GettysburgAddress


TOWER OWNERS CRY FOUL


6/30/00
Firm's attorney says Park Service fudged the facts

Government officials misrepresented facts when they persuaded a federal judge to let them seize the National Gettysburg Battlefield Tower for demolition next week, an attorney said Thursday.

"It's all part of a big lie. This is just puff," said Irwin Aronson, a Camp Hill attorney who represents tower owners Overview Limited Partnership in Baltimore, Md.

Aronson said government attorneys gave U.S. District Court Judge Sylvia Rambo in Harrisburg incorrect information that National Park Service officials would save $1,030,473 in taxes if a demolition company could knock it down next Monday, July 3.

The lawyer raised the issue after Mark Loizeaux of Controlled Demolition in Phoenix, Md., said Tuesday it would typically cost $75,000 to $100,000 to knock down the 307-foot tower with explosives.

Controlled Demolition is doing the project at no charge, but holds national media rights and salvage rights for collapsing the 1,000-ton all-steel tower. Loizeaux said he has a contract with Mayer-Pollock in Pottstown, Pa., to buy the scrap steel, with an estimated value of $33,000.

Aronson said Rambo specifically cited the government figure of $1 million of taxpayer savings in her June 5 decision ordering Overview to turn keys to the tower over to Park Service officials by June 15.

And it turns out that the decision was based on not a million dollars, but probably about $42,000. I feel betrayed," Aronson said

He called it "callous misrepresentation" by government officials.

"What's critical here is that those misrepresentations were made to the Congress of the United States about the million dollars and the implosion, both of which were lies," he said.

Rambo issued her order after the government asked for permission to seize the tower without a routine hearing in the eminent domain process to show cause why the structure and 6.45 acres of land had to be taken at that time.

"Which meant I was never given a chance to examine or cross-examine any witness. The court was asked to, and indeed did, rely upon the representation of lawyers, who were officers of the court," Aronson said.

Park Service documents sent to the court indicate that Loizeaux said he could only do the explosive demolition on July3, a date also listed as good to attract media attention for the spectacle to be attended by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and possibly President Clinton.

"This is all so that someone gets a photo op. We're going to fly Babbitt in at taxpayer's expense to view this being toppled like a tree," he said.

"And they did it when they should have been engaged in a heightened scrutiny activity. Because based upon what they wanted, there weren't going to be any witnesses," the Overview lawyer said.

"So the judge was being asked to take what they said as gospel. And, indeed, if you look at her opinion, she did take it as gospel," he said.

U.S. Attorney David Barasch in Harrisburg said there was no misrepresentation of facts by government attorneys, and he has not heard of any official complaint by Aronson.

"The representation was made for the cost of deconstructing it, which was the only thing that the Park Service had estimated," Barasch said.

"The thing was never bid, obviously. It was never put out for bid," he said.

The dismantling estimate was based upon a 1999 Park Service estimate, which revised a 1993 cost estimate that listed disassembly as the most viable option.

"We were prepared to go out for bids to deconstruct the tower. That's what was represented to the court. It was clearly represented to the court. It wasn't hidden," Barasch said.

"It was based upon the technology the Park Service thought would be the most prudent to take the tower down," he said.

The Park Service had listed the tower disassembly in its 2001 fiscal budget submitted to Congress, but withdrew that funding request after Loizeaux had been contacted and said he would do it at no charge.

Barasch said the figures cited by Loizeaux may have not been the price he would have submitted to government officials if the project had been put out for bid for explosive demolition.

That figure may not include overhead, profit and removal costs. Loizeaux will not be able to claim a $1 million federal tax credit for the demolition, Barash said.

"I don't know that any of us will ever know what they would have bid the project had they been asked to bid the project," he said. "The point is we're then in the area of total and complete speculation, by me, by you, by anybody."


BUSINESSES NEAR TOWER AFFECTED BY DEMOLITION

6/29/00

BY ROBERT HOLT
Times Staff Writer

An Internet web site operator forced off the National Gettysburg Battlefield Tower said Wednesday his "Battle Cam' camera will be back in service next month with views of the national park.

"We're going to put it on a utility pole at the Home Sweet Home Motel," said Ray Kline of www.gettysburgaddress.com.

Kline's web site, a two-man operation, is the smallest of the several businesses being interrupted as a result of the tower being demolished by the National Park Service at 5 p.m. on Monday.

