After nine in the evening Thursday, a sheriff’s deputy served Robert Rikli a summons at his farm.
That means the dispute over a proposed bike trail, first reported by Six On Your Side, has taken a legal turn.

The Lower Platte South Natural Resources District plans to use eminent domain to force Rikli to sell a strip of his farm ground about 26 feet wide he says.

However Rikli has no trespassing signs posted on his land where surveyors will stake out the bike trail leading from Wabash to the Platte River.

Rikli says, “We have got letters saying this is what we’re going to do. We have not had and option everything so far has been forced down our throat."

Rather than just go on Rikli’s land the N-R-D seeks a court order so the sheriff will back up survey crews. The N-R-D attorney Steve Seglin tells Channel Six News, “We don’t want to get into a fight and we don’t want anybody to get hurt.”

However Rikli says more than an acre of prime farm land will be taken for the easement and even though he’ll be paid for use of the land Rikli says losing a strip of his corn field will cost him $1,000 a year in crop income.

The hearing on an injunction to allow surveyors on Rikli’s land will take place in Plattsmouth at the end of May.