North Platte council authorizes city attorney to attend sheriff sale for 2103 West Second

The North Platte City Council on a unanimous vote adopted a resolution authorizing the city attorney to participate in a sheriff sale for the property at 2103 West Second Street.

Council members said the step is procedural: allowing a city representative to be present at the sheriff sale so the city can pursue purchase if that is the most direct way to resolve the property's blight and transfer it to a party that will redevelop the lot.

City Attorney Bill Fijinski told the council the resolution simply permits him to attend the sheriff sale scheduled for next week and, if the city were the successful bidder, to later return to the council with a separate resolution seeking formal approval to purchase the property for the sheriff-sale price. "With any sheriff sale, the sale has to go back through the district court, get approval," Fijinski said. He said the council would see a subsequent resolution before the city completed any purchase.

Several council members pressed Fijinski on what the city would do if a private buyer bid for the property. Fijinski said the city's choice to bid would depend on the buyer's intentions. "If they're there because they want to come in and get the property cleaned up, then I don't feel that the city's role is to get in the way of that private citizen's intentions," he said. But he added that if a private buyer simply left the property in its current condition, the city would make that buyer aware it planned to pursue condemnation proceedings.

Fijinski described condemnation as a court process that authorizes specific relief when a property violates city ordinances or poses a danger to public health and safety. Relief can include removing junk and personal property that creates rodent harborage or, for severely damaged structures, leveling the building. He said city building inspectors advise the legal proceedings and that cleanup costs can be reimbursed under the housing grant funds the city has been awarded.

Fijinski said the property at 2103 West Second had been on the city's condemnation list and that the owners are deceased, which has complicated direct condemnation or probate proceedings. He said county tax-foreclosure and sheriff-sale processes can transfer legal title more quickly than opening probate. "That's one way to transfer legal ownership—the sheriff can issue a deed and put it into the hands of a new owner," he said, while noting recent legal changes have made tax-sale law less predictable.

Council members emphasized the city's aim is to return the lot to productive use and to avoid bidding up prices for investors whose plans might not include cleanup. The council voted to adopt the resolution authorizing the city attorney to participate in the sheriff sale; a subsequent council action would be required before the city purchased the property.

Votes at the meeting also included passage of multiple unrelated items recorded elsewhere on the agenda.