(a) Except as may be prohibited by law or otherwise, the county commission of a county is authorized by law to sell or dispose of any property, either real or personal, belonging to the county or held by it for the use of any district thereof. The property shall be sold either at an on-site public auction or by utilizing an Internet-based public auction service, and the sale shall be conducted by the president of the county commission, but before making the sale, notice of the time, terms, manner and either the location of the sale or the Internet-based public auction service to be utilized, together with a brief description of the property to be sold, shall be published as a Class II legal advertisement in compliance with the provisions of 59-3-1 et seq. of this code, and the publication area for the publication is the county: Provided, That this section does not apply to the sale of any one item of property of less value than $1,000.
(b) The provisions of subsection (a) of this section concerning sale at public auction do not apply to a county commission selling or disposing of its property for a public use to:
(1) The United States of America, its instrumentalities, agencies or political subdivisions;