The most interesting thing on the Inyo Supervisors’ agenda Tuesday is a closed session. It reads – “Real Property Negotiations. Conference with real property negotiator.” The item goes on to say that the property is on Jay Street and owned by Inyo County. The other party negotiating is Mammoth Brewing Company.
The Inyo County-owned land is the 5.6 acres south of Jack-in-the-Box in Bishop. In recent years, Mammoth Brewing has been seeking a location for a new facility. Owner Sean Turner, who was tied up with Bluesapalooza in Mammoth on Friday, said he would comment this week.
Asked to comment on the Mammoth Brewing topic, Inyo County Administrator Kevin Carunchio said, “At the staff level, we’ve been talking with Mammoth Brewing, on and off, for several years regarding opportunities to relocate the company’s operations to Inyo County, including the City of Bishop.
“We’ve helped to identify a few sites up and down the Owens Valley,” said Carunchio, “that might meet the company’s needs and exacting standards. However, by the County moving forward and continuing exploring the feasibility of developing new, better County office space in the Bishop area, some of these properties have been precluded from further detailed, discussions.” Carunchio went on to say that “Now, at the request of and with the concurrence from Joseph Enterprises, we’re going to take a new look at how things might be able to fit together.”
The Supervisors’ agenda does include a closed session on real property negotiations with Joseph Enterprises too. Officials have said the Office Complex project could cost as much as $15 million. They had also discussed the possibility of swapping the County-owned land on Jay Street with Joseph Enterprises to offset the cost of the project.
As for the mega office building proposal, Inyo Supervisor Chairman Marty Fortney recently promised that the Board would hold a series of Town Hall meetings on the project in all communities. He said, “The Board is not willing to make a decision if constituents have not weighed in.” Fortney said he has not made up his mind. He said there are needs to be met, but he is not totally convinced, particularly if County government money were to enter the picture.
In other items before the Inyo Board Tuesday – Jack Pound wants to talk about future uses of the abandoned Pines Cafe property in Independence. The Planning Department has proposed increasing Greg James’ contract for legal services by nearly $30,000 to deal with the BrightSource solar project General Plan Amendment and Zoning changes. James’ new contract would not exceed close to $60,000.
On Wednesday, the Board will hold a special meeting at 9am in Independence for a Budget workshop. County Administrator Kevin Carunchio will offer preliminary information on departments’ budgets for the new fiscal year.
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Weather could be a factor too since they may want to expand shipping.
Looks like mammoth has made it too difficult for the project to be here in mammoth
Try and find a vacant 5+ acre site in Mammoth that could accommodate a semi industrial business like Mammoth Brewing. There ain’t a whole lot of options. I hear that the company still wants to maintain a significant presence in Mammoth, regardless of where the brewing and distribution is located.
I heard they want to use mammoth but Mammoth had made it too difficult to do so. Maybe at this time the have out grown even failed attempts in Mammoth.
You know there are plenty of spaces at the airport industrial park.
…and therefore this private business should get a sweetheart deal on some public property. Riiiiiiight. That sounds completely logical. But that’s the new amerika for you: handout for the brewery, handout for the other seller (joseph), and a bunch of contracts for the politicians to give away to their friends as they build their new taj mahal. Win win win (except for everyone who’s not in on the deal)! Yay!
That this type of corruption is now regarded as standard and necessary to simply survive shows how third world we have become. Let it all fail. I would rather see these politicians and the brewery people eating from the gutter than profiting at my expense. We are NOT all in this together. They are living proof of that.