County Board Blindsides Blind Veteran

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‘Quick Take Syndrome’

 

            About three weeks ago Tom Ditzler began suffering crippling migraines.  So severe and debilitating were his headaches, Tom was scheduled for a CAT scan.  What the CAT scan won’t reveal are the likely reasons for the sudden onset of these migraines – ‘Quick-Take Syndrome’.

            If you have never heard of ‘Quick-Take Syndrome’, it may be because you have never been told that the property you have owned, loved and cared for is no longer yours!

            ‘Quick-Take’ is a condemnation of property that does just what it says – allows certain government officials to take your property quickly.  Now, why would the County Board of Winnebago need to do that?  Is there some kind of emergency?  If County officials don’t take the Ditzler property now – will the County come to a grinding halt?

            Winnebago County Board Chairman, Kristine Cohn, says they need to build a road now!  And that the new road, called Springfield/Harrison Extension just outside of Rockford IL, must be built on 9 of the 16 acres owned for 33 years by the Ditzlers.  “This road has been on the books for 30 years” say some County Officials.  If that’s the case, then why does the County have to use the most aggressive action available, ‘Quick-Take’.

            You would think that 30 years of planning for this road would have produced a better way to proceed than ‘Quick-Take’; allowing only a few short weeks for the property owners to learn what their rights are.

             The definition of ‘Quick-Take’, according to Mrs. Ditzler, has been that,” The County tells you what your property is worth, and then takes it.  No negotiations or anything.” 

            The stress on the Ditzler family has been tremendous.  The onset of face numbing headaches experienced by Tom Ditzler are hardly coincidental with being told they no longer hold the deed to their property. 

Tom just keeps asking, “Can they really do this?”  The public outcry has been ‘Is this any way to treat one of our Veterans who was blinded serving his country?’

            An alternative route lies just 1/8^th of a mile to the East, Pierpont Road.  Lands adjacent to Pierpont Road have already been bought and paid for by the taxpayers.  That property is called Levings Park.  Why should the taxpayer have to buy even more land for a road when an existing road, Pierpont, could simply be widened? 

After learning recently that the Ditzler’s 22 year old daughter Cassandra died the

day after Christmas in ’97, I’m left wondering “what more can happen to this family?” 

Cassandra was to be married the summer before she died.  “All of the arrangements for her wedding had been made, the flowers were bought, and the invitations had been sent out.”  Mrs. Ditzler goes on, “It was while she was having her final fitting for her wedding gown that I knew Cassandra would have to postpone the wedding.”  Cassandra had received a double lung transplant 3 years earlier, but now, Mrs. Ditzler continued, “She couldn’t stand up in her dress long enough to have the 17 buttons on the back of her gown buttoned up.”

            The Ditzlers knew their daughter would never have a normal life when they adopted her at the age of two, because Cassandra was born with Cystic Fibrosis.  “She was an amazing little girl.  She even became a cheerleader in High School,” Mrs. Ditzler explains.

            Mrs. Ditzler said, “I’ve only seen my husband cry twice,” the day the Sheriff told him he didn’t own his land on Tuesday May 2^nd, “was the second time.” 

“Now they have taken away my land” is what Tom Ditzler said as his wife tried to console him in their bedroom that day.

            Questions left unanswered by those officials involved with this tragic case of ‘Quick-Take’:

·        Why does the road have to be built through this veteran’s property?

[No cost benefit analysis was ever done!]

·        Why can’t the existing road, Pierpont, be expanded?

[The taxpayers already own a considerable amount of property adjacent to Pierpont.  Why pay twice?]

·        Why are certain County Officials in such a hurry all of a sudden to build a road?

[The Ditzlers are being kicked off their property without due process of law!]

·        Who is really going to benefit?

·        Who in the public has shown support for this route?

[No study has been forthcoming demonstrating the need.]

·        How can certain decision makers in office sleep at night knowing the real price for this road?

[The right to own private property is one of the foundations of our country.]

 

For more information, see ‘Background – County Board Blindsides Blind Veteran’

5/29/00

 

ILLINOIS CONSERVATION VOTERS – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

 - Background -

County Board Blindsides Blind Veteran

 

Veteran Thomas Ditzler has a calm demeanor, but I could hear a slight crack in his voice when he told me over the phone, “I learned on the radio today that I don’t even own the title to my own property”.  He went on, I tried calling my attorney, but the receptionist said he was in a meeting…I called later in the day and she said ‘Is it anything important?’  His voice trailed off again. 

            This could be the sorry conclusion for this veteran, who is legally blind as a result of his service for our country, and is desperately seeking to learn what his legal rights are.  His County government has used every trick in the book to sneak away  land, which they have owned and lived on for the last 33 years.  Mrs. Ditzlers tells how they came to live on the 18 acres located on the southwest side of Winnebago County, just outside of Rockford.  “We were told (by Veteran Affairs) to find a place we could live for the rest of our lives.  We found this beautiful place, and made it our home.”

            Mr. Ditzler listens to the radio everyday to learn his fate, while friends and neighborhood groups work frantically to learn what they can do about condemnation of his property.  The neighbors report that ‘Quick Take’ is an eminent domain process by which government can take possession of a property without the owner’s permission.  Kristine Cohn, Winnebago County Board Chairman, has sought this rarely used action through the State Government.  It turns out, State Representative Doug Scott (D-67) was tapped to do the legal work in Springfield last summer.  Recently, Representatives Winters (R-69), Wait (R-68) and Scott (D-67) voted in favor of taking this property.  Wirsing (R-70) voted no.

            What makes Thomas Ditzler and his property so worthy of all this attention?  Did they find the prospect of building a road through wetlands with Indian burial mounds on its banks irresistible somehow?  Who could resist the prospect of having to infill the wetlands the length of this 8-acre tract, 4 lanes wide and 100 ft. deep (lowlands are 80 feet below level ground).  Utilizing existing parallel roads located ¼ mile in either direction from where they want to build somehow lost their appeal.  Well, using an alternative route would mean they no longer would have to buy replacement wetlands somewhere else to try and make up for the destruction of Mr. Ditzler’s wetlands (Correction: the Counties wetlands – according to the radio). 

            What about the Indian burial grounds?  According to Mr. Prorok, States Attorney’s Office in Winnebago, the County Board members don’t even have to pass a resolution asking for authority for Quick Take.  Knowing all of this, County Board Chairman, Kristine Cohn, recommended during the April 13^th regular meeting that they go ahead anyway. 

            “Now they are talking about taking my house” Mr. Ditzler continued, during our phone conversation.  Maybe that was because he wouldn’t let them cut down the trees in his front yard next to the road the day before.  I told him to not worry; he didn’t have to decide anything right now.  He said, “I know, I don’t have to decide anything – they make all the decisions for me”.  I told Mr. Ditzler I had the phone number of a National Agency that might be able to help him.  I started to give him the number when he quietly said, “I’m sorry – I can’t see to write down the number…”

 

Mr. Ditzler does not want to give up.  To learn more, or if you can help, visit the Illinois Conservation Web site at www.mccv.com or send mail to: Illinois Conservation Voters, P.O. Box 9, Fox River Grove, IL 60021        Fax to 847-658-707