Decades old dump sours city hall sale

WAITSBURG — The former city hall was back on the market after the last sales agreement accepted at the special council meeting on March 6 fell through on March 12. The offer accepted at the special council meeting was from Walla Walla residents Delbert and Cindy Steinhorst. The couple's bid was $150,000 for the city hall building and a second city-owned property off E. Sixth St.

The offer had a relatively quick time frame, with a feasibility contingency date of March 15 and closing on April 1, 2025. The feasibility contingency gives the city a date to notify them that they are satisfied the property met their intended use.

The Steinhorsts planned to build a shop and store vehicles on the lot and remodel the upstairs of the city hall for their residence.

On March 12, less than a week after the city accepted their bid, the Steinhorsts pulled out of the contract after viewing the vacant lot at E. Sixth Street. The Times was unable to reach the Steinhorsts for comment. However, the City Administrator, Randy Hinchliffe, confirmed that the deal fell through because of the lot.

The city used the northeast section of the oddly shaped property as a dump site from approximately 1939 through the 1960s. "The Times" found no evidence that the city had done reclamation or clean-up work on the site. That area is now overgrown with poison hemlock. The partially buried and mostly metal refuse rises above the ground by 10 feet in some places, exposing cars, refrigerators, and metal parts.

Hinchliffe doubted anyone from the city had been to the site in decades. He remembered playing at the dump as a kid in the 1990s.

In November 2024, the city council decided to surplus the Sixth Street property and hired Associated Appraisers of Walla Walla for an appraisal. The December 31, 2024 report valued the property at $25,000.

In the report, the appraiser assumed no hazardous waste material on the property would affect its value. They also said the site appeared to have been cleaned up. They did state that the property is within Flood Zone A4, which requires a residence to be built at least one foot above the high water mark.

On March 19, the city council reviewed two new offers for the old city hall. They selected the bid from Walla Walla resident David Seidl for $130,000. There is a feasibility period that ends on March 31, and the closing date is April 4, 2025.

The second bid from Chet Childers was also for $130,000, with no feasibility period and a closing date of April 4. Childers had an earlier offer accepted by the city for the building before the Alexanders and the Steinhorsts. He ended that agreement before the feasibility period ended.

Seidl and Childers proposed apartments on the second floor and commercial on the ground floor. Seidl's plan for the ground floor is a "we-work" type space for the upstairs tenants. The council accepted Seidl's bid if he agreed to make the workspace open to the public as well.

The council decided to stack the offers based on advice from the city's realtor. Should Seidl back out of his deal, Childers' offer would be automatically accepted without needing the council to reconvene.