FORT SCOTT, Kan. - The long-delayed effort to transfer the historic Moody Building took two major steps forward Tuesday, City Attorney Bob Farmer told the Fort Scott City Commission at its Oct. 6 meeting.
Farmer said he received a discharge of a federal tax lien on the property from the IRS earlier in the day, along with a resolution and quitclaim deed conveying the building to the city.
"I have in my hand a discharge of lien from the IRS on that building," Farmer said.
Farmer said he had worked his way up to the supervisor of the IRS agent handling the matter, and the supervisor offered to expedite the process.
"He said, 'How about we don't worry about the lien?'" Farmer told commissioners. "He said, 'We'll just discharge the lien and it's clean.'"
The supervisor directed his agent to deliver the discharge by the end of the day, Farmer said, and it arrived.
Farmer said he took the document to the register of deeds, where staff were unsure how to process it. The city is still working on getting it filed, he said, and has sent a copy to Security 1st Title, the company handling the transaction.
Separately, Farmer said he received by overnight mail a resolution from Troy Schell, the attorney representing the expired Moody Building LLC, authorizing the transfer of the property to the city, along with a quitclaim deed. Those documents have also been submitted to Security 1st, which is reviewing whether anything else is needed, Farmer said.
"We are this close to having all the things that you were talking about satisfied so that Al owns this wonderful historic pile of bricks over there," Farmer said.
The updates came moments after Al Niece and representatives of Architect One presented conceptual drawings for the building, which Niece intends to acquire and redevelop.
Niece thanked city staff for their work.
"We really appreciate the effort the city's put forth on this," Niece said.
"Lu and I really, really like this town, and we want to turn the Moody Building into something that the community can be proud of, y'all can be proud of," he added.
Niece said design work is well underway and asked the public for patience.
"They're giving me a timeline. I said, 'Well, let's cut it in half.' That ain't going to happen, but we're going to be moving on ahead," he said. "Just be patient with us and we'll start to see some improvements pretty quick."
The Moody Building was constructed in 1890 by I.W. Moody, founder of the Fort Scott Granite and Marble Works, for about $20,000, according to Tyler Duggan, a project manager with Architect One.
The Monitor will have a more in-depth report on the plans for the Moody Building in the coming days.
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