Why is Brunner preserve still closed?

Why is Brunner preserve still closed?

In October 2008, the Kane County Forest Preserve District purchased the 741-acre Brunner property for $40 million, the largest and most important land purchase ever made by the district. To leverage their funds, the district obtained two grants for the 146 acres considered the highest quality natural areas along the river: $1.46 million from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation and $750,000 from the Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development Program. After the initial celebration of this significant purchase, questions began to arise almost immediately.

Intergovernmental agreements with Kane County and Dundee Township Park District for the right of way to construct the future Longmeadow Parkway reduced the size of the Brunner Forest Preserve by some 50 acres in 2009. Additional acreage was leased to the Dundee Township Park District for 50 years. The possibility of mining for gravel on the Brunner property was discussed as early as November 2008 in an executive committee meeting. Public reaction to the idea of gravel mining was widespread and overwhelmingly negative.

While the forest preserve dropped the idea of gravel mining in the face of strong opposition, questions linger. The Brunner Forest Preserve is still not open to the public more than four years after its acquisition, despite the terms of a 2008 grant requiring that the site be open to the public within 12 months of purchase. A spokesman for the forest preserve district claimed that the public could enter Brunner from adjacent properties, but the main entry remains chained shut.

Why has the opening of this $40 million preserve not been given a higher priority? The Kane County taxpayers who voted in support of the referendums to preserve more land deserve a better answer. Perhaps the newly seated Board members will ask more questions and demand an accounting.

Evelyn Carol Grom

Sleepy Hollow