County will sell for one-million dollars property it had been leasing for just $1,875 per year for over 60 years

Residents of Union County, especially college-bound students, will enjoy a substantial benefit resulting from an agreement the Board of Supervisors recently struck with the Master-Bilt company.

More than 60 years ago in the 1950s the Union County Board of Supervisors leased a building and about 80,000 square feet of land to Master-Bilt, a manufacturer of commercial refrigeration equipment. The company has been making lease payments to the county of $1,875 per year.

Master-Bilt has gone through a number of ownership changes over the decades. It was acquired a few years ago by Refrigerated Solutions Group (RSG) of Hudson, Wisconsin. RSG announced in April 2020 that it was closing its manufacturing operation about three miles north of New Albany on Highway 15. Four months later, in August 2020, RSG reversed itself and announced that the New Albany Plant would remain open and would continue manufacturing components of the company’s refrigeration equipment.

RSG learned that, under the original agreement from the 1950s, it did not actually own the land on which a key part of its New Albany manufacturing operation was located. RSG decided it needed to own the land on which it intends to sustain and grow its business.

The Board of Supervisors has agreed to sell the tract of not quite two acres to Master-Bilt/RSG for a sum that will total one million dollars. Under terms of the sale agreement, Master-Bilt will pay the county $700,000 at closing. It will also contribute $50,000 each year for six years to the county’s college tuition program.

The county pays the full tuition at Northeast Mississippi Community College for any Union County resident who wishes to attend NEMCC at the school’s New Albany or Booneville campuses.

The sale is to be closed tomorrow, Sept. 9, 2022.

Union County Board of Supervisors President C. J. Bright said the $700,000 will go directly into the county’s general fund.
“This $700,000 is money we can use for county needs that will not have to come from property taxes paid by county residents,” said Bright. “The $50,000 annual payments, a total of $300,000, will directly benefit Union County residents who wish to attend classes at Northeast.”

Details of the million-dollar sale were announced at the Union County boards meeting, Tuesday, Sept. 6.

Also at the Sept. 6 meeting the board

• Approved its operating budget for the fiscal year running from Oct. 1, 2022, through Sept. 30, 2023. Total budgeted expenditures are $9,869,000, an increase of about two percent over what was budgeted for the current fiscal year.
• Approved the property tax rate remaining the same as for the current fiscal year.

The new budget is a balanced budget, meaning expenditures are not anticipated to exceed incoming revenue.

The next meeting of the Union County Board of Supervisors will be at 10 a.m. on Monday, September 26.