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An Area Residential property Appraiser’s map shows the land is covered by trees with a retention fish pond on the property’s north end.
ORLANDO, Fla. The Constable’s Office did not divulge more details.
2017 The Associated Press. The Guard reports residential property records indicate the virtually 5-acre building on Douglas Road north of State Roadway 50 has an approximately 1,000-square-foot two-bedroom residence.
Investigators can not totally investigate with the impending darkness, so a deputy stood guard over night until they might proceed functioning Sunday morning. Constable’s Lt. John Herrell says investigators replied to the house after obtaining a telephone call shortly prior to 6 p.m
.– A sheriff’s workplace claims a realty agent and customers found human remains at a home offer for sale in Florida.
The Orlando Guard reports Lake Region Sheriff’s deputies say the remains were found Saturday in Groveland. All Civil liberties Booked
Some prospective takers of free land display “culture shock” over the relatively isolated setting and the shortage of retail stores, Peterson said. An exception was the Gonzalez family, who left Los Angeles to take a free lot in Marquette about five years ago. It boosted population when many small Kansas towns lost people. It is a gathering place for children after school.
Other Kansas communities such as Minneapolis and Ellsworth report better results from the free land program, mostly when the economy was better.
About half of the 70 free lots in Marquette were built upon, but only a handful in the past three years, said Mayor Allan Lindfors. “Actually, I love it here. “The other towns already got theirs going.
Marquette, settled by Swedish immigrants in the late 19th century who built sturdy brick buildings on main street, has little to offer in the way of jobs.
“It comes down to getting a job,” Marquette City Clerk Fred Peterson said.
But some other towns struggle to lure anybody.
“The sad thing is, we were a little too late,” Vestal said. “That would take some money.”
Tescott, Kansas, population 340, has been unable to give away any of its 11 free lots available since 2008, said Joann Schwindt, city clerk.
Towns such as Marquette tout their low cost of living, lack of crime, outdoor recreation and good schools.
The free lots in Lincoln would otherwise be valued at up to $12,200, according to the county assessor’s office.
“People want to live out here and the get the benefits of a small town and school, but the reality is sometimes they just can’t do that,” Schwindt said.
While some of the lots in small towns may be free, they are surrounded by what is often called one of the world’s great breadbaskets, with some of the richest farmland in the nation.
“People can’t afford to build the house,” Stegman said. He has files on about 25 people interested in free land if the economy improves. City leaders envisioned a stronger tax base, stable retail climate and full schools.
Of late, high prices of gas have been a hardship on small town residents who often must commute long distances to jobs and sometimes even to buy groceries. But getting a free lot is only the first step for would-be homeowners, said Lincoln Mayor Glenn Stegman.
Minneapolis found takers for 28 of 32 lots, City Administrator Barry Hodges said.
But unlike the 19th century, when European immigrants rushed to the Midwest to get their free 160 acres of farmland, building homes from sod to show they had made improvements, some Kansas small towns now are struggling even to give away lots for homes. Newcomers would likely have to find work in nearby larger towns of Salina or McPherson, which is not easy either. It’s one of those things that did not work, but you have to try something or this town is going to dry up.”
Lincoln’s population declined to 1,297 in the 2010 Census from 1,349 people in 2000. Homesteaded for free some 150 years ago, prime Kansas farmland is now selling at record prices because of the boom in commodity markets. I hated the big city.
“My parents wanted to take us away from the gangs and all that,” said Cecilia Gonzalez, 18, a senior at a high school near Marquette.
. MARQUETTE, Kansas (Reuters) – In Marquette, Kansas an ice cream cone is $1.09, haircuts start at $10 and land is free.
“That has probably hurt us more than anything else,” Lindfors said. People still want to come to Marquette, but most would be unable to sell the house they own, he said.
Marquette still considers its free land program a success.
In a modern day version of President Abraham Lincoln’s 1862 Homestead Act that gave free land to settle the vast American interior, Marquette is among a dozen struggling central Kansas towns offering free lots to anyone who agrees to build a house. Many people cannot afford to build a house on the free land. Census showed that city grew to 641 in 2010 from 542 in 2000. The U.S. The recession of 2008 and the real estate crash froze people in their current homes so they could not move from urban areas. Lincoln, Kansas has had only one taker for the 21 lots it started giving away nearly eight years ago — and that was the mayor at the time, who has since died. The rest of the land is advertised on a wind-beaten wooden sign with faded lettering that reads “Free housing lots available.”
Real estate agent Fred Vestal, who listed the model home, was on the city council when it decided to jump into the free land program. Six of eight free lots in Ellsworth have houses, said Rob Fillion, executive director of the local economic development corporation. Instead, it is stuck paying off the bonds issued to pave streets and install utilities in the free lots subdivision.
The reasons are many. It is the county seat so it has a courthouse and other local government offices, and still has a school with grades through high school, considered crucial to a town’s viability.
One of the lots holds an empty model home, now for sale.
The land draws a lot less interest than ice cream or haircuts. Here, you can go for a walk at midnight and have no fear of getting shot.”
Gonzalez works at City Sundries, where ice cream is served at the marble counter of an authentic soda fountain.
Most of the takers of free lots in Marquette and other area towns already lived in Kansas, officials said