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Smithfield council directs manager to pursue purchase of The Grange for $6.5 million
Summary
The Smithfield Town Council voted to direct the town manager to negotiate and sign a purchase for a property called The Grange for $6,500,000 and approved a companion resolution allowing reimbursement from tax-exempt financing.
The Smithfield Town Council voted on March 3 to direct the town manager to sign and pursue purchase of a property known as The Grange at 10 Main for $6,500,000 and adopted a related resolution allowing the town to reimburse itself from the proceeds of tax-exempt financing.
Councilman Brooks introduced the motion to adopt a resolution directing the town manager to finalize the purchase and to engage financing tools, saying the town would use tax-exempt bonds or, if necessary, short-term cash. "What we need to do is... have the ability to pay for this purchase using certain financing tools," Brooks said during the meeting.
Vice Mayor Harris clarified the motion’s scope: it directs the town manager to enter negotiations on behalf of the town to purchase the property. After discussion, the council moved the resolutions and took roll-call votes. Council members approved the acquisition resolution in a recorded voice vote with a single dissent noted during the certification process; the reimbursement resolution likewise passed.
The resolutions were introduced after closed-session negotiations and staff briefings. Interim town attorney McKenzie told the council that the formal resolution texts would be public and available for review once adopted.
What the council approved was direction to the manager to execute the purchase process; specific contract terms and contingencies were not read in full during the meeting and were not described in detail on the record. The motion also included authorization for the town to use either tax-exempt financing (bonds) or short-term cash to cover the purchase and then reimburse those expenditures from bond proceeds if bonds are issued.
Next steps: staff will publish the adopted resolutions and related documents, and the town manager will carry out the negotiations and financing steps authorized by the council. The council recorded the votes and returned to informational reports and other agenda items after adopting the measures.
