Party time at Parkside

COEUR d'ALENE - Kevin Eskelin knows the day he has been dreading for a long time is coming, but he wants to go out with style. The owner of Parkside Bistro & Pub was recently notified that the lease on the popular hangout next to City Park and across from Memorial Field will not be renewed when it expires on May 14.

COEUR d'ALENE - Kevin Eskelin knows the day he has been dreading for a long time is coming, but he wants to go out with style.

The owner of Parkside Bistro & Pub was recently notified that the lease on the popular hangout next to City Park and across from Memorial Field will not be renewed when it expires on May 14.

"We're having a 'Support the Bistro' weekend," he said on Friday.

Rock cover band Subtracting the Negative will play at 9 p.m., and a Texas barbecue with several varieties of pulled pork will begin at 4 p.m.

"It's going to be great food," he said.

Eskelin is continuing negotiations and discussing legal options with the city, but the future prospects are bleak.

When the BNSF Railway abandoned the tracks near the bistro, the land it sits on reverted to the city, and with the pending abandonment of the remaining right of way along Northwest Boulevard set to be completed by the end of the year, commercial activity is expected to stop.

There are several issues, said Warren Wilson, deputy city attorney. The initial grant of the land in 1903 limited it to park use, and there are questions of the legality of it remaining. Rules of the Land & Water Conservation Fund, which provided funding for the park, require that there is no commercial use of the property.

There is also a city ordinance against the sale or consumption of alcohol in parks, Wilson said. That means a place that has been a favorite among locals and visitors, especially in the summer, will soon be gone.

"It has been there a long time, that's for sure," Wilson said. "The city has not been in any huge rush."

It was February, 2007, when Eskelin was initially advised of the pending changes.

"We have been kicking this around for a long time," he said. "At some point we need to comply with the land and conservation rules."

Gus Melonas, spokesman for BNSF, said the railway still has not determined a timeline for the removal of the final stretch of tracks that once served several sawmills in the city, but are now only used occasionally for storage of rail cars.

Eskelin has only one wish remaining as he nears what would be the 14th anniversary of the pub in May, and hopes with the help of supporters he will get it.

"All I am asking for is the summer," he said.