CETC auction set for Nov. 13

Whitman County commissioners Monday signed an agreement with Kincaid Real Estate and Booker Auction Co. to provide services for the sale of the CETC building in Colfax.

The auction is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2 p.m., at Kincaid Real Estate.

In a workshop session before Monday’s formal meeting, commission chair Michael Largent said he wanted to table the agreement because he had only received it earlier that morning.

The agreement calls for the auction fee to be 10 percent of the sales price with a $3,000 minimum.

“I always thought seven percent was the going rate, but I guess I don’t know enough about it,” Largent commented. He said he would like to see the proposal tabled until next week’s meeting.

But later Monday during the formal meeting when the topic was presented, Largent said any reservations he had were gone.

County Treasurer Robert Lothspeich told the commissioners the agreement also calls for the county to pay marketing expenses which have been proposed at $2,500.

Lothspeich and Bob Reynolds, county facilities director, presented the proposal at the commissioner’s session.

Last December, the county failed to receive a response after calling for written bids on the building with a minimum set at $60,000.

In August, the commissioners delayed a decision for a sale to allow Colfax city officials a chance to acquire the building, but the city council opted out. Over the past several years, the building, formerly the Elks Club, had been proposed for city use, possibly as a community center.

Reynolds said last August that the building needs about $125,000 worth of work. He said the building’s lot recently was appraised at $45,000. If the building was not damaged, an appraisal could be as high as $290,000.

Annual maintenance costs of the building are about $5,000.

The previous Elks Lodge at Main and Wall was destroyed by an early morning fire in January 1972. The lodge opened a year later in a newly constructed single story building.

When the lodge was closed, the building was deeded to a community organization with the intention that it would become a satellite training center for community colleges in Spokane. However, the colleges later decided to locate at Pullman.

The building was eventually given to the county by the Port of Whitman, which withdrew its annual $5,000 maintenance contribution.

The building’s roof was damaged from heavy snow load in January 2009. Weight of the snow and ice sagged the center steel support beam nearly five inches from its original position.

The roof remains sub-standard since the snow damage in 2009. Estimates from county officials put repairs to the building in the $150,000 range.

The building has been closed during the winter months and used between March and October each year since for public forums such as the permit hearing for First Wind’s wind farm and was the site of a poker tournament during Hullabaloo. It also was used as a space to train nursing students.

The structure also has a settling problem on its alley side because the foundation base lacked proper fill when it was constructed almost 40 years ago.