McKeesport Eminent Domain Case Goes To Court
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- When we met Bob Valerio earlier this week, he was in his McKeesport welding shop refusing to comply with an eviction notice.
Friday, he was in court fighting the taking of his property by eminent domain.
"I wasn't brought up to quit," Valerio said.
Bob objected to the low-ball -- take it or leave it offer of $57,000 for his building from the McKeesport Municipal Authority -- which says Bob is standing in the way of a needed $54 million sewerage improvement project.
They emerged from Judge Michael Della Vecchia's courtroom with an agreement.
"He will be out of there withiin the next 30 days so that construction can get started on a very important sewage project," Clifford Johns, the attorney for McKeesport, said.
The authority came to court willing to up its offer to $97,000 but in chambers with the judge agreed to increase that to $140,000.
"Well as far as the settlement of this aspect of it, we've reached an agreement and I'll leave it at that," Johns said. "The important thing to the municipal authority is that we will be getting possession of the property."
The increased settlement will allow Bob to relocate.
"We think it's a great outcome for Bob and will allow him to move his business, to stay in business and stay alive," Victor Pribanic, Valerio's attorney, said.
Bob, who will seek even more money from a panel called the board of viewers, says it pays to fight.
"Fight to the very end," Valerio said. "Don't give up. I still think this is America and we have rights."
And so it is a victory for the little guy who took on the big guy and lived to fight another day.
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