Columbia Co. Eyes Seneca Property Purchase

DAYTON – Columbia County has its eye on Seneca property neighboring the county public works office on North Guernsey Avenue, including the much-used activity center and well-known "Labor Camp" on Green Giant Camp Road.

This information was revealed during last week's county commissioner meeting when Ginny Butler, with the Dayton Historical Depot Society, requested that her organization have access to the site to document and record the long history present there before the county made any changes to the property.

"We're not interested in saving the buildings; we just want to document them so that history is not lost," Butler told The Times on Monday. She told commissioners the society wants to map the location, take photos and record videos.

The county has not released any further information on the property purchase, the cost or its intended use.

Butler thought Seneca had already transferred ownership of the land to the county; the commissioners and County Public Works Director Andrew Woods assured Butler that the acquisition was not yet secured.

"We're in negotiations," Commissioner Dwight Robanske said. "Hopefully we will own it, but right now we're waiting for the appraisal and environmental reports."

Robanske and Woods stated the county plans to buy "as much as it can afford" of the property. "The labor camp and activity center are really a sure thing," Woods said. "We're still discussing how much farther to the east it will go."

Butler said the camp at Seneca, or Green Giant, was more recently known as a migrant housing complex. During World War II, the camp was used to house German prisoners of war and Japanese American interns.