(The following story by Tasha Bartholomew appeared on the Daily Review website on December 29.)
SAN LEANDRO, Calif. — For the past 85 years, Boy Scouts Troop 503 has spent countless hours helping the community. Now the group is hoping to find itself on the receiving end.
A few months ago, the troop was evicted from railroad property on Carden Street, where an old 27-foot trailer containing the boys’ camping equipment, records and flags has been kept for the past 20 years.
According to Mark Miller, the troop’s committee chairman, there was never a problem when the site was owned by Southern Pacific Railroad. The property presently belongs to Union Pacific Railroad.
Citing national security issues, Union Pacific officials told the troop it had four days to vacate the premises and an extension would not be granted, Miller said.
Calls made by The Daily Review to Union Pacific corporate headquarters in Nebraska were not immediately returned Wednesday.
John Taufer, a local businessman with Sebring Transportation Co., temporarily offered some storage space for the trailer at the company’s trucking yard off Doolittle Drive on the condition that the troop find a new home by Jan. 1.
Time is almost up and the troop is no closer to finding a permanent location than it was in October when the problem first surfaced.
Miller said the Boy Scouts are looking for either a place to store the trailer or a place to store the gear if people don’t want the trailer on their property.
“If we don’t get a permanent storage place (within the next few days), we’ll probably have to split