"We're still up on the web. It's just going to take us a little time to get the camera going again, " he said.

The new location will offer views of the Picket's Charge fields and Cemetery Ridge areas along Emmitsburg Road, Kline said

The camera was mounted on the tower until the structure was seized this month by the Park Service under eminent domain proceedings.

The web site operator said he is seeking compensation from the government for relocating the camera, but he has just started that process.

Ironically, the Home Sweet Home Motel is another private business inside the battlefield boundaries and listed for eventual acquisition. Kline said he is aware of the situation, but it was the best site he could obtain on short notice.

Since turning off his camera for relocation, he is running old photos recorded from atop the 307-foot tower.

Kline said he will video the tower being knocked down like a tree with explosive charges by Controlled Demolition of Phoenix, Md., but it will not appear on his web site until July 6th or 7th.

Kline is the last of three telecommunications operators to get equipment back into service after shutting down as the tower was turned over to the government on June 14 under a federal court order.

PCS One cellular operations for the Gettysburg area were down for a week until the company found a new antenna location on a GPU tower in the borough. No cost estimate on lost revenues is available.

AT&T Wireless set up a portable cellular antenna to maintain service after equipment on the tower was switched off.

On the day of the demolition, four businesses along Baltimore Pike will be shut down for about an hour beginning at 4 p.m. Those businesses are in a restricted area that Park Service officials said is necessary to ensure safety.

Econolodge officials said their patrons will be told to vacate the complex. They will be allowed to go across the road to watch the tower collapse from an area at the Battlefield Military Museum reserved for a Friends of the National Parks at Gettysburg reception.

But Econolodge officials said some patrons have canceled their reservations for the July 4 holiday, citing concerns.

Big Boppers Restaurant and Lounge is also shut down for the hour before the demolition, along with two Civil War boutiques, English Rose Cottage and Ladies of the Blue and Grey.

Demolition officials met with the business owners and officials for Evergreen Cemetery. But some merchants complained about a lack of public relations from the Park Service, with no information being provided until days before the event.

Officials at Controlled Demolition said they have been working on a short time schedule and did not have definite plans ready for release to the public before Tuesday.

Controlled Demolition officials said they are working without engineering plans for the tower built in the early 1970s, and it was not really necessary to have the schematics and diagrams.

However, tower owners Overview Limited Partnership in Baltimore, Md., said they were never asked for those plans, which are registered under a federal patient.


PARK SERVICE WANTS TO KEEP 'LOW KEY' TOWER DEMOLITION


6/18/00
By Tammie Gitt
Evening Sun Reporter

Controlled Demolition Inc, is expected to make announcements Monday concerning the implosion process for the National Tower at Gettysburg, but the National Park Service has talked generally about the plans.

"We're looking for a 5p.m. demolition," Gettysburg National Park superintendent John Latschar said. "We're going to keep it low key." The preliminary security plan calls for Baltimore Pike, Hunt Avenue and Taneytown Road to be cordoned off for about 15 minutes during the implosion, Latschar said.

The same schedule would apply to nearby businesses, he said.
The park service is already advising residents who can see the tower from their homes to watch the demolition from there, park spokeswoman Katie Lawhon said last week.

Meetings to address safety issues and describe the demolition process will be held with businesses and property owners in the area as the implosion date draws near, Lawhon said.

The demolition will be a "surgical process" in which explosions will cut the fourth legs and elevator shaft in sequence, causing the tower to topple into the parking area at the tower, Latschar said.

The explosions aren't going to be large.

"Even if you're up close, it's going to be hard to see the explosions," Latschar said.


NPS plans to stay within the boundaries



6/18/00
Critics question property being taken by eminent domain.

By Tammie Gitt
Evening Sun Reporter

The Government's taking of the National Tower at Gettysburg should have a "chilling effect" on property owners in Gettysburg.

So says longtime park critic Eric Uberman, who warns that the tower may not be the last Gettysburg-areas property to be taken by eminent domain.

Local park service administrators and their supporters would like to see both Steinwehr Avenue and Baltimore Pike returned to the conditions in which they exited at the time of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, Uberman said.

"If the government can come in and simply take your property and tell you what it's worth, where does it stop?" he said.

Park superintendent John Latschar has a simple answer at the boundary line for Gettysburg National Military Park.

