by Geoff Fox
Town officials finished a bid opening during their town meeting with a look at offers for the Weaver’s building on Main Street.
The town bought the former restaurant building in 2023 to obtain the parking lot across the street. 
The town only received two bids for the building – one from Del. Terry Baker ($26,500) and one from Trus Teck Pro ($25,500).
The town has put the building out to bid a number of times and have had people interested buying the building, but ended up backing out. The building has also been deemed surplus property for the town so it can be sold.
The contract in the bid packet is the same contract that had been given to a previous person with interest. The contract is also “as is,” meaning the winning contract gets the building and contents.
Work has to begin immediately or within 30 days and there is no option to tear the building down for the purchaser.
There are issues with the roof, which town officials were up front about with the two entities.
Faith said the people who had the property before them just turned the lights off and left.
Before closing, the roof was leaking and they were still serving food inside.
Faith said their solution was to put a 55-gallon trashcan in the building to catch the rainwater instead of fixing the roof.
The town bought the property, for better or worse, to get control of the parking lot, which Faith said is important to the town, as there’s not a lot of parking.
That left the town with the building and it’s been a struggle to get it sold. Money has been spent on advertising the building for sale.
“What the town is interested is getting that place back online, get the apartments rented, get the restaurant open — they’re paying taxes, they’re paying water and sewer, that’s our endgame,” he said.
Faith said he talked to both Baker and Trus Teck and they both want to do the same thing – get the roof repaired, get the apartments fixed up and rented, and then work on the restaurant part.
Lanehart added both would like to put a restaurant back in the building.
Officials voted unanimously to approve Baker’s bid.
