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Letter to the editor

Lyons property comes with more than just a price tag

By SHERRI DAY, Times Staff Writer
Published October 5, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - A vacant lot owned by the Rev. Henry J. Lyons is set to hit the auction block later this month for failure to pay property taxes over a six-year period, Pinellas County tax records show.

Lyons has a $4,252.37 outstanding tax bill on the property, a 50- by 127-foot residential parcel near the southwest corner of 24th Street S and Fourth Avenue S, according to tax records.

Reached by phone late Thursday, Lyons said he had no comment on the sale.

Lyons, 65, purchased the property with his former wife, Deborah L. Lyons, in 1994, according to Pinellas County property appraiser's records. Valued at $22,900 on the 2006 tax roll, the property is scheduled to go on sale Oct. 17, tax officials said.

But potential buyers take note: The parcel comes with several liens from local and federal governments. The city of St. Petersburg, for example, has assessed several hundred dollars in fines for yearly land clearing.

It is unclear how the federal liens will affect the property's potential owners.

Lyons, who once led the National Baptist Convention USA, served nearly five years in state prison for swindling more than $5.2-million from the religious organization's corporate partners. He was released in 2003 and now leads a church in Tampa.

Times researchers Caryn Baird and John Martin contributed to this report. Sherri Day can be reached at 813-226-3405.

[Last modified October 5, 2007, 00:03:13]