T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY During Wednesday morning’s meeting, the Marshall County Board of Supervisors agreed to hold rent checks to the Marshalltown Mall until property taxes are paid for a space the county is currently using to store court records. Power has been shut off in the commons area and parking lot at the mall since November due to nonpayment by the ownership group, and County Treasurer Deann Tomlinson reported Wednesday that the biannual property tax payment due in March has not yet been paid.

As the Marshalltown Mall situation continues to languish with no resolution almost five months after the power was initially shut off due to nonpayment by the ownership group, the Marshall County Board of Supervisors discussed what to do about the space they are currently renting inside the facility to store court records until a digital scanning project is completed during Wednesday morning’s regular meeting.

Board Chairman Jarret Heil and Auditor/Recorder Nan Benson explained that the county has been holding its rent checks for the last few months and approaching the six-month mark that invalidates checks. In response to a question from Supervisor Carol Hibbs, Benson said she was not aware of any major changes to the overall situation as the power for the common areas and parking lots remains shut off and several former mall businesses have relocated to new spaces.

Benson also shared an update on the status of the court records.

“I think the last we heard, and Lucas (Baedke) may need to help me, (is that) they are boxing up information to go out for additional scanning of the court documents. And I think they’re getting ready for that final phase of things going out,” she said. “There are approximately 1,000 of the large books that are similar to my real estate books that are up in the stack room that are not going to be scanned, which was not what I originally understood.”

In response to a question from Benson, Supervisor Steve Salasek said he was not clear on whether all of the records would be scanned, and she noted that the county would need to find a long-term storage space for the 1,000 books she mentioned previously. The plan is to move out of the mall once the scanning is complete.

Salasek asked if the mall, which is owned by New York-based Kohan Retail Investment Group, has been “pressing” the county on the payments, and Benson said they haven’t heard a single word. Heil then asked if the mall had fulfilled all of its obligations to the county in its contract, and Benson said they had.

Salasek wondered if there was any possibility of nonpayment coming back to bite the county, and Heil said that he didn’t feel that it would, citing the lack of correspondence from the owners. Benson then noted that while the mall’s September property taxes had been paid, the March payment was still outstanding.

“The first half is paid, not second half,” Benson said.

Heil asked County Treasurer Deann Tomlinson about any tax sales on the property, and she said they have all been paid by the mall owners. The supervisors came to a consensus on continuing to hold their rent checks until the property tax payments are up to date, and Benson said they could always void the old checks if need be.

“I think that’s a good plan of attack. This has just been an unfortunate thing for our whole community,” Heil said. “I think this is a fair way for us to take a stance that we’re in disagreement with how they’re conducting themselves. At the same time, if things prevail, we’ll certainly fulfill our duty in paying, and we will pay if they follow up with us. But the fact that we’ve heard nothing from them and the people that are out there at the mall are hearing nothing from them, then they’ll hear nothing from us until that point in time.”

Tomlinson said she would notify the supervisors if the tax payment is made. No official action was taken.