Some ICC news: upcoming meeting

There are a few minor developments to report on the ICC front.

First, several members of the association (myself, Art Carter, and Jean Smith) met with a representative of the State Highway Administration on Feb. 20. The representative was a substitute for the person I normally deal with, who was out of town on a family emergency. However the main message we got from the SHA guy who came was that the state is very willing to entertain a counteroffer. Our neighborhood association next needs to present the state with what we think is a proper compensation for the loss of use of our land, above the $102,000 they have already offered. If anyone in this group has any experience at appraising properties, or any experience in real estate at all, and would be interested in helping me come up with this number, please let me know. I have many documents that state the rationale the state used to come up with the $102,000 number, but I am not an expert at gauging what kind of money we ought to be asking for ourselves. Of course we could always hire an appraiser to do this for us, but we would need to have association approval to go forward with that expense, which is not nominal.

Second, the state also wants to set up a meeting between neighborhood residents and the contract manager for Contract A, which covers our area of Montgomery County. This is a high-up official who will be available to answer our questions. He/she will come to a weekday evening meeting in our neighborhood, along with a public relations consultant, to meet with us. The state is currently trying to find a date for this but it will probably be in late April or early May. I would encourage as many of you as possible to attend this meeting, and will let you know when a date is set. The purpose of this meeting would be to ask questions and express concerns about the impact of the road itself, not to negotiate a compensation amount.