Town Of Oriental Sale Of Property?

I've been puzzling over the mayor's special message of two weeks ago:

"The Town of Oriental is exploring the possibilities of sale or exchange of property in the vicinity of the west end terminus of South Avenue and Avenue A.  No action was taken by the Town Board of Commissioners at the special meeting held on Friday, January 13, 2012.  In the event the Town receives an offer, such offer will be a public record available for inspection.  Such offer would be taken up at a subsequent public meeting."

As of Friday, the mystery has been removed.

What had been puzzling is that the town owns no property in the vicinity of the west end terminus of South Avenue and Avenue A. The town only owns, on behalf of the public, the public rights of way in that vicinity.

Furthermore, a town can't sell such a public right of way, because some other party owns the underlying property rights. The only option available to the town if it no longer wishes to maintain custody of a dedicated and accepted right of way is to abandon it. If the town abandons a right of way, ownership reverts to the party that owns the underlying "dirt." Determining the party who owns the underlying "dirt" can be complicated in the older part of town.

We now know that Mr. Chris Fulcher wants to trade some of his existing property leading to Oriental Harbor for the terminus of South Avenue and for Avenue A. The proposal might or might not be a good deal for the town.

There are two questions for the board to examine:
1. Will the property to be "donated" to the town equal or exceed the value to the town and to the public of the existing right of way providing public access to the harbor?;
2. Can the proposed exchange be negotiated in a way that avoids at least one and probably two or more legal obstacles?