OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — It has been three days since the Inland Port Authority board members were approved but questions continue to pile up about the board and the proposed Airport Business Park development, and in the last week some neighbors are just learning of it all.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
“Why is all of this happening if there isn’t a true plan or objective and why are we not being made aware of them, everything has been so vague,” said Joe Fox Jr.
Neighbors like Joe Fox Jr. have been asking questions for months.
"It's kind of nerve-wracking because it feels like we are going to lose a part of us and I am scared about that,” said Melissa Youngblood, vice president of Home Trailer Park.
Some neighbors like Youngblood just found out about the proposal to develop parts of her neighborhood as part of an Inland Port.
"Monday I got actually a call from a tenant, and she was like 'hey, so are we losing our home.' And I’m like what wait hold on wait no no no no no, wait a minute what's going on what are you talking about,” Youngblood said.
She owns Home Park, a mobile home park at North 16th and Ida Streets, a family business. She's the fourth generation of her family to own it.
The land is not in the footprint of the proposed Airport Business Park but is within the new Inland Port Authority.
Now like homeowners just south of her, she wonders about the future of her land.
“You know is something going to happen here, is this going to be here in a year, is it going to be something where you know they are going to come down and low ball everybody and you know, I feel partially responsible to everybody that is in our trailer park,” Youngblood said.
Following Tuesday’s vote to approve the board, neighborhood reporter Molly Hudson met one of the appointed board members Mike Riedmann who touched on community involvement through a community advisory board.
“This is a community event, this development, and it will engage those that are most affected through the advisory board,” Riedmann said.
Hudson reached out to the other board members to ask about their vision for the area in hopes of asking some of the neighbor’s questions that Hudson has received.
Many were unavailable, others said they wanted to wait until the board had their first meeting and Hudson learned it hasn't been set yet.
"It's like, you are taking this entire area and just doing what with it," Youngblood said.
A looming question for neighbors like Joe and Melissa who continue to wait and communicate with each other.
“Like I said at the board meeting, transparency, transparency, transparency like we really just need to know," Youngblood said.
Joe Fox Jr. tells Hudson he sent an updated list of questions to all Inland Port Authority Members too, now just hoping for a response back.
