Treece ? An auction of dozens of properties in the former Kansas mining town of Treece on Saturday brought in a little less than $27,000 that will go into a community buyout fund.

The sale, conducted by the Treece Relocation Assistance Trust, included about 30 houses, mobile homes and other structures that the trust had purchased from owners in a voluntary federal buyout. The Joplin Globe reports many of the structures, including Jesus Name Pentecostal Church, sold for $50 or less.

The Environmental Protection Agency has allotted $3.5 million to relocate Treece residents who want to leave. The town, like Picher just across the state line in Oklahoma, is contaminated with mine waste that accumulated over several decades of lead and zinc mining.

Both communities are undermined and contaminated with waste. State and federal money aided Picher residents in a buyout because of fears the town could collapse, and Treece is now going through a similar process.

Sam Freeman, who lived in Picher, Okla., for 50 years and was a former city councilman, mayor and volunteer firefighter, bought the church for $50. He said he plans to give the pews to another church and sell what he can from inside the building.

Despite his apparent bargain, Freeman wasn’t rejoicing as he watched another community move toward extinction.

“It didn’t set too well, but it’s over and done with,” he said of the communities’ demise.

Auctioneers made quick work of the sale Saturday, wrapping the whole thing up in less than an hour. Seven properties didn’t sell.

“That was not surprising at all because they’re already stripped out” by vandals, said Bob Jurgens, chief of the Assessment and Restoration Section of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

He said some of the houses in the auction were in good enough shape to be moved to another site, while others were good for salvage only.

After Freeman sold his house in the Picher buyout, a tornado on May 10, 2008, wrecked much of the community, including his former home.

“They say things happen for a reason,” Freeman said. “But it’s hard to give up home.”