Land purchase for new city hall in Carthage halted

By Eddie West

Staff Writer

Search for the location of a new city hall in Carthage continues.

This comes as the city’s council halted plans to purchase a tract of land referred to as the “Stallings property”, located on the Carthage Bypass off Breezy Lane behind Walmart.

It was during a special called meeting on March 18  a motion was approved to spend $700,000 for the tract of land which included seven acres.

Purchase of the land was subject to various contingencies including approval of the construction project by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the city’s planning commission.

Among council members, the purchase was highly controversial with Sissy Green, Anthony Hackett and Gail Grigg opposing the proposal. At the time, three council members, Sam Grey, John Leftwich and Sam Petty, supported the purchase. Mayor Steve Babcock cast the tie-breaking vote in support of the land purchase.

Approval of the purchase proved to be even more controversial among Carthage residents.

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