Paragon AP

Update:
WILKES-BARRE – A Luzerne County Judge has issued a preliminary injunction granting the owner of Paragon Adventure Park access to his off-road vehicle park, where the gate was padlocked Monday by a group who wants to build a cargo airport on the site.

Judge Ann Lokuta also barred Gladstone Partners L.P. – the group that wants to build the airport – from using the site until further notice. Her order prohibits Gladstone from denying park owner Kyle Knosp access to his personal property at the park, located partly in Hazle Township and in East Union Township in Schuylkill County.

Gladstone, in exercising a possession order from District Judge Thomas Sharkey on Monday, had a state constable lock the gate to the park property and change the locks on Knosp’s office trailer on site.

For a complete story, read Wednesday’s Times Leader.
http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/16640607.htm

this is some good news

I read this earlier. I can't believe that they would give Kyle only 4 days to move an entire business, then deny him access to his own person property. WTF are they thinking? I'm still just as angry today about the park as I was when I heard the court ruling last week. I believe everything happens for a reason and just hope that this will work out for the better of Kyle and his family and us as patrons.

I read about it every day and will continue to update the club and provide links to the story as it unfolds.

That judge is just hearing arguments about access to the property (which is really stupid, just give the guy another day or 2 my god). The new appeal
is being heard thurs morning by a judge that already ruled against Kyle. From what I gather from reading previous articles, the last appeal was lost on a technicality of not appealing on time (due to a dispute of the award amount from the first lawsuit), not on the merits of the appeal.

"Lycoming County Senior Judge Clinton Smith, who dismissed Knosp’s first appeal on the breach allegations, will hear arguments on the second appeal at 11 a.m. Thursday."
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http://www.timesleader.com/multimedia/timesleader/KRT_packages/archive/paragon.pdf
This is a link to the paperwork allowing access to the park for Kyle to get his stuff. It states the specific charges involved in the alledged violation of the lease etc.

Upcoming court hearings:
Lokuta will hear arguments from both sides on the land access issue at 2 p.m. today.

Lycoming County Senior Judge Clinton Smith, who dismissed Knosp’s first appeal on the breach allegations, will hear arguments on the second appeal at 11 a.m. Thursday.

This is interesting how they want to evict him for destroying the property and they are going to bulldoze it anyway. :evil:

well we scored a victory today, at least temporarily, this is from an article posted online at 5:30 PM

Lokuta says Paragon can keep land until appeals have been exhausted

By STEVE MOCARSKY smocarsky@timesleader.com

WILKES-BARRE – The owner of Paragon Adventure Park scored another victory in court today when a judge ruled that Kyle Knosp – the off-road-vehicle park owner – would keep possession of the park’s land until all appeals on a lease issue have been exhausted.

Gladstone Partners L.P. – a group that wants to build a $1.6 billion cargo airport on land partly occupied by the park – sued Knosp, claiming that he breached his 25-year lease with landowner PCA Corp. The Gladstone Partners want Paragon evicted so they can buy the land from PCA Corp.

Knosp denied breaching the lease and is appealing an eviction order issued by a lower court.

Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Ann Lokuta denied nearly every motion or request Gladstone made at today’s hearing, including a request to recuse herself from the case because of a possible prejudice toward Gladstone’s attorney of record – Jill Moran, who is also the county prothonotary.

Lokuta heard arguments on whether a preliminary injunction she issued yesterday to bar Gladstone from the land through the appeal process should remain in effect.

Gladstone on Monday had exercised an eviction order from a lower court; they padlocked the park gate and locked Knosp out of his office trailer.

The order Lokuta issued today prohibits Gladstone from denying Knosp access to the land and barred Gladstone from interfering with Paragon’s use of the land throughout the appeals process. Her order also requires Knosp to post a $7,648.35 bond to guarantee his appeal, rather than honor Gladstone’s request that he post a $40 million bond.

Look for the full story in Thursday’s Times Leader.

Good news! just read this, Bill beat me to it!

Does this mean we can go wheeling at PAP?

not sure what Kyle will do with that

Maybe Kat & I can finish VooDoo Now.

Good for Kyle & Steph. It's about time they got a fair shake. Don't know if it will matter in the long run but keeping them from getting their stuff on Monday was just crap.

Bobbi - if they reopen do we are DEFINITELY going back. Bill - you'll come with - right? It will take us all day to get through it.

VooDoo is one of my favorites @ Paragon! Just ran in a few months back, floped twice and drove out of both. it was a blast. Kyle already moved the trailers out so I'm not sure what he will do about the park being opened to wheel...

what sucks is if they do reopen all the signs are missing from the trails. :roll:

[b]are you afraid you'll get on a trail you can't handle?
I know it would make it a whole lot easier to get around to the trails you want with the signs up. We could find the signs and for laughs put the sign for blueberry on the pitfall trail.

We have another hearing today and we will post if we will be open this weekend some time this afternoon. Thanks for your support.
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Paragon Adventure Park
info@paragonap.com
(570) 384-0550

Paragon owner loses appeal, vows to continue fight
By STEVE MOCARSKY smocarsky@timesleader.com
WILKES-BARRE – The owner of Paragon Adventure Park lost another appeal of an eviction from land intended for a cargo airport near Hazleton, but he vowed to appeal to a higher court.

