Parkside faces final months

Facility on railroad's right of way set to close

COEUR d'ALENE - Even before the season that makes it one of the most popular hangouts in the city gets into full swing, Parkside Bistro & Pub will likely be one more fond memory of days gone by.

Kevin Eskelin would celebrate the 14th anniversary of the tavern and diner alongside City Park in May, but when his lease expires in April he has little hope of remaining open.

"I don't understand," he said. "Maybe there is no legal reason they can take it."

But they can, and probably will have no choice.

For decades the pub, and a variety of other restaurants loved for the location and outside dining in warm weather, have existed on land leased from BNSF Railway. Bee Hive, Sunshine Trader and Catcher in the Rye were among the former names, but with the railroad in the final stages of abandoning the right of way that now goes nowhere, the property will revert to the city to become part of the park.

In late December, BNSF received approval from the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to abandon the route, and will have one year from that date to complete the deal, said Mike Gridley, Coeur d'Alene city attorney.

"Parkside will not be able to renew the lease that expires on April 14, 2010," he said.

The land was given to the city more than a century ago for a park, subject to use by the railroad, which once served several lumber mills in the city. Rules of the Land & Water Conservation Fund, which provided funding for the park, require that there is no commercial use of the property, Gridley said.

Even the Human Rights Education Institute on the property required approval from the agency, an arm of the U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service, he said. As a nonprofit it will be allowed to stay, but cannot change its footprint.

Gus Melonas, spokesman for BNSF, said there is no plan established for removal of the final sections of track and completion of the abandonment.

Once consummated, however, none of the other commercial sites on the right of way will be allowed to continue, Gridley said. That includes the empty building along Northwest Boulevard that most recently was a chicken restaurant, and the adjacent Atlas Warehouse.

The site is part of the Four Corners proposal that extends from Independence Point to Garden Avenue, which ends west of Northwest Boulevard and the skate park, behind the restaurant.

Part of the plan for the property includes making Garden an additional exit from the college district to Northwest Boulevard, said Tony Berns, executive director of the Lake City Development Corp. Eventually a land swap for the strip along Northwest Boulevard abandoned by the railroad will put it all under city control, likely as part of the city's education corridor, he said.

So change will come - sooner rather than later - and Eskelin is mostly resigned to the reality that the era of the park-side pub will fade into history. He has too much invested in the building to start again, and it wouldn't be the same anyway.

"There is nothing else like it," he said. "I wouldn't want to do anything else."

A sign on the roof donated by a customer and a petition urging the city to reconsider has little hope of changing the outcome, and come summer Parkside will be gone.

"Most of the customers think it's a benefit to the park," Eskelin said. "It doesn't make sense. I would like to see something worked out."

Regulars agree, Parkside is a welcome addition not only for locals but for visitors as well.

"It's never been a bad place, with the cops called," said Eric Halliday. The tiny space, with the Human Rights Education Institute sharing one wall and a steel parks building just behind it, won't add significantly to park space, he said.

"I think it's crap. He should stay," he said. "It's so much fun in the summertime," he said.

It will also mean lost jobs.

"My job," said Camber Head, a bartender. "I'd like to keep it. We were heading for a good summer."