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PARKERSBURG -- The Wood County Commission took no action on the valuation of the McKinley School property after the owners challenged it earlier this month before the Board of Equalization and Review.
Earlier this month, an objection was raised over the valuation of the building, at 1130 19th St. in Parkersburg, as the county commissioners sat as the Board.
The school building was bought at auction in May 2021 for $165,000 by the Astorg family, who own Astorg Auto. Representatives of the Astorg family felt since they bought the property for $165,000 that should be its value.
The property was initially valued at $2.3 million when it was under control of the school system. Although schools aren't taxed, a value is still put on each building.
After it was sold, it was appraised at $291,500 with an assessed value of $174,900, according to Wood County Assessor office personnel.
Officials said there was a misunderstanding with the family under the impression it was still valued at $2.3 million. The Assessor's Office changed the valuation last October but the family was not aware of the change, the personnel said, which amounted to a "miscommunication" and everything was worked out.
As a result, the commission did not have to do anything.
"We are going to take no action," Commission President Blair Couch said.
Paul Astorg said he was not initially aware of the change being made. He said although school buildings are assigned a value, there are significant differences in how the properties are valued when compared to each other. There is no consistency in how it is done, he said. At one point, he got a $40,000 tax ticket for it and he didn't feel he should be taxed 25% of what they paid for the building.
"The Assessor looked at it and did a fair assessment on it," Astorg said. "I didn't agree with it totally.
"I thought what I paid should have been the assessment."
He was told they don't view an auction as an accurate way to determine value.
"I would think an auction would be the exact value of something," Astorg said.
Wood County Assessor David Nohe said when a property sells, it maintains its previous tax ticket for 18 months. His office was able to make the changes they needed to properly assess the property and get everything where it needed to be.
"It really was no one's fault," Nohe said of the issues brought up, but it had to do mostly with timing with when his people looked at the property and when the tax tickets are done.
Astorg was fine with the $291,000 appraised value compared to the $2.3 million amount.
"I didn't fight it further and just agreed with what they came up with," he said, adding he was not aware it had already been changed.
Astorg feels the property now has a negative value as it will take more money than it is worth to tear down a lot of the building.
"That is really what has to happen," Astorg said.
The Astorg family announced earlier this month they were planning to tear down a large portion of the building after determining a lot of structural deterioration has occurred and the building could not be saved.
The Astorg family has invested around $200,000 into the gym and cafeteria portion of the building, providing a foundation for a youth sports facility that is now home to the Parkersburg Cougar Wrestling club. That part of the building will remain.
"My whole objective is to keep doing something there for the kids in that area and in Parkersburg," Astorg said. "Our objective is to make a positive out of it.
"We have done that. We have a lot of kids wrestling there that haven't had a place to go to in a long time. We are happy to see them getting things going in a good direction."
Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com