By Billy Davis

Rolando Curtis Foods, the Crenshaw factory that never opened for business, may change title holders if unpaid taxes from 2008 mature August 31.

High Sierra Tax Sale Properties, Inc. paid the 2008 taxes for the dilapidated factory at 101 Jones Street and approximately 10 acres of land.

Two parcels of Rolando property were listed in a public notice of maturing properties that published June 7 in The Panolian.

Property taxes for Rolando have also gone unpaid for 2009 and 2010 according to Panola County tax records.

Rolando’s 2008 property taxes on two parcels totaled $17,814. The owed amount has jumped to $27,500 after interest and fees are included.  

A spokesman for High Sierra said the company pays taxes on delinquent properties as an investment and is not interested in gaining ownership of the factory and acreage.

A reporter who contacted High Sierra explained that the property had once been in county hands before the Board of Supervisors transferred the former Dana plant to Rolando CEO Roland Butler in 2006.

High Sierra, based in Meridian, paid taxes on numerous Panola County properties during the 2008 tax sale, according to the public notice.

“It’s an investment. That’s all,” said company representative Debbie Carroll. “We’ll work with the lien holder. If the county wants it back, we can work with them.”  

Property owners who owe past-due taxes are charged 1 ½ percent each month after a February 1 deadline passes for payment of taxes each year.

Those delinquent properties are sold at auction the following August, when the buyer pays the taxes and therefore has claim to the property. If the property owner later pays the taxes and penalties, the land reverts back to the owner while the tax sale buyer receives the interest payment.

The interest, which is equal to 18 percent annually, is regarded as a business investment by High Sierra and other companies and individuals that attend the tax sale each August, explained Chancery Clerk Jim Pitcock.

Most property owners pay the taxes and penalties before the property “matures,” which comes 24 months after the August tax sale, Pitcock said.

An average 800 Panola Countians owe delinquent property taxes each year, of which 100 of them will mature to the new owner, he said.

If Rolando’s two property taxes “mature” August 31, High Sierra can request a tax deed for the two parcels in Crenshaw.

Pitcock further explained the tax deed does not give High Sierra a clear title to the Rolando property, but the company has the right to resell the property to its original owner and name the price.

Few investors pay the property taxes with plans to own the property, which involves three years of paying delinquent property taxes then a court hearing, said the chancery clerk.

Pitcock also reported the chancery clerk’s office will send a letter to lien holders to alert them of property that has matured at the tax sale.

Panola County records show a Colorado firm, Dill Ski Aspen, LLC, is the lien holder for the Rolando property.

The Panolian has reported that Butler apparently used the Rolando plan to obtain a $1.4 million loan from Dill Ski Aspen.

Pitcock said court records  indicate the property has never been released by the lien holder, meaning Butler may have never repaid the loan to Dill Ski Aspen.

Carroll, with High Sierra, said it’s common practice for the tax sale company to contact a lien holder about the maturing taxes.