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Developer needs to show land eyed for park parcel swap

By David Kenney

Tuesday, June 12, 2007 7:14 AM CDT

There is a certain smell about interest on the part of the Toney Watkins Co. to trade 2,000 acres of land for an equal amount to be taken from Pyramid State Park. And it's not the smell of roses. The first thing state officials should say to the company is "show me the land." The second is "show me the deed to your ownership of it."

The company was founded, in its own words, to build a resort. It has no track record of successful operation and no known degree of capital. It doesn't return phone calls and hides behind a desire on the part of our "boy governor" to have only himself bring the "good news" to the public.

The company apparently has spoken to state officials in terms of eventually having 100 million dollars invested in its project, and that it will eventually provide 2,500 jobs. Those of us who were born at night, but not last night, look on those figures with a measure of skepticism.

The whole matter brings to mind the would-be developer of shore-line home sites on Kinkaid Lake of a few years ago. Unknown to the public he obtained a contract from an unsophisticated Kinkaid-Reed's Creek Conservancy District Board for the purchase of land, and began staking out lots and roadways in areas eminently unsuited for that sort of use.

An aroused public was told it was a "done deal" and nothing could be done to prevent it going forward. The developer intended to buy low, sell high, and depart, leaving the owners of houses and lots without sewage lines and durable roadways. Users of the lake for legitimate purposes, from all walks of life, rose up in wrath and undid the deal in short order. The developer departed, muttering about suing the board and the state. The board was reconstructed by the legislature, its management altered, and Kinkaid Lake preserved for its original purposes.

Another "done deal" that came undone when the public learned of it occurred when the state was in the process several years ago of purchasing 16,500 acres of land from a coal company to be added to Pyramid State Park. Governor George Ryan came to the Du Quoin State Fair and with one of his friends schemed to have 5,000 of those acres sold to a private group.

A state employee became indignant about all that and told a friend what was happening. He was so fearful of losing his job he would visit his friend only at night, under cover of darkness. His friend went to the Southern Illinoisan newspaper and it blew the whistle. Another potential wrong was righted, another "done deal" undone. The power of public opinion can untie many knots.

Pyramid State Park is a natural treasure of great value. It should be preserved intact as such. Dirt bike tracks and amphitheaters, said by some to be amenities, are anything but so far as a park of great natural value is concerned. They can be built elsewhere, but not on park land that is the rightful property of the public.

David Kenney was director of the Illinois Department of Conservation, predecessor of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, from 1977 to 1984.