For Pearl Yonkers, the 4.2-acre patch of streamside land in Black Hawk was a place where her husband, Meredith, forced to retire because of ill health, could go to the mountains, pan for gold and help invent gold-digging machinery.
Yonkers, now 84, had a real estate license and worked for Ford Motor Co. She helped support her husband and their three daughters during those lean years.
She recalled recently how her husband spent many days on the property and even slept in a trailer there while she was in Denver.
“He spent his full time up there,” she said of her late husband. “He wanted to do something, and that’s what he ended up doing.”
The land, purchased in the 1970s, was special, not only because it was next to North Clear Creek but because it was at the very end of town.
“It is really the gateway into Black Hawk,” Yonkers said.
The fact that the land was a “gateway” wasn’t lost on Black Hawk, either.
In September 2004, the city condemned the land. Soon after, almost all of her property was consumed to widen the highway, move the river and extend Main Street to connect with Colorado 119.
Now the city is fighting having to pay her and a friend nearly $5 million that a commission said she was entitled to for the land.
And even the state of Colorado is staking a claim to the money.
New commission sought
The bridge and road were opened just before Christmas, the road passing between two of Black Hawk’s newest and most imposing casinos: Isle of Capri and Riviera Casino.
Last fall, a judicially appointed panel held hearings to determine the compensation that Yonkers and Lois Tarbox, 75, who owns a 20 percent share, should receive.
The commission decided the women were entitled to $1,257,076 for the value of the property taken for the Main Street extension and $3,742,624 for the decrease in value to the rest of their property. The total: $4,999,700.
Within days, Black Hawk and the state challenged the commission’s findings. The city is now seeking a new commission to determine a new figure that should be paid to Yonkers and Tarbox.
Black Hawk said that before the commission hearings, Gilpin County District Judge Frederic Rodgers had ordered the commission to take into consideration its claims that Yonkers’ property was part of the right of way of Colorado 119 acquired by the state decades earlier.
The city argued that as a result, it had to pay Yonkers little or no compensation.
It claimed that the commission failed to identify how it determined the value of the property taken for the extension or the damages. The commission didn’t say whether it factored in Black Hawk and the Colorado Department of Transportation’s right of way claims and the fact that CDOT had granted Black Hawk the necessary access permits to build the Main Street extension.
As a result, Black Hawk said in a statement to The Denver Post, it is now “seeking to abandon only that portion of the property that is within the CDOT right of way.”
But Bruce Smith, the lawyer for Yonkers and Tarbox, said that Rodgers clearly left it up to the commission to decide what, if any, impact the right of way claims had on the money to be given the women. And he said the commission took the argument into consideration.
“The commission stated on the record that the issue of the extent of the CDOT right of way was largely irrelevant,” Smith said.
Michael R. McCormick, an assistant attorney general representing CDOT, said in court papers that the state is entitled to an award.
“Even if the commissioners somehow believed that CDOT’s easement was limited, this does not explain why CDOT is not entitled to any portion of the $4,999,700,” McCormick argued. “For example, the evidence was undisputed that CDOT owns the shoulder area.”
Kristen Hubbell, spokeswoman for the Colorado attorney general’s office, said the actions of McCormick are intended to benefit the public.
She denied Smith’s claim that the attorney general’s office and Black Hawk are working in concert to deprive Yonkers and Tarbox of the money.
“CDOT’s interests are aligned with the city only insofar as CDOT seeks to protect the public’s assets in State Highway 119,” she said.
“Dedicated to the Lord”
During the commission hearings, Yonkers was a constant presence as about 20 people testified. She said her husband, who died in 1998, was also someone who took an active interest in the people of Black Hawk and the welfare of the community.
“Meredith tried to get along. He met people in town,” she said of her husband, an Air Force airplane and engine mechanic during World War II who worked as a pole truck driver for Public Service Co. right after the war.
The legal battle has made Yonkers turn to a source that she has turned to in the past. She is a deeply religious woman. And because of her beliefs, she said she “leans on the Lord a lot.
“Without him, I don’t think I could have done this,” she said. “To start with, this property was dedicated to the Lord.”
She also said having a real estate license from 1972 until 2004 was helpful in dealing with what was happening.
“Without that, I don’t think I could have understood a lot of this,” she said.
As far as what she would do with the money, she said, “There are a lot of organizations that need help.”
Last fall, Yonkers and Tarbox received $400,000, from the Black Hawk/Central City Sanitation District, which put a sewer line through the property. The line, which is under the Main Street extension, leads to the new sanitation plant downstream from Yonkers’ land. And by May, Black Hawk had paid the women $341,000 for the city’s estimated value of the land it was taking for the street extension.
Despite that, Smith believes what Black Hawk has done is outrageous.
“Their action appears intended to delay any final resolution,” Smith said. “And given Pearl’s age and condition, it has the potential of prolonging a final resolution for her. I believe the commission felt this was taking advantage of two elderly widows of modest means.”
The city declined comment.
“This is a court case. We are not interested in trying this in a newspaper,” said Chuck Ford, Black Hawk’s spokesman.
Little slice of heaven
Through it all, Yonkers has been calm, at least on the outside. She said she didn’t overreact when the commission announced the award.
“Knowing Black Hawk, I wasn’t going to get too excited,” Yonkers said.
When Yonkers visits the property, she remembers the days when she and her husband bought it, and how, when gambling came in, the town made miners feel unwelcome.
“Black Hawk canceled out the mining industry,” she recalled sadly.
She used to kid her husband about his little slice of heaven.
“I used to call (the property) the hole because they’d go down 30 and 40 feet. And I said, ‘What are you doing with a hole in the mountain?”‘ she said. “I never thought this property would turn into any problem.”
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
