Posted on 11/23/2005 8:26:13 AM PST by Osage Orange
A sad display by OSU
By Tamara Colbert Maschino
My mother recently received a letter that has shattered her belief in the justice of the world. For more than 50 years, my family has owned a home in Stillwater that has been the center of my mom's universe, a home where she raised children, a home that has provided shelter and comfort in our family's lives. A home she has recently completed remodeling and lovingly cared for with the hopes of staying in it for the rest of her life.
A short paragraph in a cryptic certified letter stated, "The Oklahoma State University Foundation has hired Cinnabar Service Company to assist them in acquiring land, and improvements for the proposed Master Plan, expansion of the existing campus." My mother, a senior citizen, called me with questions. She didn't understand what the letter meant. She was justifiably upset. The letter didn't contain any information on what was happening to her neighborhood.
I began to research and discovered that our beloved home was on a list to be acquired to build a sports complex. Is this how the city of Stillwater and Oklahoma State University reward its longtime residents and senior citizens, by depriving them of the homes they have worked hard for? How callous a method of informing residents. It's appalling.
The speed of the acquisition timeline is truly frightening to our family. Is OSU in the business of tossing seniors out of their homes? My mother purchased this home with my father when she was 21. She is now 77. She has lived in that house for 56 years and raised three children there. She had tears in her voice when she asked me how could they condemn her home when it's so well maintained.
My family was in Stillwater for the OSU homecoming activities and the football game. My mother prepared an early Thanksgiving dinner for my brother and me and we had a wonderful family weekend. I couldn't have believed that could have been the last Thanksgiving meal our family would ever enjoy in our home. Will this also be our last Christmas in our family home?
An official with Cinnabar Services told me the timeline for taking my mother's home and her neighbors' would be by June 1, and that OSU has this right because of eminent domain.
Where is my mother going to move? She's a senior citizen, she never expected to be forced from her home at this stage in her life. I am disgusted by this. Shame on you, city of Stillwater, and shame on you Oklahoma State University. If you're a homeowner in this large affected area, now is the time to say no, we will not be leaving our homes.
Thank you for the excellent insight. I expected nothing less when I sent out the ping. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.
True, but property owners do not have to accept the initial offer for their properties. Eminent Domain seziures can be successfully appealed for (in most cases) a lot more than the initial offer.
What most folks don't realize is that appeals can be based on the future value of the proposed project that is the basis of the seziure. In cases that are appealed on that basis land owners can often reap as much as 10 to 15 times the initial offer.
Every one affected by this needs to enlist the services of attorneys who specialize in eminent domain cases.
Take care
Thanks for that, I was not aware of the magnitude of the potential increase.
Every one affected by this needs to enlist the services of attorneys who specialize in eminent domain cases.
Sound advice, and far better then what some other reactions may be.
That is my Prayer.
And I can point to dozens of people who, although they have never been closer to a classroom than to drive down Lindsey Ave, speak of OU football in the first person plural. "We" and "Our". My point is that there are thousands of people around here that are so shallow that they must live vicariously through a school's sports team. The idea of flattening an old woman's home to build a parking lot for drunken high school dropouts makes perfect sense...
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
Is it the STATE of OK that is really doing this?
No, O'Connor is from AZ. I HOPE her home isn't in jeopardy, she voted against eminent domain in Kelo.
Sorry I really choked on that post. Too much information to handle.
Amazing how it becomes somebody else's problem that a university failed to plan ahead. They should have set aside land for expansion when it was built. If they did that, but the university has grown beyond what was planned for, then too bad. Time to build up instead of out. Or time to build a separate campus.
Grabbing people's homes for a "sports arena" is a really poor excuse. A sports arena is not even part of their primary mission -- education.
We are so far down the socialism road that we no longer recognize the proper role of (American) government. The constitution made clear that role, but that is now made almost unrecognizable by years of the new and improved 'living constitution'. I never would have imagined the America I learned to love as an immigrant would come to this.
Someone hit a sore point with you?
LOL.
If your thin skin ever heals, realize most all of us have not done enough to fight E.D. abuse.
I have to hand it to Boortz on this. He's unwittingly been doing God's work on eminent domain.
"My mother recently received a letter that has shattered her belief in the justice of the world."
We have many serpents in this thorny garden. The question is, which serpent to weaken or kill first? In this case, I'd be preaching to the choir to say which.
"We are hearing about more and more of these acquisitions since they ruled on the Connecticut case. Disgusting!"
The tyrannical court system drank poison on this issue, IMO. They are never going to win the hearts, minds, or even a crumb of trust from the American People as more-and-more of these horror stories come out. Poke a sleeping lion enough times with a needle and you will learn what happens.
Let them buy land on the free market like everyone else.
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