Mitch Ledbetter, BOE chairman, said he was negotiating with LCUB for a lower price than the estimated $425,000.

The purchase was added to the BOE agenda and approved since LCUB wanted to be certain the district was going to purchase the land, Ledbetter said.

Ledbetter and Chris Clabough, BOE member, are both employees of LCUB but indicated in the meeting they were not benefiting from the purchase. Laci Murray, BOE member, also said she was an employee of Lenoir City and not benefiting from the purchase. News Herald 8/16/23

Ledbetter should have asked Lenoir City mayor Tony Aikens to negotiate with LCUB chairman Tony Aikens for a better deal on the property. Aikens sure got to city a great deal when they swapped the property with LCUB with a $200,000.00 boot to the city.

So the short version.

• In 2016, a developer bought the 16 acre parcel of property beside the Lenoir City Elementary school for $300,000.00.
• A year later, 2017, the developer donated the land to the Foothills Land Conservancy.
• In January of 2022, Foothills Land Conservancy donated 16 acres of the land to Lenoir City.
• Last year, Lenoir City swapped the 16 acres to LCUB for a much smaller parcel of land and $200,000.00
• Now LCUB sells the 16 acres to the Lenoir City school board for $425,000.00.

So Lenoir City made $200,000.00 off the free land, LCUB makes $225,000.00 off the free land and the Lenoir City school board foots the bill for all of them.

$425k sure would have helped the little children out a lot.

What a scam. 

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