If you remember, the city went to residents of Valley View and allowed them to "vote" if they wanted the houses there. They voted NO. The neighbors on Captain Frank Road. They had no notification at all until they read it in the Tribune paper.
As for eminent domain, the state did take the land. You would think that the state wanted a free and clear title to the land, but they paid Ms. Peters $1200 and let her do another revisionary deed. Why did the state let her do that? The court did not look at the revisionary clause at all they just looked at that she got "paid".
The ball park had just had a $100,000 upgrade by the school system from being a long time softball field for the girls to a baseball field for the NAHS 9th grade boys.
The homeowners on Captain Frank Road tried to work with CHDO and the city. It was their way or the highway. The City of New Albany and CHDO lied when residents asked why they were digging basements when they all agreed to put them on concrete slabs until the lawsuit was settled. John Rosenbarger told Mrs. Gardenour to her face that they "weren't basements" It was just a way to "ease the houses on the lots!"
Our understanding that over the last few months a man or several men was given access to some of the remaining houses to strip what is in it. One resident confronted one man who said one of the houses "use to be his" and he was taking some of the stuff. However, it was all new kitchen cabinets he was stripping!
The police were called and the residents had found out the NAPD were the ones who let the guy in! Some man also took the oak doors off of one of the remaining houses.
Some other neighbor called David Brewer to see if he could have one of the doors and he was told NO.
We still wonder who owns or drives that white truck!
One has to wonder the lot that Mickey Thompson built his house on was owned by the city. We wonder if he paid for the lot or did the city give it to him. Evidently, he also has city owned equipment such as a bulldozer on his property.
Interesting!
There is little cause to celebrate demolition of 16 homes in Linden Meadows. For eight years, residents surrounding Linden Meadows have endured the degradation of their neighborhood.
Some of those residents spent $30,000 to stop this development which has been described as "one of the biggest messes New Albany has ever had!"
Not counting the hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars wasted and you have to ask why.
City attorney charged $250,000 to divert residents lawsuit away from the central issue. Whether the park was illegally seized. CHDO went bankrupt and defaulted on a $1 million loan. Taxpayers paid to demolish Linden Meadows.
The demolition leaves open the question: What happens now? Restore the Park? Return the land to its rightful owner? There are NO winners here! No one wins when our leaders in local government abuses their power. Those residents have severed eight years in a degraded neighborhood for a crime they DID NOT commit.
Is this their punishment for the crime of being citizens of the City of New Albany?
Freedom Of Speech would like to thank the following citizens:
Don and Edyth Jensen (granddaughter); Keith and Sharon Jensen (great grandson) Rebecca and Leonard Gardenour, Mary and Rick Hauber, Pete and Betty Cottenil, and Bill and Mary Reed.
It is citizens like you folks who stood up for what is right, this is why we expose the corruption and wasteful spending of our tax dollars in our town.
If Mrs. Fawcett was alive today she would be proud of each and everyone of you.
God Bless you all!
Freedom Of Speech Staff
