ABERDEEN (AP) - Aberdeen town leaders can move ahead with plans to buy the U.S. courthouse in hopes of keeping federal court proceedings in town.
The Aberdeen American News reports a Brown County jury deliberated just a few minutes Thursday before setting the building value at $525,000, its appraised value.
The General Services Administration handles federal property and originally owned the building. It sold the courthouse in 2008 and stayed on as a tenant by leasing space for the federal court, Bureau of Indian Affairs, FBI, U.S. marshals and the Post Office.
Aberdeen's mayor says the relationship between building owner Green World Aberdeen and GSA deteriorated and the federal agencies moved out.
He says now the city can take the courthouse by eminent domain and hopefully bring back the federal offices.
