Wednesday, February 16, 2000
Warren officials question purchases
MRDD asked about homes' prices
BY CINDI ANDREWS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — Elected officials want an explanation for the apparently inflated prices the Warren County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (MRDD) paid last year for two houses.
The Warren County commissioners on Tuesday asked for a meeting with the MRDD board. And state Rep. George Terwilleger, R-Hamilton Township, said he is looking into the purchases.
“I've had many, many calls, and I'd like to have some answers,” said Commissioner Larry Crisenbery. The meet ing with MRDD will likely be next week.
MRDD paid $173,500 in December for a three-bedroom Springboro ranch house that had sold for $98,500 in September. In March, MRDD bought a four-bedroom house in Maineville for $178,500 about a month after it sold for $98,160.
MRDD board President Darrell Hunt and Superintendent Charlotte Marinacci did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday.
The commissioners also heard the results of a survey on farmland preservation at their meeting.
The mail-in survey, conducted in October, asked 1,681 owners of farmland in the county about their plans for the land.
A third of the 54 percent who replied said they wanted their land to remain farmland, even after they no longer owned it. Mr. Crisenbery said land owners' comments also indicated an interest in the county preserving green space.
The commissioners decided the next step will be a second study on how they should go about preserving farmland.
“I don't want to tell people what they can do with their land,” Mr. Crisenbery said.
The rest of the survey results:
• Seven percent expected their land to be used for development.
• Thirty-seven percent said they would keep their land in farming only for as long as they owned it.
• Seventeen percent had no strong feelings about whether their land is used for agriculture or development.
• The remaining 6 percent chose “other” or did not answer the question.
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