CENTERVILLE—Davis County and Centerville City have been working on a plan the last few years to swap the land the Centerville Library sits on that is owned by the city with a portion of Porter-Walton Park that the county owns. The two entities have come to an agreement and are moving forward with the plan.

“The Mayor (Clark Wilkinson) brought it up that the city owned the library property,” said Davis County Auditor Curtis Koch. 

Centerville owns all of the park except a parcel that belongs to the county, he said. “The land is similar in size. The county and the city executed a property flip, flop.”

The parcel the county has now is 1.59 acres, said Koch. “The land that the library sits on is 1.54 acres. It just made a lot of sense.”

“We realized we had the opportunity to swap land,” said Centerville City Manager Brant Hanson. “This means we can own our own assets.”

Hanson said he doesn’t know the historical context of the original agreement. “I don’t know what the intent was but it doesn't make sense. It’s easy for us to do a swap but we also want to be transparent.”

The agreement is mutual, he said. “There’s no need for an appraisal because they’re similar in size.”

It’s a benefit to a city to have a library, said Koch. “When we do have the opportunity to put one in a city it’s not uncommon to have those agreements in place.”

Fifty years from now when a library needs to be built the county needs to have property for the future, he said. “The city needs property for parks in the future too.”

The county has been great to work with, Hanson said. “They’re doing a great job. This will allow us to have more events to get people out and more engaged.”