toledoblade.com

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Consumer activist and presidential candidate Ralph Nader has appealed to Toledo Mayor Jack Ford to save a small auto repair business whose property was involved in the construction of the new DaimlerChrysler plant in North Toledo.

In a letter written Tuesday to Mr. Ford, Mr. Nader, an independent candidate for president, urged the mayor to meet with Herman and Kim Blankenship, owners of Kim's Auto and Truck Service Inc., to work out a settlement that would allow the pair to keep their business.

"As part of an eminent domain seizure, this business is being offered less than the price of a modest home, $104,000. If this is allowed to continue, Kim's Auto will be deliberately forced out of business by your administration," Mr. Nader's letter states. "Kim Blankenship can't afford to buy a home with the money offered by the city; how then could she pay to rebuild a structure that must now adhere to all new codes, on one-quarter the money quoted by builders?"....Read on......