YOUR AD HERE »

Dentist to fill annex cavity

County commissioners sell vacant courthouse addition

Brandon Johnson

It took a few tries, but the Moffat County commissioners sold the courthouse annex Tuesday.

In June, commissioners tried to auction the building, but no one met the minimum bid. Commissioners put the property up for sealed bids in July and received one bid.

On Tuesday, commissioners ac—cepted the lone bid, which came from Craig dentist Dushan Voyich.



Commissioners had Voyich’s $226,600 bid two weeks ago but put off a decision about it until this week, hoping they would get a higher bid for the property.

The appraised value of the annex, 200 W. Victory Way, is $252,377.



The vote to accept Voyich’s bid was 2 to 1. Commissioner Darryl Steele voted against the bid.

Steele said The Memorial Hospital was interested in using the property for its ambulance service. TMH did not have any representatives at Tuesday’s meeting and did not present a formal request to use it.

The votes came down to whether commissioners thought the county would need the property.

“Is it in the best interest of Moffat County to sell it, or is it in the best interest of Moffat County not to sell it?” Steele asked.

Steele said he didn’t want to sell the property because TMH, which gets some funding from the county, could use it.

“I was originally in favor of selling the annex,” Steele said. “But the hospital is a county entity whether we fully fund it or not.”

Commissioner Tom Gray voted in favor of selling the annex to Voyich, but he struggled with the decision.

“Government doesn’t need to own any more property than it absolutely needs to do business,” Gray said, but he wasn’t sure whether the county needed the annex.

“I wonder if it is in the best interest of the taxpayers to sell the annex,” Gray said.

Gray said the Moffat County Road and Bridge Department could buy a new motor grader with the money from the annex sale. He said he wasn’t sure what the county needed more, a motor grader or the annex.

After some comments from citizens encouraging the commissioners to sell the property to Voyich, Gray voted in favor of the sale.

Commissioner Saed Tayyara, who led the charge to sell the annex, was in favor of selling the property to Voyich at the meeting two weeks ago and continued his support Tuesday.

“We need to use it for a rainy day,” Tayyara said about the $5,100 in tax revenue that the property would generate annually.

Tayyara said he had 93 people contact him in the past two weeks encouraging him to sell the property.

“This was the highest input I ever have received from the public,” Tayyara said.

Tayyara said he was upset with the TMH board because no one from the board contacted him about using the annex, and he is the commissioner liaison to the TMH board.

Voyich said he doesn’t have a timeline for when he will move his dental office to the annex from its location on Tucker Street.

Brandon Johansson can be reached at 824-7031 or bjohansson@craigdailypress.com


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Craig and Moffat County make the Craig Press’ work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.