This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The polygamous trust managed by the state of Utah has sold a fire station, a nursery and a building used by a charity.
A judge overseeing the case approved all three sales in December. The trust, called the United Effort Plan, owns many of the homes and buildings in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., collectively known as Short Creek and home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
The United Effort Plan has been slowly selling commercial property to raise funds to pay bills and to divest its holdings.
The fire station and nursery have been vacant. The old Colorado City Fire Department station was sold to Colorado City Unified School District for $160,000, according to documents filed with the court. Those documents say the school district plans to use the building and surrounding 7.59 acres as a bus garage.
The former Western Nursery business has been sold for $100,000, according to court documents. The buyer, a company called Basket & Bowls, intends to re-open the nursery, the documents say.
Both the fire station and nursery are being sold for close to their assessed and appraised values, but the log building formerly occupied by Holding Out Help, which assists people leaving polygamous communities, is being sold for well below value.
The United Effort Plan is selling the building for $90,000. It's assessed value is $234,871.
The buyer is another charity called Grace Reigns. According to documents filed with the 3rd District Court, the trust's fiduciary, Bruce Wisan, is selling the building at below cost so Grace Reigns can assist residents in Short Creek. The charity, according to the documents, has a plan to install a thrift store, sports field and basketball court on the property.
"Grace Reigns is a Christian charity organization designed to provide an environment where grace and love is encouraged and lavished upon a community ravaged by the ills of autocracy," Brody Olson, Grace Reigns' president, is quoted as saying in court documents that sought approval of the sale.
Holding Out Help decided it no longer needed a building in Short Creek. It opened a house in Draper in November.
The state of Utah seized the United Effort Plan in 2005 over concerns that FLDS President Warren Jeffs was mismanaging it. Jeffs has since been convicted in Texas of crimes related to marrying and sexually abusing 12- and 15-year-old girls. He is serving a sentence of life plus 20 years.
The sales were approved by 3rd District Judge Richard McKelvie, who took over the case this fall. Judge Denise Lindberg, who had overseen the United Effort Plan since 2005, retired.
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