Late last month, in a closed session, Macon County Commissioners entered a contract to spend $1.35 million to purchase a local estate, raising questions for some local residents about the intended purpose of the purchase and the circumstances around the contract.
At the April 11th open meeting, some community members voiced concerns about the purchase and confusion over why the purpose of the contract was not disclosed. Macon County Manager Derek Roland said the board needed to ratify their actions to purchase the property at 195 Wayah Street – known locally as Higdon House.
“We'll need a motion first ratifying the disbursement of $100,000 in refundable earnest money to the trust fund of Ridenour and Goss PA,” Roland said.
Roland also asked the board for $10,000 dollars in nonrefundable due diligence money to be transferred to Collins and Collins PA.
But Eric Ridenour, attorney for the county, confirmed to BPR that the $110,000 was already transferred on April 4, a week before the county commissioners said they were voting to ratify the decision.
Documents show the nearly 11-acre property went under contract on March 29, 2023. Under North Carolina law, county commissioners may take action in a closed session on a real estate transaction.
“In closed session, we did discuss that over the last two months and gave Mr. Roland direction as to negotiating a contract price of the $1.35 [million] they accepted that amount and now it’s back on for formal ratification by the board,” Ridenour said.
From the audience at the meeting, local realtor Rashaune De La Cruz questioned why the board was voting on an already executed contract.
“I want to know why there's a motion to move forward on something that's already done. You're already under contract on it,” De La Cruz said.
“We don’t have a contr-We have a—We're ratifying it now,” Chairman Paul Higdon responded.
The purchase price and purpose of the buy
The property has been on the market for more than a decade, according to real estate listings. Ridenour said in an email that others were considering purchasing the property.
“I know that the County was aware that there were other entities who were reviewing the property and kicking the tires,” said Ridenour in an email.
Roland asked the board to appropriate $1.35 million from the general fund for the purchase of the property. He told BPR via email that the list price for the property was $1.395 million. The county previously offered $1 million before contracting for $1.35 million.
Several of the county commissioners voiced their support for the purchase of the property as part of the Franklin High School expansion project, but it was unclear if the school is the intended purpose of the purchase of the estate.
Commissioner Gary Shields, who is the board liaison to the Macon County School board, said he did not know how the land would be used.
“The only thing that I’m familiar the Higdon Property is that we’ve put the due diligence contract on it. And that’s as far as I know. I don’t know what the property will be used for or what its suspect to be used for or anything like that,” Shields said.
Two Macon County school board members, Stephanie Laseter and Hilary Wilkes, were present at the meeting. Commissioner Josh Young asked them to answer questions about the property to be used as part of the high school project.
Wilkes said she had no prior information about the use of the property.
“I had just heard about this today,” she said. “Actually I heard about it on the ball field last night.”
“I'm curious if it is a hundred percent designated for Macon County Public Schools. I'd like that answer. I think you all should understand what you're buying and what your intention is as well as relay that to us,” she continued.
Last month, several dozen Highlands residents came to the board meeting to ask for funding for an expansion project for Highlands school.
At the commissioners meeting, Wilkes reminded the members of her support for the expansion and asked them to recall the priorities outlined by the school board.
“I'll reiterate as the Highlands rep, we're still waiting for the contract with LS3P to be reinstated after it was taken off the table in February. There's work to be done with projects, even if they're not on your full funding list for this year. That project was paused. There's money there. That money was already in the budget," she said. "I think you all need to look at our priority list that we shared with you that project has never been taken off the priority list."
Commissioner John Shearl said he supports the purchase if the Higdon property if it can be used for the high school expansion project.
“I am for the purchase of this property as long as we could incorporate that into benefiting the Franklin High School project,” Shearl said. “I need to make sure that is in this 60-day due diligence period that the architect firm will be here to look at this property and see how it benefits us.”
Commissioner Paul Higdon said the purchase could be a good business decision, but he said it is the decision of the entire board.
“If we do wind up gaining approval to buy this property, we're not going to tag it that it has to be, we're not going to restrict it, cause if it doesn't fit into the plans, when we do phase two for education, what do we do with it?” Higdon asked. “We got an excessive fund balance, $35 to $40 million sitting at the bank, earning well, earning interest. But do we utilize that money to buy this property?”
