Farmville Town Council votes to sell motley lake

By Crystal Vandegrift, Staff Writer

The Farmville Town Council voted last Wednesday to sell Motley Lake to Farmville Farms, LLC  for 1.25 million dollars.

The town originally purchased the property located in Prospect several years ago for $1.67 million as an emergency backup water supply in times of severe drought.

At the time, the property included several trailers that were being rented and the town no longer needs the property, only rights to the water in the lake. With this sale, the town will have rights to the water in the lake if needed.

Terms of the sale include $300,000 down due at closing at zero percent interest for the first five years. Payments will be $95,000 annually for the first five years and $95,000 per year for the next six to 10 years with interest.

Last year Motley Lake was advertised for sale and Farmville Farms, LLC as well as David and Robyn Simpson, who live near the lake, submitted bids.

In an email to The Southside Messenger, Robyn Simpson noted a letter that she had sent to the town stating the following: “Our latest bid was for $1,225,000.00 with terms discussed with Gerry Spates as being 20% down with the balance to be divided into annual payments at 4% interest, being paid in full in five years with no penalty for early payoff. A few days ago, we became aware that Russell Harper, whose bid is $1,250,000.00, is being offered different terms than we were offered. His terms of $300,000.00 down with five annual payments of $95,000.00 at 0% interest, with the balance being paid in the next five years at an undisclosed interest rate, is not only unfair, but actually much less money to the Farmville taxpayers than our bid.”

Simpson’s letter went on to say, “We were told in December that Mr. Harper was paying cash and wanted to close in three days. Every time we made another bid, he came back with a bid of $5,000.00 more, and then eventually $25,000.00 more per bid. We were told he would keep on bidding. However, we were never offered 0%, which affords more buying power.”

During last week’s meeting there was no mention of the Simpson’s letter or request. However, town officials said that the information in Simpson’s letter was incorrect and that their bid was for $1.2 million.

and  Farmville Mayor David Whitus to sign documents to complete the sale of Motley lake  to Farmville Farms LLC.