YMCA to buy city property

The Shelton City Council gave preliminary clearance to selling 10.5 acres of land it leased to the Shelton YMCA for $123,200.

The council can make the move official at its meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

The city declared the property at the intersection of Shelton Springs Road and East Wallace Kneeland Boulevard surplus. In July 2017, the Shelton City Council approved leasing the site to the YMCA for $1 a year, for 100 years. The facility opened in March 2021.

At the council’s April 19 meeting, City Manager Jeff Niten said the lease agreement required that the property be sold as bare land at the time of the purchase. South Sound YMCA in late 2021 sent the city a letter of intent to buy the property, he said.

The sale price was determined by Mason County taxable values, Niten said. The $123,200 will go to the city’s water department because it owns the land, he said.

The council voted unanimously to move forward with the sale, with Deputy Mayor Joe Schmit abstaining because he is the city representative on the Shelton YMCA Board of Directors. No one from the public commented on the proposal.