The Center for Rural Development announced Tuesday after a special board meeting that it will “pause” a proposed $1.3 million land deal that faced criticism from local officials.
The move comes four days after Kentucky Public Radio first reported on local officials’ concern the nonprofit was using state funding to purchase land at an inflated cost. Pulaski County Judge-Executive Marshall Todd said the Center for Rural Development was closing on purchasing property for a new regional training center at a price that was more than three times the amount it sold for just two years ago.
The wooded land in question is owned by Bill Turpen, the chairman of the Pulaski County Republican Party. He is related by marriage to Congressman Hal Rogers, the 23-term Republican who is closely tied to the Center for Rural Development.
Both Turpen and Lonnie Lawson, the longtime CEO of the nonprofit, denied any wrongdoing in the potential land deal, which Lawson said over the weekend was still in negotiations.
The board of directors for the Center for Rural Development called for a special meeting Tuesday, after which they released a resolution announcing the land purchase is on hold.
“The Center for Rural Development Board moves that we immediately pause the current process for the Regional Training Center, including any negotiation for land purchase, and that The Center board of directors receive a full review of our process and options at our next board meeting,” the resolution states.
The resolution added that because of questions related to the price of the property at issue, the board will direct the center’s staff to stop negotiations for the land and “look elsewhere for other suitable property to accomplish the Regional Training Center initiative with the final piece of property selection subject to The Center’s approval before purchase.”
The resolution ended with: “It is very important that The Center maintain the public’s trust.”
Judge-Executive Todd called the potential use of state funding to buy land at an inflated price an “embarrassment” to the community and hoped it could be stopped, as he was told the purchase was closing Monday. Somerset Mayor Alan Keck had also expressed concern about the potential overpayment for the property.
Andrew McNeil, the president of the conservative Kentucky Forum for Rights, Economics & Education, criticized the “outrageous offer” for the property last week, saying it showed that “the Center for Rural Development is more interested in rewarding a friend of Hal Rogers instead of being a responsible steward of taxpayer funds.”
Tuesday, McNeil said the nonprofit’s board deserves credit for their decision to instruct management to pause negotiations for the Turpen property, calling it “a win for the taxpayers.”
Rogers’ involvement with the Center for Rural Development has been both praised and scrutinized for decades, as he has played a role in directing hundreds of millions of federal and state dollars to the nonprofit and others affiliated with it.
A spokesperson for Rogers said last week that he "doesn’t have anything to do with daily operations of the Center for Rural Development or any nonprofit organization."
The Kentucky General Assembly appropriated $8.5 million in this year’s session to go to the Center for Rural Development for a regional training center.
House Bill 1 originally directed these funds to go to the Lake Cumberland Area Development District, but a last-minute amendment to another bill passed on the last day of the 2024 legislative session directed them to the Center for Rural Development instead, saying they would collaborate with the regional development district.
This story may be updated.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
