By Cheryl Splain, KnoxPages.com Reporter
MOUNT VERNON — Inaction on the part of the owners of the former middle/high school on North Mulberry Street may ultimately lead to the city foreclosing on the property.
Safety-Service Director Joel Daniels said that after reading a story on KnoxPages.com, interested buyers approached the current owner about buying the property.
“Wallick Communities has been looking at the old middle school site,” said Daniels. “They made a very generous offer of $125,000 for the property. They gave the current owners a deadline of last Friday [Sept. 8] to respond.”
The current owner, Jason Gunsorek, has not done so.
Daniels said that in an email earlier this week, Wallick Communities told Daniels that the company was “moving on to other projects,” but Daniels has not yet given up completely on the deal. “We are still trying to make this work to get the current owners [an incentive] to sell,” he said.
If Gunsorek fails to respond, Daniels said that the city needs to start hanging the “condemned” title on the property. “We are looking at foreclosure, we are looking at condemnation,” he said.
Gunsorek has delinquent taxes on the property at 301 N. Mulberry St. of around $13,000.