Court Tells NPS to Pay More For Demolished National Tower
By Deborah Fitts

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A federal judge has ruled that the National Park Service (NPS) must pay the owners of the former National Tower at Gettysburg $5,142,000 for the tower and the land under it. The June 19 ruling, by U.S. District Court Judge Sylvia Rambo, more than doubles the $2.5 million appraisal offered by NPS.

The Park Service condemned the 310-foot observation tower in May 2000 and imploded it during the July battle anniversary a few weeks later.

Katie Lawhon, spokesman for Gettysburg National Military Park, said the ruling "will nearly drain" the park's land-acquisition budget.

In her 34-page decision, Rambo attempted to ascertain the fair market value between wildly diverging arguments. While NPS had proposed $2.5 million for both tower and land, the tower's owner, Overview Limited Partnership, asked for $11.1 million, and the owners of the 5.7 acres that it stood on, Hans and Christine Enggren, asked for $2.6 million, for a total of $13.7 million.

Rambo concluded that Overview was owed $3.93 million, while the Enggrens were owed $1.2 million. Lawhon noted that NPS had deposited $3 million with the court to cover the expected payment. In advance of the condemnation, Congress had made a special appropriation of $3 million for the tower and two other properties within the park boundary. But with Rambo's higher figure, plus nearly $1 million that the park has promised to the Friends of the National Parks at Gettysburg later this year, the money to buy park inholdings will be nearly gone, Lawhon said.

The Friends recently paid $1.2 million for the Home Sweet Home Motel on Steinwehr Avenue on the understanding that the park would reimburse the nonprofit most of the cost. The Friends stepped in to carry out the deal when the owner asked for more money than the park's appraisal.