A team of workers from McClure Surveying Inc. consults a map as they begin surveying lots owned by Dan Gaikowski on Tuesday, April 18. (Roger Sims/Linn County Journal)
By Roger Sims, Journal staff
PARKER – After months of delay, a small team of surveyors on Tuesday, April 18, staked out property on the south edge of Parker owned by Dan Gaikowski.
Gaikowski had previously barred surveyors from his property. However, armed with an injunction, the surveyors, under the watchful eye of Parker Police Chief Craig Haley, quickly went about their work.
District Court Judge Andrea Purvis signed the injunction on Thursday, April 13. Under its terms, Gaikowski shall not confront, bother, threaten or harass any surveyors conducting street surveys on his property until further Order of this Court.
The injunction also calls for Gaikowski to remove any signs erected next to city roads, including Baptist Drive, and not to replace them or install any others. A hearing on the injunction is set for April 27.
Gaikowski and the city of Parker have been at odds over the closure of Walnut Street from Baptist street south to city limits. Gaikowski, who owns Recycling Services in Parker, gated off the one block portion of the existing street when the city could not prove it had paid for the property decades ago.
By blocking off the street, he also blocked the driveway used by Mike Page, who lives just south of the city limit. Page was using the access road around the Parker Lake to reach his house and has more recently begun accessing it through land owned by the Parker Baptist Church.
After Gaikowski refused to negotiate, the city of Parker began the process to condemn the former street, and the survey is part of that process. One surveyor dropped the case after Gaikowski would not allow access to the property.
Gaikowski has incorporated the one-block area into his metal recycling business, and claims that the former street is worth at least $1 million. That will likely be an issue as part of the condemnation proceedings.
On Wednesday, Parker City Attorney Burton Harding said that Domoney & Domoney, a Paola law firm representing Gaikowski, moved to quash the injunction. However, the surveyors had already finished their work.
According to Harding, the next step in the city’s dealings with Gaikowski is to finalize the agreement he and the city reached two years ago to recognize Baptist Drive as a city street. He said the final part of that – a survey of Gaikowksi’s property – had been missing until now.
The other step is to have an appraiser visit the property and assess the value of the land and right of way, a swath 60 feet wide.