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Asbestos settlement close
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| Signs placed near each entrance of the main road that passes through North Ridge Estates warn people about a possible health hazard from asbestos in the area. |
Published August 18, 2005
By DYLAN DARLING
H&N Staff Writer
The suit over asbestos and the North Ridge Estates may be close to a settlement.
"We have been negotiating vigorously," homeowner attorney Tom Lindley of Portland said Wednesday night. "We are close to agreement."
In June, the parties came to an oral "agreement in principle," but Lindley would not go into its details or expand on what is holding it up. He said the homeowners are still asking for a buyout and there should be news in a couple of weeks.
"There are a lot of lawyers involved with the settlement talks," said Clifford Villa, a lawyer for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Attempts Wednesday night to reach a lawyer for the developers of North Ridge were unsuccessful.
The federal government relocated many of the North Ridge Estates homeowners over the summer, as the EPA dug holes and trenches, pulled up pieces of old steam pipe and checked air samples with probes.
Homeowners who left are getting ready to move back starting on Labor Day weekend.
"I feel comfortable if you and your children follow our recommendations," Dan Heister of the EPA told homeowners at a meeting Wednesday night. "Keep the kids on the grass, keep the kids on the driveway. I can't look at you people and look at you straight in the face and say I got everything, I got everything that was visible."
This summer was Heister's third on the site. He said that for the first time pipe insulation has been found. He said that will crumble and release airborne pieces of asbestos.
He said returning residents will find small plastic flags available at the command post the EPA has set up in a trailer next to Marine Barracks Park. The flags can be used to mark any asbestos-containing material found on the ground, which the EPA will come and pick up.
The subdivision is 52 acres. It sits on the site of a World War II Marine barracks that was the source of the asbestos. MBK Partnership of Klamath Falls, founded by Melvin Stewart, Dr. Kenneth Tuttle and Maurice Bercot, who left the company in 1989, bought the site in 1977 and developed the subdivision.
Homeowner Jenny Walle, her husband and three children rented a place for the summer, and she said it was good for her children.
"They needed to be outside playing and they were able to do that," she said.
"Hopefully, we won't be there long," Walle said. "We don't want to go back, but we still have to pay our mortgage."
By DYLAN DARLING
H&N Staff Writer
The suit over asbestos and the North Ridge Estates may be close to a settlement.
"We have been negotiating vigorously," homeowner attorney Tom Lindley of Portland said Wednesday night. "We are close to agreement."
In June, the parties came to an oral "agreement in principle," but Lindley would not go into its details or expand on what is holding it up. He said the homeowners are still asking for a buyout and there should be news in a couple of weeks.
"There are a lot of lawyers involved with the settlement talks," said Clifford Villa, a lawyer for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Attempts Wednesday night to reach a lawyer for the developers of North Ridge were unsuccessful.
The federal government relocated many of the North Ridge Estates homeowners over the summer, as the EPA dug holes and trenches, pulled up pieces of old steam pipe and checked air samples with probes.
Homeowners who left are getting ready to move back starting on Labor Day weekend.
"I feel comfortable if you and your children follow our recommendations," Dan Heister of the EPA told homeowners at a meeting Wednesday night. "Keep the kids on the grass, keep the kids on the driveway. I can't look at you people and look at you straight in the face and say I got everything, I got everything that was visible."
This summer was Heister's third on the site. He said that for the first time pipe insulation has been found. He said that will crumble and release airborne pieces of asbestos.
He said returning residents will find small plastic flags available at the command post the EPA has set up in a trailer next to Marine Barracks Park. The flags can be used to mark any asbestos-containing material found on the ground, which the EPA will come and pick up.
The subdivision is 52 acres. It sits on the site of a World War II Marine barracks that was the source of the asbestos. MBK Partnership of Klamath Falls, founded by Melvin Stewart, Dr. Kenneth Tuttle and Maurice Bercot, who left the company in 1989, bought the site in 1977 and developed the subdivision.
Homeowner Jenny Walle, her husband and three children rented a place for the summer, and she said it was good for her children.
"They needed to be outside playing and they were able to do that," she said.
"Hopefully, we won't be there long," Walle said. "We don't want to go back, but we still have to pay our mortgage."
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