Sale of donated land brings $616,000 to help maintain Kiplinger buildings

Caleb Trail of rural McCook, Nebraska, right, talks with Gateway Realty auctioneer Johnny Walker Wednesday morning, after Trail purchased, for $616,000, the quarter section of farm land that McCook-area farmer-rancher Tom Kiplinger gave to Red Willow County in 2013. Caleb said Wednesday morning that he and his wife, Joy, own land nearby and plan to farm the land themselves. Also participating in the conversation with Walker was Trail's lender, Trista Hansen of the McCook office of Farm Credit Services of America. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette)

McCOOK, Nebraska -- The quarter section of farm land that McCook-area farmer-rancher Tom Kiplinger gifted to Red Willow County in 2013 sold for $616,000 in a public auction Wednesday morning.

The buyer is Caleb Trail of rural McCook, who, with his wife, Joy, owns land near the Kiplinger land located about five miles southwest of McCook. They plan to farm the land themselves, Caleb said following the sale.

Gateway Realty auctioneer Johnny Walker started the bidding at $550,000, the minimum bid set by the county fair board and county commissioners. The land was appraised at $685,000.

Walker told the 40-or-so gathered for the sale that he had a live bid of $550,000, and the bidding proceeded from there -- from $3,500 an acre to $3,600 an acre ... to $3,700 ... to $3,800 ... to $3,825. Bidding ended, after a couple recesses, with Trail's bid of $3,850 per acre.

After the sale, fair board president Bob Haag said, "It brought more than the minimum." He had thought it could bring more than it did, he said.

Red Willow County attorney Paul Wood said in November 2013 that the use of proceeds from the sale would be guided by the purpose and restrictions of an endowment agreement written by Kiplinger.

Proceeds from the sale will go into the Red Willow county treasury. Expenditure of the funds will be determined by a endowment committee named by Kiplinger -- Charlie Collins, Deb Lafferty, James Uerling, C.E. Nichols, Debra Christy, Boyd Adkinson and Marty Sis.

In April 2013, Kiplinger created the endowment fund and agreement, "The Tom and Alice Kiplinger Endowment Fund," to take care of the two arenas, pens, stalls and handling facilities that he has had built on the fairgrounds since 2002-03. Alice was Tom's mother; in the late 1980s, as they made estate plans, she encouraged her son to build an indoor arena that ropers, like himself, could use year-round.

The endowment agreement written by Kiplinger and accepted by county commissioners stipulates that proceeds from the sale of the land (or from its rental) are to be used to operate, maintain and promote the Kiplinger complex on the fairgrounds into perpetuity.

The county retains 50 percent of minerals for 20 years, or as long as production continues.