Landowner Scoffs At $100 Offer By Government For Easement

Laughter erupted under Stan Sloan’s white cowboy hat earlier this week.

“Can you believe it? It’s insane,” Sloan said as he peered out from under the brim.

What had Sloan howling is the federal government’s offer to pay him $100 for an easement across a 30-foot-wide strip of land he owns in the Carnahan neighborhood in the eastern Spokane Valley.

The government needs the easement to run a water line to an alcohol and drug treatment facility it is building for Native American youth on 38 acres near Eighth and Carnahan.

There are other places to get water for the center, but it would be much more expensive and time-consuming.

Sloan, a Valley native now living in Post Falls, is feuding with the feds over the treatment facility. He doesn’t want it built in the neighborhood, saying it doesn’t mesh with the residential area.

He has vowed to grant the easement only at a very high price, much, much higher than $100.

“That’s an insult to my intelligence,” said Sloan, who developed a subdivision to the north of the center and installed the water main the government wants to tap into.

But that’s the government’s official offer, according to a letter from Kenneth Harper of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ regional office in Seattle.

The department paid a Spokane real estate appraiser more than $2,000 to put a value on the land.

Appraiser John T. McFadden and an assistant spent more than two weeks compiling a 36-page report on the value of the easement.

The report included a nearly page-and-a-half description of the Spokane County economy and contained breakdowns on the number of employees working at various businesses in the area.

“We spent more time than we should have, probably,” McFaddin said.

The appraiser concluded that the easement should cost no more than $100.

But the department may have some wiggle room.

Sloan said Harper, the lead engineer for the Seattle office, is scheduled to fly to Spokane July 31 to negotiate the offer with him.

Harper was in Alaska this week on business and unavailable for comment.

Sloan said he better bring more than the $100 offer with him.

“It’s a typical government rip-off,” said Sloan, who has threatened to run over with a bulldozer people trespassing on his land. “It ain’t gonna happen, not as long as my heart’s pumping blood.”

, DataTimes