City to buy Culligan, Ramage properties

Luverne City Council members took action Tuesday night toward redeveloping two lots on Highway 75 currently occupied by Culligan and a condemned house next door.
The City is in the process of purchasing the properties in the block north of the stoplights and will ultimately demolish both buildings and prepare the lots for future development.
The Culligan Water Conditioning business has leased space in the building since it was built in 1952.
Culligan owner Rolf Berg said the business will lease the former Palace Video building on West Main Street from Gene Cragoe, Cragoe Realty.
“We’ll move just down the alley,” Berg said about the transition planned for September.
Luverne’s Randy Sasker, who owns the Culligan building, will sell the property to the city for $55,000.
The city also plans to purchase the century-old house next door from Marja Ramage, Townsend, Georgia, after more than a year of condemnation proceedings.
The city initiated the process last fall to acquire the property through eminent domain after serious building code violations hadn’t been corrected and the house had become a neighborhood nuisance.
However, Ramage recently agreed to sell the property to the city for $40,000, the price she had been seeking on the private real estate market.
At Tuesday’s meeting the council set a public hearing on the proposed establishment of the TIF district for both lots.
The hearing will be at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27, in Luverne City Hall council chambers.