Koeneman auction ruled out of order

Ken Johnston

After a week of preparation, the bubble burst on the Town of Rainy River’s plans to auction off the chattels at the former Koeneman Lumber Saturday.
The plant, located on Highway 11 in Rainy River, was seized for back taxes dating back more than three years. At the time of seizure there was a substantial amount of lumber on site as well as a great deal of equipment.
In an effort to try and recover some of the lost money in back taxes, the Town decided to hold an auction of the lumber and some of the equipment. That was slated for last Saturday.
On Friday those plans all came to a screeching halt when a court injunction was served to the Town.
Mayor Glen Armstrong said that the injunction came from Northern Minnesota Paving and Norfab Manufacturing. The first plaintiff is a company owned by the former owner of Koeneman Lumber and the latter is from Fort Frances. Both claim that items in the plant belong to them and cannot be sold; items that were not part of Koeneman Lumber. “Norfab claims the fork lift is theirs,” said Mayor Armstrong.
The injunction is in effect until October 18, 2004 at which time the Town will have to go before a judge with its lawyer to determine whether they can proceed with another auction. “Our lawyer is out of the country at this time,” said the mayor.
Armstrong said that the town thought all the questions of ownership have been clarified before proceeding with the sale. So who is responsible for this mistake? Mayor Armstrong pledged to get to the bottom of it.
The town crew was busy for about a week gathering, bundling and putting all the lumber outside the plant for sale. Tuesday they have to put it all back inside the plant until the town is cleared to sell the chattels.