Lamar approves downtown land deal
By Samantha Lyles, Staff Writer, slyles@newsandpress.net
Lamar Town Council convened their monthly meeting Sep. 14 and granted final approval to a land sale/exchange that will allow a downtown business to expand while ensuring the town maintains a regularly used throughway.
By voting for Ordinance 9-14-2015, council cleared the final hurdle for Carolina Table Manufacturing Co. to open a new finishing facility beside its downtown headquarters, located at 102 Main Street. Company owner David Epps said at a previous council meeting that the expansion building will house a state of the art machine from Italy that will apply a near-indestructible preservative finish to wood furniture products.
The ordinance arranges for the Town of Lamar to sell five tracts of land adjacent to the expansion site to Carolina Table for the sum of $5,000. One of those tracts, a 60-foot right-of-way, will then be gifted back to the town so that citizens may continue to use it as a throughway between Boykin Ave. and the Piggly Wiggly grocery store.
A public hearing was held prior to the ordinance reading, and no citizen spoke for or against the property exchange.
Council member Willie Howell moved for approval, and received a second from council member Jackie Thomas. Mayor Pro Tem Guy Clements voted ‘aye,’ and the measure passed with unanimous consent. Council member Mike Lloyd and Mayor Randy Reynolds were not in attendance.
