The Town of High River has found itself in a position of having to buy a teeny-tiny chunk of land near the West Town Dike, just off 9th Street S.W.

In all, the land is valued at $201, and is about a block long, but only about a foot wide.

Mayor Craig Snodgrass says it's something they just have to do.

"The land itself if worth 200 bucks! It's going to cost us another $1,500 or so for staff time and everything else to get that, but it's just one of those things that we can spend a couple thousand bucks and deal with, or we can put it off to the next Council to deal with, and I don't like doing that. If it's in front of our face, let's just deal with it. It's two grand. Done!"

The land is located between two other parcels of Town owned land and slipped through the cracks over the years.

The cost of the land is based on unpaid taxes by the landowner, which started being assessed in 2011, but came into existence in 1994.

In the meantime, The Town of High River and Foothills County continue to negotiate over a handful of annexation agreements.

One involves some land and homeowners along 112th Street to the town's far northeast, where at least one of the land owners looks to be contesting the proposal.

Snodgrass says regardless, it looks like a deal will get done.

"Well those guys have been asking to be annexed within the Town for a number of years now and you know it's not something that we need 100 per cent consensus on. If there's a landowner that wants to contest it and doesn't like it, well that's just fine. But everybody else does. So, that's why we moved in that area."

Snodgrass says annexation negotiations with Foothills County are slow moving, but have been remarkably easy as both municipalities work well together.

 

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