By Conrad Dudderar
Associate Editor
A former lumberyard in downtown Yukon will be torn down to make way for future Main Street development.
The Yukon City Council, at its Dec. 17th meeting inside the Centennial Building, approved purchasing property at 24 N 4th Street from Stan and Renee Lingo and 4812 Lingo Holding LLC.
Purchase price is $420,000 for the site, which includes seven tracts of land on the north side of Main Street.
“We’ve been looking at that for a long time and we wanted to make sure we negotiated a fair price,” Mayor Mike McEachern said. “The price is reasonable.”
No decisions have been made on how the new city-owned property will be used although it will be “for future development downtown”, McEachern emphasized.
“There are a whole bunch of ideas being discussed,” he said. “This (purchase) gives us the ability to control that piece of property.”
Plans are to demolish an existing building; the City of Yukon must solicit bids from contractors for this job.
“This property is the old Yukon Lumber yard,” Yukon Development Services Director Mitch Hort said. “It is north on 4th Street from Main Street. There are several tracts there that abut the railroad tracts as well as both sides of 4th Street that we’re buying.”
The site may be used to provide more parking for Main Street businesses and well-attended events at the Rock the Route music festival and the Oklahoma Czech Festival.
“To me, it makes sense to acquire the property with the current parking situation downtown,” Mayor McEachern said.
He cited efforts to revitalize the Main Street district, which has increased traffic in an area where parking is at a premium.
“We’re putting some good things in there to enhance the downtown area,” McEachern said. “Buying this property is a smart move with what we’re doing downtown to enhance the town long-term.”
The N 4th Street property could house a new Yukon museum along historic Route 66.
Local leaders have discussed “consolidating” several existing local museums into one. Another possibility is using part of the site for city government offices.
