Knox County Parks Dept. will hold on to mine property

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The abandoned Enoco Coal Mine located east of Bruceville will stay the same for now.  That’s the word from Knox County Parks Department Superintendent Rama Sobhani.

Vincennes Sun Commercial  is reporting today that only one bid was received to purchase the property and it wasn’t as high as the Park’s Department was hoping so the Park will continue to lease out the land for pasture and hay growing.  Months of planning went into getting the red tape completed so the land could be let out for bids but still there wasn’t enough interest in the property and Sobhani was quoted as saying that to leave the mine as is..is somewhat of a relief.

Proceeds from a sale of the land were planned to be used as match money for the Conservation Fund grant received at the end of 2015 for the ongoing Fox Ridge Nature Park project.  $200,000 is needed for the match.  Sobhani told the paper that so far half of that has come from the Bicentennial Nature Trust grant from the state Department of Natural Resources  and the parks department also received $35,000 in donations from various organizations to go toward that match.  He said camp revenue has been used as well and it looks like the department can take the rest of the match from its non reverting funds.