Illinois county backs plan to build resort

PINCKNEYVILLE, Ill. -- Perry County officials voted unanimously Tuesday to back plans for a sprawling resort complex rivaling Branson, Mo., saying the economically struggling area has "nothing to lose."

The Board of Commissioners also dismissed environmentalists' concerns over a land swap proposed by the developer, Glen Carbon-based Toney Watkins Co. The company wants the state to give it 2,000 acres from the 20,000-acre Pyramid State Recreation Area in exchange for an identically sized parcel nearby.

Toney Watkins said in a statement Tuesday that it wants to develop a state-of-the-art destination and convention resort near this 5,500-resident community about 70 miles southeast of St. Louis, with lodging, food, sports and entertainment in one location.

The company said the development -- which would be within a 12-hour drive of more than 164 million people -- would include music entertainment venues, golf courses, camping and fishing, and a BMX bike-racing area.

"Perry County is [the company[']s] location of choice, and it is the hope of the organization that the state will help [it] bring this project to fruition," the company's statement read.

County Commissioners said the proposed project is vital to this area, stung in recent decades by a slide in local coal mining and the recent loss of 440 jobs when the county's biggest employer, a plant where DVDs and compact discs were made, closed this spring.

The county's unemployment rate -- now about 8 percent -- is among the highest in the state.

"We think it's time to take a chance and embrace the prospect of economic development, jobs, tourism and a better quality of life for our citizens," said James Booker, the panel's chairman. "We would be foolish if we didn't explore that opportunity, and we would be doing the people of Perry County a disservice if we did not.

"To put it simply, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain."

Booker suggested the state left the county with few other options -- first it acquired 16,000 acres to expand Pyramid state park seven years ago without local input, then promises that the land would draw economic development and tourism never materialized.

Toney Watkins has said the plan and its 2,500 jobs would boost the region's struggling economy and assuage environmentalists.

Booker said some outsiders who oppose the project "couldn't even locate Perry County on a map."

The company has asked Illinois lawmakers to help them establish a relationship with the state's Department of Natural Resources and identify a "suitable" parcel of land within Pyramid.

That legislative push was put on hold recently after environmental groups questioned whether the state should part with parkland and whether development would harm grasslands where they say the Henslow's sparrow and other rare birds have thrived.

On Tuesday, Booker said that the county respects the environment: "As the people who live here we have a greater stake in our land, water and air than anyone else."

"We believe that this project can exist in Perry County, and in many ways improve upon the land we have now" by making better use of land already mined for its coal, he said.