ZEBULON – Commissioners last week made a difficult decision in hopes of selling two of Zebulon’s three former office buildings in downtown.

The town board took the advice of Scott Hadley, a real estate agent with NAI Carolantic who is responsible for listing the properties, to greatly decrease the asking prices on the former town hall and council chambers buildings.

Zebulon is now listing its old town hall, located at 100 N. Arendell Ave., at $145,000 – 44 percent less than the price first listed for the building after town employees moved to new offices at the Zebulon Municipal Complex four years ago. The new listing price for the old council chambers, located at 109 E. Horton St., is $85,000. That’s 60 percent less than the original price listed in the summer of 2010.

“I don’t think anybody wanted to cut the price, but we certainly weren’t getting any activity at the higher price – zero to be exact,” Mayor Bob Matheny said in an interview Wednesday. “We can continue to spend tax payers money to maintain empty buildings, or we can sell them and move on.”

The town had already backed down a total of $111,250 from its original listing prices for those two buildings and the old police station as it switched real estate agencies from Parrish Realty to NAI Carolantic in June of last year.

The former police station, located at 111 E. Vance St., is currently listed for sale at $242,000, but is in poor condition and would need extensive renovating to retain value. Hadley advised town leaders at their annual retreat on Feb. 26 to either donate the building to another entity or seek grant funding to rehabilitate the structure.

Commissioners at that meeting held off making a decision on the old police station until they could do some research and determine if it would be more cost effective to renovate, or get rid of the structure altogether.

At a meeting last Monday, Town Manager Rick Hardin informed the board it would cost an estimated $50,500 to demolish the old police headquarters.

“That’s $50,000 we don’t want to spend,” Commissioner Dale Beck said Wednesday. “I’d rather sell the place, to be honest.

“I don’t know what were going to get out it. The (building’s) use is pretty limited. That’s something we’re going to have to put some heart to.”

Commissioners again tabled a decision on the former police building Monday for further discussion at upcoming meetings.

The town planned to use money from the sale of the three old town buildings to replenish about $750,000 in reserve funds it used to pay for renovations to the new town hall and police station in the Zebulon Municipal Complex.