COLUMBUS– Polk County Commissioners are making an effort to preserve a historical home in the county by offering it and two buildings for sale if the buildings can be moved off the property.

The house and buildings are located at 221 Park St., Columbus, which the county purchased earlier this year as part of property on which the county is constructing a new law enforcement center.

Commissioners met Sept. 19 and heard from county manager Marche Pittman about the buildings.

“There’s two small houses and one two-story house out there we are going to need to do something with,” Pittman told commissioners. “We wanted to offer it to the public for sale first before we go a different route like tearing them down.”

The county purchased the property at 221 Park Street for $125,000 as part of the property to construct a new jail. Clearing of the land, including another more than 19 acres directly behind the Park Street property has begun, including a road from Park Street to the new jail property.

Commissioners unanimously agreed to surplus the homes to auction off at govdeals.com. The highest bidder will have to remove all three structures from the property.

County attorney Jana Berg said by having a buyer remove the structures from the property it will eliminate the county having to demolish them. She said the structures do have some historical value.

“They would have to move (the buildings) from the site within 30 days of their bid,” Berg said. “All sales are final.”

The two-story home has had some recent updates, with new windows and fixtures that could be of value to a buyer.

Commissioner Shane Bradley said if the structures don’t sell, a local fire department could use them to burn as training.

Pittman said if no one buys the houses as they are, since there is a lot of new materials in the main house, he would like to see some of that pulled out before the county allows the fire departments to burn them.

“We thought is was a good effort to try to salvage these historical structures,” Berg said.

The buildings were at one time were used as the county’s department of social services prior to the county having a building.