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| Forest district wants prison property | |
| May 6, 2007 | |
| William Presecky, staff reporter bpresecky@tribune.com | |
| Chicago Tribune | |
| Pertains to Fox River Trail, St. Charles, Wayne | |
| A shuttered youth prison on the south bank of the Fox River near St. Charles has been targeted for purchase by the Kane County Forest Preserve District for $3.5 million, officials said Friday. The former Illinois Youth Center at Valley View, a compound of roughly 46 acres just south of the "big bend" area of the river, operated for nearly 40 years before being closed by the state five years ago for budgetary reasons. The Forest Preserve District began considering the purchase soon after the proposed closing was announced, said Forest Preserve Commission President John Hoscheit. But it was not until the abandoned facility was declared surplus property and made available to other state agencies -- there were no takers -- that it was put up for public auction, he said. Although the cluster of prison buildings appears to have deteriorated substantially, their exact condition and potential future use for possible recreational programs will have to be determined, Hoscheit said. State legislators from Kane County are working on behalf of the Forest Preserve District to have the site removed from the auction list, allowing the county to purchase it directly for the state-appraised price of $3.5 million. The proposed purchase, endorsed Friday by the commission's Executive Committee, was made possible after Kane voters last month authorized the sale of $85 million in bonds to buy open space. "We couldn't move on [Valley View] until we had the bonds," Hoscheit said. The site, which abuts a residential area, had been viewed by the county at various times since 2002 as a potential location for a new jail or jail annex or a regional drug rehabilitation center. |
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