At the meeting, Commissioner Danny Antoine voiced his support for the property to be used by the Macon County School System.
“I believe this property was brought up to actually be a part of the Franklin High School project. That was, from my understanding, the whole point of purchasing that property,” Antoine said. “Personally, I did not see moving forward with the Franklin High School project, with that property being right there and it not being added, being that we need more space for the high school project itself.”
A microschool on the Higdon property?
Antoine owns and operates a martial arts and fitness academy that he says often works in conjunction with the local schools.
In a YouTube video posted late last year, Antoine, along with his son-in-law Travis Shook and business partner Casey Wilson, spoke about their desire to start a microschool at the Higdon Property as part of their nonprofit venture called Kavod Family.
“It's been a lifelong goal of ours to really establish a microschool because seeing the needs that are in the community education wise, and as much as we've been approached to open a school, we've decided that we definitely wanted to do that,” Antoine said in the video.
In the video, Wilson described the potential of the Higdon estate for a microschool run by the group with athletic fields and a place for parents to socialize.
“This year, Kavod Family was established and in one year we've raised over a quarter million dollars that is now going towards different needs in the community. We've been able to scholarship teenagers and young adults for different programs within some of these businesses," Wilson said in the video. "We've been able to help out mothers, single mothers, different families, just with different needs that we have. And so going forward, one of the big goals that we have is starting a microschool."
The video was taken down from YouTube in April soon after the commissioners' meeting. During the meeting, a number of audience members brought up the video and asked Antoine about his intentions with the property.
On Friday, Antoine and his partners released a podcast describing their vision for Kavod Family and their involvement with the Higdon property. They explained it is a nonprofit out of Franklin-based Kavod Fitness.
Antoine said the message was necessary to “dispel rumors.”
“The nature of the video that was out was just to describe to the owners of the estate what these men, these families that are coming together that may possibly want to be on that property, what, what we do and what we're looking to possibly do on a property when we do find one,” Antoine said on the podcast.
Wilson denied any accusations that the county’s purchase is related to the microschool concept.
“No, we're not mixing these ventures. We're not trying to leverage the commissioner's position in order to build a karate studio or anything like that,” Wilson said on the podcast.
In the podcast, the group says that they are no longer interested in the Higdon property because it would not be big enough for their vision. They outline a dream of managing a 200,000 square foot facility in Franklin with basketball and volleyball courts, an indoor track and soccer fields. All these activities would have a Christian mission behind the discipline of sports.
Macon County Board of Education weighs in
At their Monday evening meeting, the Macon County Board of education heard a proposal to use the Higdon property as an agricultural learning lab called “Panther Harvest.”
At the start of the discussion, board chairmen Jim Breedlove asked the rest of the board if they had heard about the purchase of the property before it was added to the county commissioners' April agenda. All board members shook their heads "no" before board member Diedre Breeden asked Breedlove if there had been previous conversations about the property.
“I’ll answer your question, No. I was never part of any formal discussions about the acquisition of the Higdon property,” Breedlove said.
Macon County School’s Colleen Strickland presented the potential program which could include agricultural, horticultural and hospitality programs as a “land lab.”
Commissioner Gary Shields attended the meeting and encouraged the board to voice their desire for the property and put forward a proposal to the county commissioners.
The school board agreed it would not be possible to approve a proposal during the meeting since there was not a clear understanding of the plans for the Higdon property.
The school board asked their attorney to work on an memo of understanding to explain the board’s desire to use the Higdon property for Macon County Schools. The board was in consensus on the action but did not make a motion.
School Superintendent Chris Baldwin thanked Shields for his advocacy for Macon County schools.
“Thank you, Mr. Shields, for considering the purchase of this property and entering into that contract. And thank you to the commissioners for considering to give that property to the school system," Baldwin said.
The memo will be presented at the next school board meeting on May 3rd.
Correction: Casey Wilson of Kavod Family was previously referred to in this article as Casey Morris. His name has been updated.
