 | Sertoma Park | Raemar Circle, Widefield CO 80911 |
Most Viewed Stories
Poll
SIDE STREETS: It's 'put up or shut up' and Widefield is silent
Here's a link to a 2008 Side Streets column I wrote on Sertoma Park.
I’m scratching my head. And it’s not that darn lice again.
I can’t figure out some of the folks in unincorporated Widefield.
You may remember them. They screamed bloody murder a few years ago over the loss of a neighborhood park.
Suddenly, now they have the chance to own the land and keep it forever and they aren’t jumping at the chance.
In fact, I’m sensing a collective shrug from the neighborhood.
This after they engaged in one of the ugliest neighborhood battles I’ve ever seen.
The fight revolved around a hilly, wooded 5.4-acre vacant lot and pond surrounded by homes.
From the time the subdivision was built in 1969-70, neighbors had been promised a park on the land. It even had a name, Sertoma Park. But the park never was built.
Instead, the land ended up as property of the Widefield School District, which held onto it until 2006 when it sold it for $50,000. Developer Ron Hall took an option on the land and announced plans for a 72-unit senior living center.
It was spring 2008 when the neighborhood erupted, rallied by Joe Berkhoff, who grew up playing in the lot and still lives nearby with other family members.
Berkhoff was enraged and loudly attacked the sale by the school district. He alleged dirty tricks in the transfer of ownership, threatened Hall and even asked the new owner, Daryl Slinkard, to undercut Hall and sell the land to him and the neighbors.
“He offered me $175,000 for it,” Slinkard said. “But my option to Hall was for $210,000.”
The land was more than just a place Berkhoff played or neighbors walked their dogs. Berkhoff’s aunt, Anna Maria Stevens, used the land as the driveway to her garage. And the emergency access roads proposed by Hall meant turning the cul de sacs where they lived into through-streets.
Of course, all their stomach acid was wasted. The El Paso County Commission granted Hall a special use permit and he began designing his center.
Things turned even uglier when Hall retaliated against Berkhoff and the neighbors by piling concrete barriers in front of Stevens’ garage, blocking her access for a few days.
Then everything seemed to stop. Hall’s plan ran into problems with El Paso County planners who rejected his plans for drainage. And, like many developers, Hall ran into financial problems.
It now appears the senior living center may never get built.
Slinkard is selling the land, asking $150,000.
Funny thing, he is not finding any takers.
“I called Berkhoff first,” Slinkard said. “I even offered to finance it. He doesn’t want it now.”
Berkhoff said things have changed.
“I’m not in a position to step up and buy that property at that price,” he said. “It’s one of those situations where a lot of people complained, and I’m one of them. Now it’s available and no one is interested. Especially not at that price.”
—
