State, radio station reach settlement

The Associated Press and The Daily Inter Lake

The state Department of Transportation has settled a long-running dispute with radio station owner John Stokes over payment for some of his property used to expand U.S. 93 south of Kalispell.

The final settlement reached Monday gives Stokes $400,000, with the state agreeing to pay all legal fees.

A mortgage company said the property now faces foreclosure.

The state initially offered Stokes, owner of KGEZ-AM radio, $100,000 for taking property that would cut the stations frontage from 22 feet to about 15.

Stokes said $100,000 wasnt enough. Arguing that the road work and traffic would rattle his equipment and put him out of business, he sought $1 million to move the station.

Later he raised his demand to $4.7 million for a complete buyout of his property. A trial on the issue was set for next week.

While awaiting trial, the state was required to put up 75 percent of the amount requested by Stokes into an account held by the court. Stokes could then use that money to move while the highway work continued.

In Stokes case, the state set aside $750,000 based on the $1 million he was seeking to move the station. He eventually drew the entire $750,000 out of the account, paying some bills, including attorney fees, as well as part of his mortgage.

Now with a $400,000 settlement, the state wants $350,000 back.

Stokes said he believes Questa Mortgage in Bigfork should have to repay some of it, since he used some of the escrow money to pay his mortgage.

Christy Brandon, an attorney for Questa, said, Were going to have hearings to establish all that.

But she said now the settlement has been reached, she is going to pursue foreclosure against the station, which she says is in default on the loan.

Stokes called the settlement a victory, pointing out that he kept most of his property and his radio station, which remains on the air.

But I didnt get the money, he said. The lawyers and the lenders got it.

Jim Lewis, staff attorney for the Department of Transportation, said the settlement was a compromise between the $100,000 it offered and the $1 million Stokes wanted, while saving the cost of a trial.

Stokes hasnt submitted his legal bills to the court.

Stokes dealings with government and money arent necessarily over.

He told the Missoulian hes already looking forward to dealing with the city of Kalispell, which wants to extend water and sewer lines through his property to serve a new industrial park.

Although he expects that will mean someone will have to buy more land from him, that may not happen.

Developers of the Old School Station industrial park south of Kalispell are not worried about Stokes potentially blocking their efforts to extend city water and sewer lines to their site.

Stokes property is between Kalispell and Old School Station.

Developers Paul Wachholz and Andy Miller plan to pay $3.1 million to $3.5 million to extend the city utility lines to the park.

Wachholz said the pair had their engineers map out two routes for the utilities one through Stokes property and another that crosses the highway and bypasses his land in case the developers and Stokes cannot reach an agreement on buying right-of-ways.

He cant stop us, Wachholz said.