Whenever the department of transportation shall have acquired
any lands, except state granted lands, upon which are located any structures,
timber or other thing of value attached to the land, same may be severed from
the land and sold at public auction subject to the following guidelines:
(1) Such items of value may be approved for
sale at public auction or for removal by demolition under contract procedures
approved by the secretary of transportation.
(2) Authorized sales of personalty shall be
made by the department of transportation acting through the secretary of
transportation at public auction upon a date, place and hour to be set by the
secretary.
(3) The authorization
for sale shall include a minimum price at which any item or items may be
sold.
(4) Notice of sale shall be
given as follows:
(a) By publishing notice of
the time and place of sale two successive times with an interval of one week
between publications, in any daily or weekly newspaper of general circulation
published in the county in which the sale is to take place. If there is no
legal newspaper published in the county, then such notice shall be published in
the legal newspaper published in this state nearest to the place of
sale.
(b) The notice shall describe
with reasonable particularity each item of property to be sold, shall state the
location at which said property can be viewed, shall state the date, time and
place at which the auction is to be held, and shall be signed by the secretary
of transportation or such other person as he may designate.
(5) All items sold shall be
removed from the right of way or premises of the department of transportation
within a maximum period of sixty days following sale, provided, that the
secretary of transportation may increase said maximum period when in his
judgment it would not be practical to make such removal within sixty
days.
(6) The secretary of
transportation is authorized at his discretion to include as a condition of any
sale a requirement that the purchaser provide a surety deposit guaranteeing
satisfactory performance in removal of the item purchased and correction of all
unsightly or hazardous conditions caused by such removal, and the secretary is
further authorized to determine the amount of deposit to be required.
(7) If a minimum price shall have been set
and the highest bid at the auction is less than such minimum, one of the
following alternative procedures shall be pursued:
(a) When time permits, the building shall be
readvertised for sale at a later date and this shall be announced to the
bidders immediately.
(b) If the
building cannot be readvertised due to the imminence of construction, the
bidders shall be advised immediately of the minimum acceptable bid and that a
sale will be made to the first responsible bidder offering the minimum bid plus
the required deposit.