The park service works to preserve the natural and historical resources within the park boundary. Branching out to Steinwehr Avenue is "beyond my mission," Latschar said.

Legislation passed in 1990 established the park boundary for the first time and enabled the park service to acquire privately held property within that boundary.

The park service started it's boundary study in 1987, according to park service documents. That study included four public workshops and numerous consultations to examine battle-related resources, identify concerns related to the park boundary and prepare a final boundary recommendation.

That, said Latschar, is when complaints should have been raised.

"The time for concern was in 1987 to 1990," Latschar said.

"The time to pay attention is during the planning."

In the end, that study led to the boundary legislation, which increased the size of the park by about 1,700 acres, encompassing about 100 privately owned tracts.

The legislation also charged the park service with protecting those tracts through the purchase of easements or the property itself. Latschar said.

"That's the end of it right there," he said. "The rest is just a matter of time."

That sentiment is what concerns Uberman, who believes such properties as the Home Sweet Home motel on Steinwehr Avenue could be the next to fall to the government.

Home Sweet Home is the only Steinwehr Avenue property within the park boundary, Latschar said.

It's not a good day in Gettysburg when the National Park Service can take what it wants," Uberman said.

So far, the park service has worked with willing sellers in purchasing the easements or properties, Latschar said.

It would like to have done the same with the National Tower, but the park service and the tower's owners, Overview Limited Partnership, were too far apart in their opinions of what the property was worth, Latschar said.

A 1993 park service appraisal set the value of the tower at $6.6 million, although more recent appraisals placed the value at $3 million. That amount has already been transferred to the courts as part of the eminent domain proceedings.

Irwin Aronson, attorney for the tower's principal owner Thomas Ottenstein of Overview Limited Partnership, was unavailable to comment on the negotiation process Friday.

The eminent domain process gives governmental bodies the right to seize property for the public good. In return, the government must pay the owner fair market value for the property.

One man directly affected by the taking of the National Tower said the government hasn't proven its actions were for the public's good.

Raymond Kline, operator of BattleCam, which broadcast pictures from atop the tower on the Internet, said it was a "travesty" that Gettysburg would lose an educational tool such as the tower.

"The tower has not been a battle to anyone but the park service, "Kline said.

Park service officials have been working with Kline, but the issue of compensation for the loss of his BattleCam business if not easily settled. "How do you compensate for the loss of Web visitors? he asked.

While the eminent domain issue concerns some, the fact that government's actions came in the midst of a public comment period on an environmental assessment concerns others. The assessment compared the options of removing the tower or letting it stand.

The park service "snuck" the court action in during the middle of the comment period to force its will, said Fred Schaff of New Oxford.

Schaff has been critical of the tower plan because it will remove one of the few overlooks accessible to the handicapped.

An authoritative park service believes it knows what is best and will take whatever actions are necessary to get what is wants, Schaff contends.

That the court papers and subsequent judgment transferring ownership of the tower came during that comment period is not a failure to follow procedures, Latschar said.

"Most people thought we didn't even need the environmental assessment," Latschar said, explaining that the park service's intention to acquire and dismantle the tower has been public knowledge for some time.

The park service, however, chose to issue the environmental assessment to make sure the public was aware of the two options. In the end, the park received less than a dozen comments on the assessment, Latschar said.

The Department of Justice and the National Park Service were running on dual tracks since the eminent domain papers against the tower were filed in December, Latschar said.

As the court case proceeded, the park service laid the groundwork for the tower's removal.

In January, the park service ran an advertisement for an engineering firm to work on the tower demolition in Commerce Business Daily, a specialized daily newspaper carrying federal and state job announcements. Latschar said.

"There's nothing wrong with both of these going on at the same time," Latschar said.

During the court proceedings, the government had to explain why it wanted the tower by June 2 and that is when the information concerning the Controlled Demolition offer went public, he said.

It's not the first time Controlled Demolitions has offered its services to demolish the tower.

Back in 1994, a man named Jim Holichek was trying to raise money to purchase the tower, Controlled Demolitions made a proposal to take it down at no cost to the government, Latschar said.

Those plans fell through, but officials kept the offer in mind.

Late last fall, park service officials contacted Controlled Demolitions to see if the company was willing to make the offer again. After checking its files, the company said it was willing to do so, Latschar said.

