Thursday, June 12, 2003
Don't have much time, but tonight's meeting turned out to be a success.
I think we had between 40 and 50 people there from at least seven different counties here in Southern Illinois. We adopted the proposed plan of action and folks took home copies of resolutions to take to their own communities to get passed. Here's a sample resolution. I'll upload more later on the plan of action. We are encouraging calls of support to local elected officials and the governor office. I promised to put up the phone number to the governor's office. It's (312) 814-2121. That's the Chicago number, but that's also where the key people are.
The basic plan of action is this:
Move the Old Slave House from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency to the Department of Natural Resources.
Combine the Old Slave House with the existing nearby Saline County Fish and Wildlife Area (Glen O. Jones Lake) and create a new state park called Eagle Mountain State Park.
Have DNR to lease the operations of the Old Slave House to a non-profit group who can develop it into an educational facility (i.e. museum) that would pay for its operations through an admission fee. (This is why we need to change agencies, IHPA doesn't have this authority).
Do all of this to get the site reopened by the Eighth of August, which is historically the traditional celebration of Emancipation Day in Southern Illinois and western Kentucky.
The plan also calls for the creation of a local citizens advisory committee that would meet at least quarterly to provide input, build support and help further the development of the new state park.
I think we had between 40 and 50 people there from at least seven different counties here in Southern Illinois. We adopted the proposed plan of action and folks took home copies of resolutions to take to their own communities to get passed. Here's a sample resolution. I'll upload more later on the plan of action. We are encouraging calls of support to local elected officials and the governor office. I promised to put up the phone number to the governor's office. It's (312) 814-2121. That's the Chicago number, but that's also where the key people are.
The basic plan of action is this:
The plan also calls for the creation of a local citizens advisory committee that would meet at least quarterly to provide input, build support and help further the development of the new state park.