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Riverfront path well worth the journey

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| Sunday, April 03, 2005 |

Thirty years from now, the five years spent acquiring the final stretch of Bettendorf's riverfront bike path won't matter a whit. Hundreds of thousands of people who will amble, walk, run, bike, skate and who knows, maybe Segway, down the stunning stretch of river. And they'll be entirely oblivious to the legal battle that quietly simmered for the past five years.

It's taken at least that long, and $819,000 from Bettendorf taxpayers to wrestle the property away from River Drive homeowners. Easy to understand why they didn't give up easily. The nation's biggest river. Interstate 74 bridge to the east. The Davenport skyline to the west. Towboats almost close enough to touch as they wait their turn through the Pool 15 locks. This is high-value, hot property.

Many of the families carry longtime memories of afternoons alongside the river, holiday picnics, even mooring their own boat at their own dock. Decades of reluctant teenagers were ordered to haul mowers across four lanes of traffic to keep their strip of land a trim, attractive part of the River Drive view. Soon, all Quad-Citians will be able to linger on that stretch most of us have enjoyed from a car window.

And that long-contested stretch will ease into the Quad-City bike path system most of us take for granted. Truthfully, each piece has been a struggle. From paving the west Rock Island industrial levee tops; to keeping a floodwall off Moline's Butterworth Parkway and Davenport's LeClaire Park; to winning federal government support for a connection across Arsenal Island. And, assuredly, on and on.

Each of the 28 Bettendorf riverfront property owners will get a nice check for the approximately $350 per linear foot negotiated settlement led by Bettendorf City Attorney Greg Jager. Fair compensation for giving up hallowed ground.

Now all Quad-Citians can experience for themselves what those 28 owners valued so highly.

Except we won't have to cut the grass.