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School District condemns Rossi farmland

LEE PERLMAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO

After months of negotiations broke down recently, this property, a little more than one-third acre of Rossi Farms property - adjacent to Parkrose Middle School on Northeast Shaver Street near 122nd Avenue - was condemned by the Parkrose School District, who says it is an integral and necessary component for the construction of a new middle school.
Mid-county Memo photo/Tim Curran
The Parkrose School District board voted at its June 26 meeting to seek condemnation - the acquisition of private property at fair market value, with or without the seller's consent - of just a little over one-third acre of land owned by the Rossi family.

The property in question is in the northeast corner of the Parkrose Middle School site on Northeast Shaver Street near 121st Avenue, where the district wants to build a new building.

With Superintendent Karen Fischer Gray on vacation and unavailable for comment; and in response to a query by the Memo, Heery International Vice-President and Senior Project Manager Gordon Odette wrote in an email, “The available building area on the existing site is limited, which creates construction complexities and constrains access by construction vehicles to the site. This creates safety and logistic concerns. The acquisition of the Rossi site solves these issues and others. If the district did not obtain the Rossi site, limited construction funds would be expended to solve these issues in lieu of their being used to construct instructional areas or purchase building materials and systems, which provide life cycle benefits and ultimately, reductions in building operations and maintenance costs. The acquisition of a small percentage of the Rossi site is for the benefit of the students and citizens in the Parkrose School District.”

As to why it was necessary to pursue condemnation rather than good faith bargaining with the Rossis, School Board chair James Woods told the Memo, “We have been negotiating over this for months, considering both land swaps and cash.” Another board member, Ed Grassel, says, “We had come to a standstill. We had to get this moving or. . . pay additional construction costs.”

In a prepared statement, Joe Rossi, speaking for his family said, “This issue has produced mixed feelings for our family, and especially for my father Aldo. He always put a good face on it in the four previous times this has happened. Out of his love for our community, the school district, and all the children it serves he stayed positive. It has come at the huge loss of our farm being shrunk down to much less than half its original size. Outside of his family, the farm was Dad's love and he worked on it every day until illness prevented him. Same for his love for the school and its kids, as he showed by his attendance at every single home and away football and basketball game since his graduation there in 1938.

“My mom, Nick, Angela and I have those same mixed feelings he had. We have decided to handle this in the same way he would have for our community of Parkrose.”

The Rossis ceased their family farm operation in 2006, leasing their land to other local farmers.

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