OZARK, Ala. - It is a process the City of Ozark has been dealing with for awhile now, acquiring land for the new city farmer’s market. Now the city is using eminent domain to get the ball rolling.
The land the city has been looking at is currently owned by CSX Railroad. When discussions first began, the city was presented with a $115,000 price for the piece of land. After doing an appraisal, the value came back at only $10,850. Since then, CSX has not responded to the city. “The piece of property really has no value to anyone else because of the size it would be hard to build anything else on it but since we have the joining property it makes it valuable to us and we are wanting to use it because we have access to the city parking lot there that joins that property,” said Mark Blankenship - Mayor, City of Ozark.
This parcel of land not only benefits the city farmers market but also the Christian Learning Center that is being built in a building behind the area in question.