Bike Path Meeting

If you remember in an earlier POST ,there was discussion on the PORTLAND bike path that had hit a snag with two landowners. I still have to be careful what I post here, so this will be a pretty vanilla scenario of what's going on.

Things really haven't progressed much since the last meeting except that all offers have been refused by the one party by our hired negotiator. The other party has not picked up their phone once in several attempts to contact and didn't answer his door at repeated attempts to stop by their house.

I think that many are feeling frustrated and the discussion has now centered around asking the PORTLAND City Council to approve a Quick Take on the land. Unfamiliar with the term? Me too. I just looked it up and found the following:

Quick take: In many states, there is a specific procedure that allows the government to deposit with the court the amount it thinks the property is worth and then take possession of it very quickly. Sometimes there is no opportunity for a hearing before the government takes possession. For residences, there is usually a somewhat longer period before the person must leave, but businesses in some states can be evicted very quickly. Once the government takes possession of a property through quick take, it can (and often does) demolish the buildings in question.

While we are not looking to demolish any buildings or kick anybody out of their homes, we need to get rolling on this stretch of bike path. We have federal funds to be considered and the clock is ticking. For those of you in the PORTLAND area, be prepared for more details. When the time comes, we need to show our support at the PORTLAND city council meeting and send an email barrage of support to the council before the meeting.

That's probably more details that I should divulge at this point, but things are about to happen pretty fast anyway, and most of the council are ready for it to happen anyway. Maybe I'll live to see this through!