sorry that the assembly was not given an opportunity to weigh in. She (Thompson) has ruled. I have to accept that.”
Martin said she wants to review the borough policy and try to determine whether general foreclosure procedures applied to property where taxes are in arrears should be different when public dollars purchased the property in the first place.
In an interview Oct. 27, Trimble said he would not discuss his plans for the acreage he’s acquired, but he was more than ready to talk about assembly remarks, including Martin’s, that he said “disparaged more people than just me.”
“What really bugged me,” he said, “… was that no one made any remarks about it being a good project. The whole focus was on the property deal.”
A lot of work by a lot of good people went into the attempt to create a learning center, he said, as well as local money, including a $50,000 realty commission he waived.
But, when push came to shove early this year, the volcano center’s board had financial obligations and responsibilities they could not meet, Trimble said.
“No one else stepped forward to take care of it, to do what I did,” he said.
As for the volcano center dream, that idea doesn’t die, Trimble said. He suggested the Islands and Oceans Visitor Center complex in Homer might be a good place to consider adding facilities or spaces devoted to the study of volcanoes and plate tectonics.
“Just because this particular incarnation of it didn’t work, doesn’t mean there isn’t another way to skin this cat,” he said.
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