Coatesville council last Monday, Nov. 26, unanimously approved selling back to A. Duie Pyle Inc. for $694,622 the 15.7-acre tract the trucking firm sold to the city in 2001 for $481,839. "This is the end of the $1.99 Happy Meal," said Council Member Kurt Schenk, alluding to the previous council's willingness to city-owned property for less than market value in the hopes of spurring revitalization. "When is the last time the city made over $200,000," Schenk added.

City Manager Harry Walker said the money would be used to help balance the 2008 budget which now as a general fund deficit of $2.2 million.

City Solicitor Andrew Lehr said the city was able to sell the site located near the intersection of route 82 and 340 without putting it out to bid because of a contractual agreement with Peter Latta, president of Duie Pyle Inc., to sell the property back if the city decided not to develop it.

"Normally we would (have put the property out to bid), but this is a repurchase that was written into the agreement of sale that had the provision for repurchase," said Lehr.

The agreement also gives the city in perpetuity a right-of-way along an old railroad bed that connects to adjacent properties owned by the city. Also, said Lehr, the city will not be held responsible for any environmental problems with the land that dated prior to its purchase in 2001.

Following the meeting, Walker confirmed that there was a second buyer interested in the property who had plans to build a senior citizen housing project. "This deal (the Duie Pyle) was in the best interest of the city," he said. "There were things that would have been done to the land." Those demands reportedly focused on providing public water and sewer.

The Duie Pyle property was purchased with the proceeds from a $5 million bond the city took out to buy property for a Regional Recreation Center that had at its center a professional-level golf course. The bond was paid off by the outgoing council just before leaving office. The funds were drawn down from the Trust Fund on the advice of the city's financial advisor. The interest payments on the $5 million bond amounted to more than what the city would have earned from interest if it had left the money in the Trust Fund.

Walker acknowledged that had the bond not been paid off, the city would have been required by law to use the money from its sale to pay down that bond and not use it for general operating expenses, as it now plans.