WEST MEAD TOWNSHIP — Though it’s taken almost eight months for the Economic Progress Alliance of Crawford County to resolve a land title issue to sell property at the West Mead Industrial Park, the agency’s executive director said it was the exception — not the rule.

“It’s an anomaly,” Mark Turner said.

The 108 acres that delayed the sale was part of a total of about 120 acres in the industrial park in four separate parcels that local businessman Blair Learn sought to buy last September in his effort to build a tooling and machining shop.

The Alliance and Learn recently closed the deal on the 120 acres for $105,000.

Learn will build a shop for Chipsco Precision Services, a firm that does micro laser welding for the tooling and machining industry. Learn expects to construct the building this summer.

Research for the sale found three of the four parcels — covering 5.843 acres, 4.443 acres and 1.087 acres, respectively — had no title issues, according to Turner.

However, the largest parcel — the 108.378 acres — didn’t have a clear title, he said.

“We were surprised,” Turner said of the title problem with the 108-acre parcel. “It’s property we never intended to do anything with. We never viewed it as value to us. Much of it (the 108-acre parcel) is wetlands.”

The Alliance has an inventory of property it holds and all have title insurance on them since they have mortgages on them, Turner said. A title insurance policy protects against potential loss due to disputes over the ownership of a property and defects in the title that weren’t found in the search of the public record. However, in the case of the 108 acres, “because there was no mortgage on the property there was no title insurance,” Turner said.

“To our knowledge everything (else) has clear title,” Turner said.

The Alliance won’t invest in title searches on each of the properties it already has title to because of the expense.

“We’ve done eight other transactions and had no problems,” Turner said.

To clear the title on the 108-acre parcel, the Alliance had to file suit in Crawford County Court of Common Pleas in February.

There was a question of potential right to claim ownership by Erie Land and Improvement Co. of Pennsylvania that went back to the 1920s. Erie Land and Improvement Co. was believed to have been a subsidiary of the former Erie-Lackawanna Railroad, which then became Conrail.