Palouse quarry auction delayed until March

A legal hang-up has delayed the auction of an abandoned rock quarry in Palouse, from the planned Feb. 19 date to early March.

The county discovered before the Feb. 19 auction their legal description of the land neglected to mention a paved road running through it; North River Road.

The county is now waiting for county prosecutor Denis Tracy to rewrite the legal description of the land to include this road.

“There will be some acknowledgment that there is a legal city road running through it,” said Kathy Lemon, county revenue officer.

The site is located on the corner of Highway 272 exit to the state line and Potlatch and the North River Road.

The Whitman County treasurer’s department was asked by Palouse resident John Eastburn to put the parcel up for public bid.

Lemon said this particular site was repossessed by the county in the 1930s through tax foreclosure. The county last used the site as a rock quarry.

The site is adjacent to a part of Breeding’s Addition which is owned by Nicole Wood. Wood’s partner Jim Farr has been in an ongoing discussion with the city of Palouse over extension of utility lines to the property owned by Wood.

Lemon explained the description of the county’s parcel in Palouse needs to be corrected so would-be bidders are legally advised the property is now divided by the street.