Saddle Club waits for property sale

By LYNETTE SOWELL

Cove Leader-Press 

It’s been a little more than a week since the Copperas Cove city council voted to rescind its decision on keeping the city-owned Boys Ranch Road property off the sales block and authorized the city manager to go forward with contacting the highest bidder for the property, presently leased by the Copperas Cove Saddle Club. 

 “We’re kind of in limbo right now, because we don’t know anything. We know what happened at the meeting, but nothing after that,” said Tracy Wilson, club treasurer. “We don’t know if we’ll have until the end of the lease, or if we’ll have 30 days. We’re keeping our eyes and ears open.”

Wilson said finding another location won’t be easy for the club, to find property with a large enough space for events with multiple riders and horses, along with parking for vehicles and trailers and other equipment.

“In the lease with the city, the lease states there will be 30-day notice given and we would have to vacate, leaving it in the same shape when we first started 24 years ago,” Wilson said. “As far as we know, we’ll have till the end of the lease. That’s how we’re operating right now.”

Since that first lease more than 20 years ago, the club has spent its funds installing and maintaining a riding arena, with fencing, parking area and more on the property.  

Club president Ann Wyatt agreed that a move to another location would not be a small undertaking.

“People have been calling us about where we’re going to go, and really there’s no concrete anything. It’s going to take so much to move. We’re really still trying to not move. I’m still talking with the City and still trying to figure it out; there’s got to be some way,” she said. “We’ve talked to another city attorney, just because they’d be really familiar with any laws and procedures that the City can do. I’m being told that the City did not have to put it up for bid, and they could have found a way. I’ve been told they could have sold it to us for a dollar—which we’re not trying to do. I understand they want to sell it, they want the money, and we’re fine with that. We do have a buyer wanting to pay fair market value, what they were originally asking--$69,900, and our buyer was willing to pay over that so we could stay there. The other city attorney was like, there’s plenty of legal ways they could have gone about it to make sure we ended up with the land and they still got the money.”

While Wilson said the club will continue with business as usual for the moment, they question the validity of last Tuesday night’s voting.

“Our big thing as the club, we are disheartened the way the vote came about. We’re not sure the vote should have come down with the mayor breaking the tie, with one of the council members on our side, and has been since the beginning, was absent,” Wilson said. “We feel they should have postponed it until all members could be present, to get a true, honest-to-God vote, however it turned out.”

According to the city’s charter, a quorum of council members consists of four and unless otherwise required by law, no actions of council shall be valid and binding unless adopted by the affirmative vote of four or more members of the council. At the May 2 meeting, six council members were present, with three voting for and three voting against rescinding the prior vote on removing the property from the sales block. At that meeting, Mayor Frank Seffrood cast the deciding vote. 

The City of Copperas Cove had no update on progress with determining the accepted bid on the acreage. The city’s broker, Jack Smith, was appointed by the city council last fall to sell both the Boys Ranch Road property along with Allin House on Main Street. 

As of Thursday morning, Kevin Keller, the city’s public information officers, said that Smith was working on contacting the highest bidder. 

The bid will ultimately go back to the city council for final approval and acceptance of the offer, Keller confirmed.