Water Works Committee Votes to Sell to Highest Bidder
August 19th, 2009
The winning bid team, including a judge, Palmer’s attorney Ron Davis, Jeffrey Todd Palmer and Joe Brady.
by Glynn Wilson
The executive committee of the Birmingham Water Works Board voted Wednesday to recommend selling the controversial land along the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River to the highest bidder, J. Todd Palmer of Tuscaloosa, for a final bid of $5 million.
 |
| Glynn Wilson |
| A view of the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River looking south from the bridge on Cedar Springs Road in the area they call Little Shenandoah. |
The committee’s recommendation, which included new restrictive provisions against mining for coal and other minerals, clear-cutting timber — and a 100-foot buffer zone allowing no development on the banks of the river — will come before the full board at a noon meeting on Thursday.
Steven Brickman of the law firm of Sirote and Permutt, representing Blount Conservation Trust, LLC, for Russell Boren, a Tarrant businessman who said he was originally from Blount County, put in a final bid of $4.75 million. When given a chance to discuss going higher to an unknown silent partner on the telephone in a private office, however, he declined to come back with more.
Joe Brady, a consultant with a conservation easement firm who also represented Palmer at the meeting in addition to his attorney Ron Davis and a judge he brought along to deal with the settlement of an old landowner’s lawsuit, said Palmer’s plans for the property included building a “family farm” on “some of the most beautiful land in Alabama.” He said Palmer promised he had no plans to mine for coal, clear-cut the trees or sell if off as a housing development in the future, although that last part is not a guaranteed portion of the written contract.
Brady said Mr. Palmer made his money selling T-shirts with religious slogans. He said while Palmer has been involved in housing developments in the past, as confirmed by records with the Alabama Secretary of State’s office, that business constituted only a “small part of his fortune.”
“I have no plans to mine for coal, or clear-cut the timber,” Mr. Palmer told the committee.
Palmer also agreed to handle a lawsuit filed in Blount County Circuit Court by former property owner Edna Fay Johnson Galloway Holcombe, whose family sold the Water Works 173 acres in 1993 when the utility was planning to build a dam and drinking water reservoir. Presumably that agreement would involve the new owner selling the 173 acres back to her, although that was not explicitly discussed in the open meeting.
In addition, Palmer’s representatives hinted he may be willing to work with the Forever Wild board on some of the property.
Gregory M. Lein, assistant director of the state lands division, made an appearance at the meeting to express Forever Wild’s interest in the property, although he admitted the board would be limited to paying fair market value and could not complete an appraisal and put together a bid in time since it’s next meeting is not until September.
 |
| Glynn Wilson |
| Russell Boren addresses the board… |
After losing out on the deal after days of going back and forth with the water board in a high stakes bidding war, Mr. Boren made an emotional appeal indicating his intent all along was to give something back to the people of Blount County and to conserve the land, not to mine on it or clear-cut the trees. While he has been in the blasting business and his son is apparently into dynamite, according to comments from the opposing counsel, that was not his intent for the land, he claimed.
Mr. Boren showed a keen familiarity for the property, indicating about 500 acres of it had been mined for coal in the past. He said it might take some timber management to reclaim the land there. He clearly had ties to the board, at one point admitting going to church with the board’s outside lawyer, Charlie Waldrep, and he praised the water works as “the best managed” agency in Jefferson County.
The 3,200 acres under dispute was purchased by the water works between 1992 and 1998 for a dam and drinking water reservoir, even though the fast track plans for the dam were defeated in 1992-93. The volunteer Friends of the Locust Fork citizens group kept up the vigil over the years against the proposal, until the water works finally gave up this year and took it off the list of potential water sources for the Birmingham metro area — permanently. With a new study, the board decided to go with Holt Lake downstream.
 |
| Glynn Wilson |
| Anthony Barnes, chairman of the water works board. In the background, that’s Birmingham News reporter Thomas Spencer, new to the environment beat. Kathrine Bouma is taking the buyout… |
Anthony Barnes, chairman of the board and a real estate man himself, offered the motion to recommend the sale, after blasting the people in Blount County for putting up such a fight for conservation of the area over the years. He claimed all the plans for the reservoir were in the best interest of preserving the environment along the Locust Fork, and he stood by his position that the board had no say in what happened to the land after the sale. This was also the position of Mac Underwood, the water works general manager.
The motion was seconded by former Birmingham City Councilman David Herring, a retired banker and secretary-treasurer in charge of the water works money. He had also been in vocal support of the sale and for the position that what mattered was the money, not conservation of the watershed. Fultondale mayor Jim Lowery, vice-chairman of the board, didn’t have much to say today. He was one of the most vocal proponents of moving forward with the sale at the last meeting.
Sherry W. Lewis, assistant secretary/treasurer, asked the most questions and pressed several times to make sure both bidders were in agreement with the new environmental restrictions in the sale contract.
The Locust Fork is one of the last free-flowing rivers in the American South — and in Alabama — with no dam. It is considered an environmental treasure as well as a recreational hot spot, with some of the most challenging unmanaged white water canoing anywhere around.
Reacting to the news today, Nelson Brooke, Executive Director for the Black Warrior Riverkeeper group, said he was not surprised the BWWB voted to sell the land.
“I am glad they chose to include restrictions on harmful uses of the property in a contract – I hope that sticks. We will work with whoever buys the property to see that the river is taken care of,” he said. “I remain dismayed that the BWWB has been so disingenuous throughout this process. They still refuse to admit they misled us and Forever Wild. The question still remains: What is the rush to sell this property? I can imagine their answer will be the same boilerplate used so far: that they’re acting in the best interest of their ratepayers. I have yet to speak to a single ratepayer who wanted them to sell to the highest bidder rather than giving Forever Wild a chance.”
Comments
Powered by Facebook Comments
August 19th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
The heightened public pressure brought on by Web and TV coverage of the story over the past couple of weeks obviously had an impact on the proceedings. In the first meeting, when we were the only press represented, the board took the position that they had no say in what happened to the property after the sale.
Today, after restrictive covenant deeds were added to the bid contracts as conditions, conservation of the land dominated the discussion by all parties.
August 20th, 2009 at 11:08 am
“Family farm” for Beautiful T-shirts and Bingo?
This is most disappointing but expected.
Where is REAL vision and leadership in Alabama???
August 20th, 2009 at 11:18 am
Best I can tell, there’s not any here : )
In retrospect, this might not be so bad. Forever Wild could not have out bid the private good old boys on this one anyway. By holding their feet to the fire, major environmental concessions were obtained.
Now onto fighting the coal mine, coal ash, and all the other major battles that lie ahead — like health care and global climate change…