By Rusty Nixon Correspondent
PLYMOUTH — A mistake by an outside contractor for county tax sales, SRI Incorporated, has left several sales nullified.
Marshall County Auditor Penny Lukenbill reported to the Marshall County Commissioners that her office had discovered last Thursday that there was a problem in some of the county’s sales. A county conducting a tax sale of property must inform the owner of that property by registered letter that the sale is going to take place.

A ruling by the United States Supreme Court was that if those letters come back unaccepted or undelivered the county must then contact the owner by other means, which in the past has been by first class letter.
In asking for those contact letters for the purpose of keeping them on file, Lukenbill’s office found that SRI had not made the secondary attempt to contact in some cases, thus nullifying eight sales.
Sales by SRI in other counties have been nullified for the same reason.
Lukenbill said that the purchasers of the properties would be reimbursed their expenses plus 6 percent interest. She also stated that she didn’t believe the mix up would cost the county any money.
In other news:
• Emergency Management Agency Director Clyde Avery reported that 17 county agencies had submitted the National Incident Management System Capabilities Assessment Tool, by the Aug. 22 deadline and were therefore eligible for money from the Public Safety Interoptional Communications grant to put towards 800 mhz. radios for their departments.
Four agencies in the county did not meet the deadline for the assessment and therefore are not eligible for a portion of the approximately $194,000 grant – the town of Culver, the town of Bourbon, Culver/Union Township Ambulance Service, and the Culver Fire Department.
Avery reported that the Bourbon Police Department met with him and they were able to file their assessment by Sept. 1.
• Requests for project proposals on the Pierce Street Bridge project have gone out. Highway Superintendent Neal Haeck said that the RFP’s for construction engineering portion of the project will go out at a later date.
• Work on the Rightley Ditch project on North Michigan Street will begin today.