Eminent Domain Holdout in WI: ‘I’m Just Trying to Make A Living; County’s Offer Not Enough’ by Lyn Jerde, Protage Daily Register
John Gruber’s immediate problem is making sure that his customers can get to his garage via streets that will soon be crowded with flatbeds and backhoes. His long-term problem: Finding a place to relocate Gruber’s Automotive, and getting enough money from Columbia County to start all over again someplace else — preferably within the county’s borders. Pausing during a busy workday — he said he’d had about 20 customers before 10 a.m. on January 13 — Gruber reflected on the uncertain future for the business that he’s owned and operated at 208 E. Edgewater St. in Portage, Wisconsin since 1984. “If I have no place to go,” he said, “then I have to go outside the city, and I lose my customer base.” Columbia County wants to buy the Gruber’s Automotive property to make way for a three-story administration building and a two-story Health and Human Services building, to be constructed on opposite sides of the Portage Canal. Demolition of the canal-side buildings that the county has acquired started in January, with Robinson Brothers of Waunakee handling the razing. On late morning January 13, a backhoe was taking huge bites out of a long-vacant lumber yard on the canal’s north side. And Steve’s Auto Body on DeWitt Street — the building where Gruber said he worked before moving to his current location in 1984 — is now a pile of concrete blocks and rebar. Gruber said he’s OK with selling his property to the county. He’s even OK with having his service bays converted for use as a shop for the county’s Building and Grounds Department, once the new administration building is completed in the spring of 2017. But what the county offered him, he said, isn’t nearly enough to pay for setting up a comparable business somewhere else. According to Gruber, the county’s most recent offer is $237,000. “That wouldn’t get me out of here,” he said. The offer is almost $90,000 more than the $147,100 fair market value listed for the property on county land records, and it’s well above the assessed valuation of $143,300 — $17,200 for the land and $126,100 for the improvements.
However, Gruber said, it would cost him $500,000 or more to move the business elsewhere, for land and for a facility of comparable quality to the existing garage and retail store.
His original plans to move the area goes up all around him. business to 1000 Jefferson St. were Gruber said he’s concerned about thwarted in October 2015, when the city the safety of customers who would of Portage’s Plan Commission voted have to share the roads, in the coming against giving him a conditional use perdays, with heavy equipment. mit. Commission Member And all the time, he said, they’re Carolyn Hamre said, at the asking him what’s going to happen to time, that the site would not be his business, and he tells them he doessuitable for Gruber’s business n’t know. — a contention he disputes, Joe Bonin, on the other hand, said citing a decades-old state cerhe might be close to a deal with the tificate in which the property county to sell the Big Chicken property. was described as “industrial.” On January 13 — while a tall At age 56, Gruber said, he’s crane was taking down the metal tower not ready to give up his busifrom the 154-year-old feed mill that is These days, Gruber Automotive at 208 E. Edgwater St. ness. He’s willing to sell his being dismantled, piece by piece, on in Portage, is on the edge of a construction site, but it’s current location, provided that the property — Bonin said he has verexcluded from the current deolition to make way for new he can get enough compensabally accepted an offer from the county, Columbia County buildings, because the county and tion for it to start over somebut has yet to see paperwork formalizowner John Gruber haven’t come to an agreement on price. Meanwhile, Gruber says, his shop remains open where else. ing the offer and its conditions. and busy. Credit: Lyn Jerde, Daily Register. He said he’s looked at other When that happens, Bonin said, he “I’m just trying to make a living,” properties in Columbia County that can close the deal for a new Big Chicken he said. “That’s all I’m trying to do.” might be suitable, but their asking prices location outside of Portage, for which he Gruber said he wasn’t represented exceed what the county is offering him, made an offer conditioned on a successby a lawyer during his first negotiation and none of them are in move-in condiful transaction with Columbia County. sessions with Portage Attorney John tion. “All I’m waiting for,” Bonin said, Miller, whom the county had retained to Meanwhile, Gruber said, he and “is for the county to come here with a oversee the purchase of property for the his two employees are trying to do check.” county’s $45.41 million building project, business as usual, even as the chainThank you to Portage Daily Regiswhich also includes renovating the link fence marking the construction ter for permission to reprint this article. courthouse for court-related use only. He also was not represented, he said, during initial talks with Mark Hazelbaker, whom the county hired after the County Board voted in June 2015 to begin eminent domain proceedings to acquire Gruber’s property and that of his neighbors, Big Chicken antique store owners Joe and Nancy Bonin. • Dedicated Wholesale Staff Since then, however, the Min• Competitive Wholesale Prices neapolis-based firm of Biersdorf and Associates, which touts a specialty in • Exceptional Customer Service eminent domain cases, solicited and got Gruber’s business. Biersdorf and Associates attorney Ryan Simatic could not be reached for comment on January 13. Miller said, however, that the offer made to Gruber exceeds the value determined by an appraiser that the county hired. Also, he said, the county would reimburse Gruber for moving expenses, Parts Dept. Dept Hours: Hours in addition to the price that would be Mon., Wed.: 7:30 am - 8 pm paid for the property. However, he Tue.,Thurs., Fri.: 7:30 am - 6pm, Sat.: 8am - Noon noted, allowable “moving” expenses do not encompass the cost of erecting a new building. Phone: Gruber said he has hired an indewww.toyotaofgrandrapids.com pendent appraiser, as is the right of property owners who are targeted for 2555 28th Street SE • Grand Rapids MI 49512 eminent domain.
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