GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Proceeds from an eminent domain case dating back more than a decade will help one Middleburg resident pay off some of the liens against her properties.

The Board of County Commissioners voted 5-0 Tuesday to accept a payment of $81,500 to resolve $96,050 in county liens held against a property owned by Jacinta Blackmon, the trustee in a living trust.

Blackmon was awarded an undisclosed amount by the Florida Department of Transportation in an eminent domain case which started in 2005. The case involved 1.3 acres of land that fronted Blanding Boulevard which was turned over to Blackmon in a living trust and then acquired by FDOT through eminent domain.

Before Blackmon can access the money, she is required by the court to settle the liens against the property in the trust. Prior to Tuesday’s meeting Blackmon attempted to settle the liens for about $40,000, which the BCC denied.

In addition to the property for which she serves as trustee, Blackmon has accumulated $13,700 in liens on property she owns individually. As part of the same offer, Blackmon requested that the board accept the $81,500 payment for the trustee and individual properties, a proposal the board denied.

“I’m not really excited about giving the rest [of the liens] up,” Bolla said. “She wasn’t in any hurry to clean these up, she didn’t really do anything for us, and I can’t see why we should grant that part of it.”

Commissioner Diane Hutchings, however, suggested that they offer to reduce the individual liens to the amount spent by the county on staff time to deal with the issues, totaling at around $9,460 of that $13,700. “That would be consistent with how we’ve treated others,” Hutchings said.

Commissioner Mike Cella agreed and commented on why they just couldn’t let the individual liens go without some payment.

“We should get something of that $13,000,” Cella said. “We spent the time, energy and money to follow up on those liens and in many of these situations that’s what we’ve tried to do is at least get the taxpayers’ dollars back and that’s what I think we need to do.”