"If we hadn't had the offer, we would have bone through the bidding process," he said.


Judge orders tower owners to clear out

JUNE 6, 2000
"Mostly we're upset for the people who have worked for the tower and have worked there for years. They are kind, decent, hard-working, dedicated folks who don't deserve to be whipsawed like this by their government." ----Overview Limited attorney Irwin Aronson

National Gettysburg Battlefield Tower owners have two weeks to clear out after a federal judge Monday granted the National Park Service approval to quickly seize the site for a planned explosive demolition.

U.S. District Court Judge Sylvia Rambo ordered Overview Limited, and leaseholders which include two cellular telephone companies, to vacate the 307-foot tower and 6.45 acres of land by June 15. The judge's ruling came before a deadline set today for state officials and other defendants to file objections to the government seizing the property without a standard hearing required in eminent domain cases.

Justice Department attorneys declined any comment about the decision. Park Service officials said last week they are no longer allowed to comment. The state Attorney General's office said it sought the delay in Rambo's ruling last week only to give various agencies time to assure they held no liens or easements on the site.

Tower owners, Overview Limited Partnership of Baltimore, MD., said they will cease daily operations at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday to allow time for them and vendors to clear out equipment and inventory.

"Mostly we're upset for the people who have worked for the tower and have worked there for years, "said Overview Limited attorney Irwin Aronson, said referring to several staff who have been on the payroll for more than 20 years. "They are kind, decent, hard-working, dedicated folks who don't deserve to be whipsawed like this by their government," Aronson said, noting staff were told as soon as he received the order.

Rambo gave Park Service officials authority to take possession of the site in time to complete a deal with Controlled Demolition of Phoenix, Md., to knock the tower down with explosive charges on July 3, the anniversary of the Civil War battle and a peak time for tourists.

In return for video rights, Controlled Demolition officials said they willknock down the tower at no cost tot he government, which will save Park Service officials more than $1 million.

In their request to take possession of the tower without a possession hearing, Park Service administrators said they needed control of it five days ago to complete the doemolition on July 3. The June 15 possession date gives Controlled Demolition crews 18 days to have explosive charges by the deadline the salvage company officials set in a "one-time offer."

Mark and Stacey Loizeaux at Conrolled Demolition have not returned repeated calls for comment. A company employee said last week they are not allowed to comment.

Aronson expressed disappointment that his clients were forced out for benefit of Controlled Demolition officials who plan to make a profit from the tower demolition.

"What the judge said is it appears to her that the government's argument that it stands to save the taxpayers a million dollars is more important than our 30 years in the commmunity and our employees and our vendors," Aronson said.

The lawyer noted Rambo did write a footnote in the opinion expressing some reservations about the Park Service deal with Controlled Demolition. "Even the court thought what was going on was crass and commercial," Aronson said.

At issue was whether the government was justified in wanting to take the property, which was added to the battlefield boundaries in 1990, without a hearing under the eminent domain process. After the government launched condemnation proceedings last December, Overview officials had hoped to remain open for most of the traditional tourist season.

Now, Overview and officials for cellular phone companies are uncertain if they can have all equipment cleared out by the deadline.

"We may lose a lot of things in the process, because we don't have enough time to get things together," Aronson said.

PCS One Vice President Michael Schwartz said he was unsure what alternatives his company will have if it cannot move its cellular transmitter, or the impact of relocation on customer service. "I hope (phone) service will not get disrupted," he said.

Ray Kline, who leases space on the tower for a camera that transmits battlefield images to his Gettysburg web site, also said he had no alternative transmission site yet. He also noted he is not being offered any compensation for his losses.

Apparently, whatever equipment and supplies are not removed from the tower site by June 15 can be confiscated by the government, Aronson said. "They will have to compensate us for it," he noted.

The financial compensation issue is still a subject of controversy. The government recently placed $3 million in an escrow account based upon a recent property appraisal that is exactly half of a 1996 $6.6 million valuation by federal representatives.

Local tax revenue impact of the government seizing the tower under eminent domain will be immediate because the company has caneled scheduled bus tours that generated some of the admissions taxes collected by Cumberland Township and Gettysburg schools.

There are also questions about whether the company is obligated to pay county, township and school district property taxes after the Park Service took the site in March. The tower operation generated more than $100,000 in mostly local tax revenues.

BY ROBERT HOLT---Times staff Writer

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