No day in the park

Jace Radke

Thursday, Jan. 25, 2001 | 11:04 a.m.

Bobby Palmore was reminded of a grade school game as he sat at the Parkdale Community Center Wednesday night and listened to Clark County Commissioner Myrna Williams debunk rumors that the county was planning on forcing 22 residents to sell their homes to make way for a park expansion.

"It's like that game where you line up a bunch of kids and they whisper a story all the way down the line," Palmore said. "When you get to the last person that story is nowhere near what it started out as."

Palmore was one of 22 homeowners who showed up at their neighborhood community center concerned by registered letters that were sent to the homeowners to see if they would be interested in selling their homes to expand the five-acre Parkdale Park.

The park, at Ferndale Street and Parkdale Avenue, near Lamb Boulevard and Desert Inn Road, is scheduled to get new playground equipment and a refurbished swimming pool.

Rumors that the county was planning to pressure the homeowners into selling were false, Williams said.

"The whole idea was if you want to sell, fine, and if you don't, that's fine, too," Williams said. "The county does not do anything, even on the (Las Vegas) Beltway, without a willing buyer, willing seller. I'm telling you no one is taking anyone's house."

Williams answered questions from residents for 40 minutes, and agreed that the letter sent to them may not have been the best way to go about gauging interest in the idea.

"I didn't know that's how it would be done," Williams said.

One resident suggested sending a county representative door to door to avoid confusion when willing buyer, willing seller inquiries are made.

"When you get this big registered letter, it's something that scares people," Palmore said. "The meeting tonight eased my fears, and it looks like the whole thing was a big misunderstanding."