In what should have been nothing more than a check-off on a to-do list, securing permission to expand existing easements on two properties south of the site of the new Allen County Hospital has turned into a headache for hospital trustees.
The 25-foot easement across the two properties currently contains a water line placed by Rural Water District No. 5 years ago. For the new hospital, gas and wastewater lines need to be added.
But in what has become a prolonged battle between parties, “a lack of cooperation” exists to grant the extensions to the county, according to Iola administrator Carl Slaugh, who is working with hospital trustees to facilitate the agreement.
In an effort to expedite the process, a majority of hospital trustees voted Tuesday night to offer as much as $2,300 to get the issue settled. The price was determined based on the value of the land in question, said Alan Weber, legal adviser to the trustees.
Bob Macha and Fountain Villa own the properties. Trustees discussed the matter in executive session and did not disclose if both landowners or just one was making the process unusually difficult.
In phone calls this morning to both Jodi Monsour, director of Fountain Villa Residential Care, and his mother, Della J. Monsour, owner, and a resident of Chanute, they claim innocence of the impasse.
“I thought this was all taken care of,” said Della Monsour. “If the holdup is because of me, let me know.”
Jodi Monsour claimed he was the new hospital’s biggest fan.
“I’m 100 percent for it and would in no way hold up the process,” he said.
The mood was sour during the vote. Sean McReynolds was the lone nay, while Karen Gilpin, Patti Boyd, Debbie Roe, Jay Kretzmeier, Harry Lee and Tom Miller voted to extend the monetary appeasement in order to expedite “getting the paper signed,” Gilpin said.
In his years as a city administrator, Slaugh said paying a landowner to get access to his property to lay utility lines “is not how we typically handle things.
“Sometimes people feel this is a way they can hold a city hostage.”
A “worst case scenario would be if we would have to use our authority to condemn the property if they don’t cooperate,” Slaugh said.
The payment, hopefully, will help avoid that more timely and costly procedure.
“All we want is to stick a pipe under the ground,” he said.
