Glynn Wilson

The Swann-Joy covered bridge on the Locust Fork just north of the property up for sale…

Guest Column
by Nelson Brooke

In April, Black Warrior Riverkeeper and the Friends of the Locust Fork River nominated 3,200 acres of property along the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River, owned by the Birmingham Water Works Board, to Alabama’s Forever Wild program.

Glynn Wilson

Nelson Brooke

Support for the nomination was provided by 33 organizations and businesses, Blount County residents and government officials. The Water Works Board was a willing seller, and its representatives expressed interest in working with Forever Wild.

This was, of course, a very exciting opportunity because the BWWB had plans to build a water supply reservoir dam on this portion of the river. To have this magnificent, free-flowing river go from being endangered to forever protected would be a dream come true. The catch: I had a feeling developers and coal-mining prospectors would have an interest in the property, too, and I was told the Forever Wild board rarely shows strong interest in a nominated property during its first review.

When Forever Wild voted in a board meeting in June to appraise the property, this signaled Forever Wild had sincere interest in the property. An appraisal is a first step in its process, however, and Forever Wild would not be able to consider making an offer on the property until the next board meeting in September. I kept BWWB’s real estate representative apprised of the process, and I was told the BWWB was very interested in seeing Forever Wild make an offer.

To my surprise, on June 30, the BWWB voted to open a bid process to accept offers on the property from July 1 through July 31. The water board performed its own appraisal, which valued the property at $3.2 million. Apparently, the BWWB’s attitude toward Forever Wild suddenly changed, and board members decided to sell the property to the highest bidder.

Read the rest of this entry »