Lycoming County Senior Judge Clinton Smith at an 11 a.m. hearing granted a motion from Gladstone Partners L.P. to dismiss Kyle Knosp’s appeal of a judgment and eviction issued by District Judge Thomas Sharkey in Hazle Township in August.

Gladstone wants to build a $1.6 billion cargo airport on 4,800 acres of land partly used by the off-road vehicle park in Luzerne and Schuylkill counties. The group claims that Knosp breached his 25-year lease with landowner PCA Corp., and want Knosp evicted so they can buy the land for the airport and related development.

Knosp denies breaching the lease and said he will appeal to state Superior Court.

Knosp’s attorney, James Scallion, said Knosp would be amenable to relocating the park to other available land owned by PCA Corp., but PCA has offered no acceptable terms.

Scallion said that an injunction issued Wednesday by Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Ann Lokuta will allow Knosp access to the approximately 4,300-acre park throughout the appeals process.

Read the full story in Friday’s Times Leader.

I like follow the leader... hehehe... Joe was hell bent on getting me stuck last time...

The park will be open Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
__________________
Paragon Adventure Park
info@paragonap.com
(570) 384-0550

Paragon’s eviction appeal dismissed
Part of the land occupied by off-road vehicle park is eyed for $1.6 million cargo airport.
By STEVE MOCARSKY smocarsky@timesleader.com
WILKES-BARRE – The owner of Paragon Adventure Park near Hazleton lost another appeal on Thursday but vowed to take the issue to a higher court.

Lycoming County Senior Judge Clinton Smith granted a motion from Gladstone Partners L.P. to dismiss Kyle Knosp’s appeal of an August judgment and eviction issued by District Judge Thomas Sharkey in Hazle Township. Gladstone wants to have Knosp’s off-road vehicle park evicted from the property so it may build a $1.6 million cargo airport on part of the land.

Gladstone is eyeing a 4,800-acre parcel in Luzerne and Schuylkill counties for the facility that would be run by an authority created by the Luzerne County Board of Commissioners.

Gladstone claims that Knosp breached his 25-year lease with landowner PCA Corp., and wants Knosp evicted so the land could be used for the airport and related development.

Knosp denies breaching the contract and said he’s being bullied into giving up the lease.

Jonathan Lang, representing Gladstone, argued that the method of appeal that Knosp was trying to use should not be allowed because the issues in the appeal were already addressed by another county judge.

After Sharkey ruled against Knosp and granted Gladstone a $36,000 judgment, Knosp’s attorney, James Scallion, filed a petition for relief asking a county judge to lower the judgment. At the same time, he filed an appeal that asks a judge to review legal defects of the district court ruling.

Judge Hugh Mundy in October lowered the judgment to about $7,000, and Scallion in November filed an overall appeal of Sharkey’s ruling in county court.

Smith dismissed the November appeal last week because it wasn’t filed within 30 days of Sharkey’s decision. Scallion then had the writ reinstated, saying Mundy never ruled on the issues raised in the writ.

The writ alleged that Sharkey had no jurisdiction to hear the case because Paragon’s business offices are in Schuylkill County and Sharkey’s jurisdiction is Hazle Township. It also alleged that Sharkey is prohibited from granting judgments more than $8,000, and that Gladstone never proved it had standing in the case.

Because the petition for special relief couldn’t be filed without the writ, Lang said the writ also had to be decided before Mundy.

Smith agreed and struck down the writ, which was Knosp’s last hope for appeal in county court.

Smith also dismissed Knosp’s motion to quash Sharkey’s order granting possession of the park land to Gladstone.

Scallion said that an order issued Wednesday by Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Ann Lokuta will allow Knosp to continue operating the approximately 4,300-acre park as Knosp appeals the case to state Superior Court.

Scallion said Knosp would be amenable to relocating the park to other available land owned by PCA Corp., but PCA has offered no acceptable terms.

Jill Moran, the county prothonotary and Gladstone’s attorney of record, said she was pleased with Smith’s ruling.

Moran said she was “having a hard time deciphering” Lokuta’s order because she couldn’t find any case law referencing Lokuta’s terminology that her order would remain in effect until “a final and unappealable order” was made in the case.

Moran said she is considering asking Lokuta to reconsider her order in light of Smith’s rulings on Thursday, as well as appealing the order to a higher court.

Moran said she thinks the only issue that could be appealed to Superior Court is whether Smith was correct in dismissing the appeal to county court. “I think we would win on the merits,” she said.

Knosp said he will continue operating the park on the land for as long as the courts will allow. As of Thursday, he was still unsure if the park would be open this weekend.

Hey Bill - just want to say thanks for keeping us all updated so we don't have to go all over the place to find out what's going on with this. You're providing us with all the important info & it's appreciated. Glad to hear something finally went right for Kyle & Steph even if it ends up being only a short term thing.

Yeah thanks Bill.