Back in the spring of 2025, the City of Troy bought a piece of land next to Herrlinger Park. The land sits in a tight spot, squeezed between the CSX railroad tracks and South Crawford Street. There’s only one building on the property: an old pole barn. It’s not pretty, and the city says it doesn’t need it.
So now the city has to figure out how to get rid of it. On September 14, Troy City Council’s Finance Committee met to talk about the plan, and they came up with two ways to make it happen.
Plan A: Sell It
The first plan is to list the building for sale online, on a site called GovDeals. This is where local governments sell things they don’t need anymore, like old trucks or equipment. The city set a starting price, called a reserve price, of $15,000. The idea is simple: if someone wants the building badly enough to pay for it and haul it away, the city makes some money and doesn’t have to pay a cent to tear it down.
Plan B: Get a Grant
If nobody buys the building, the city has a backup plan. Troy will apply for a grant from the State of Ohio. If the city gets the grant, the state would pay to have the building torn down and hauled away. That means local taxpayers wouldn’t have to pay anything either way. The grant application is due October 15, so the city is moving fast on both plans at the same time.
The Best Part of the Discussion
Here’s where the meeting got interesting. Several people in the room, including at least one committee member and a few residents who spoke up, asked a good question: what’s up with the $15,000 reserve price?
Their point was simple. If the real goal is just to get the building removed, then any offer should count, even one much lower than $15,000. If someone offered $10 to take the building away, the city would still come out ahead, because it wouldn’t have to apply for a grant or wait around for the state to approve it.
Most people at the meeting agreed. They said the city should be willing to drop the $15,000 reserve price and accept a lower bid, as long as the building actually gets removed. It was noted that the city could take a bid lower than the reserve price through the website.
How the City Summed It Up
Troy’s Public Safety and Service Director explained the plan in one simple sentence: if the city can sell the property, it might get some money for it. If it can’t, the city hopes to get a grant so no local taxpayers have to pay to take the building down.
That’s really the whole plan in a nutshell. Either way, Troy expects the building to be gone soon, clearing the way for future park improvements at Herrlinger Park. And either way, the city says local tax dollars won’t be spent to make it happen.
Why This Matters
This might seem like a small story about one old building. But it’s a good example of how local government tries to solve a problem without spending tax money. The city is trying two paths at once, selling first and asking for help second, so that no matter what happens, the building comes down and taxpayers aren’t stuck with the bill.
The Finance Committee voted unanimously to recommend the city move forward with emergency legislation to apply for the grant as a backup plan, in case the online sale doesn’t work out. Troy City Council will take up the final vote next Monday.
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