Galena Gateway Project Halted

With their $1.275 million offer rejected by a landowner, the Land Acquisition Committee of the Jo Daviess Conservation foundation regretfully announces that negotiations to purchase the Richards farm in Galena for the proposed Galena Gateway Scenic Preserve have been discontinued.

After working on the project for four and a half years, the committee raised over $1.1 million through local contributions and grants from the state of Illinois and private foundations.  Negotiations took place over several weeks, with the committee making a final offer of $1.275 million dollars.  The most recent appraisal on the land, completed in October of 1999, valued the land for development at $1.072 million.

The $1.275 million offer, made to the two landowners, was a cash offer with no contingencies and a closing date of February 28.  the purchase needed to be completed by that date or approximately $250,000 in private funding would be withdrawn.  Unfortunately, one of the two owners rejected the offer.  With the loss of funding, the Foundation is compelled to discontinue negotiations.

Land Acquisition Committee Chairman, Jim Baranski said, "We are very disappointed that we could not come to terms on this project.  Dozens of volunteers have contributed literally thousands of hours over the past four and a half years working to acquire and preserve this property."
 

Scenic America, a national conservation organization, released a report naming the Upper Mississippi Blufflands Region of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin one of its ten Last Chance Landscapes.  These endangered landscapes are places of beauty or distinctive community character with both a pending threat and a potential solution.

The Last Chance Landscape designation is just a designation; it doesn't mean new regulations or funding for this region.  It's a good way to show area citizens, landowners and potential funders that we are stewards of a special place worth protecting for future generations.

According to its entry in Scenic America's 2000 Last Chance Landscapes publication, "The unique beauty of the Upper Mississippi Blufflands Region of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois is different from any other areas in these states.  In addition to the scenic qualities of the blufflands, the area contains historic towns, important archaeological sites, small working farms, and rare ecosystems.  The region is experiencing tremendous pressure from residential development and resource extraction, and needs a regional strategy to protect its special qualities."