PM wetlands not filled, deadline approaching

The Prospect Mountain High School (PMHS) Board is working to resolve a wetlands issue on the school’s 85-acre campus before its state permit to address the issue expires on March 27, 2008.

PMHS Buildings and Grounds Supervisor Mark Everett said yesterday the actual wetland is a relatively small piece of land — about a half-acre, with another half-acre in the “effected” zone — but if officials with the state Department of Environmental Services (DES) are not satisfied with the PMHS Board’s efforts to resolve the situation, the school could lose the opportunity to one day add at least two more athletic fields.

“They (DES officials) gave us a permit (to fill the wetland) in ’04 during the original construction (of the building) and part of the conditions was the wetland permit that expires within the next year… Basically what it (the permit) allows us to do is to develop a significant portion of land for athletic fields. And if we don’t act on it by the due date, which is coming up in the spring, then we lose the opportunity of being able to do it.”

Everett said the area in question is part of a 20-acre section of wooded land the school owns that’s located behind the track scoreboard.

One of the biggest challenges related to the situation is that the wetlands area is in a “bad spot,” because it’s “right in the middle” of the 20 acres, Everett said. About an acre of the land, surrounding and including the wetlands, needs to be cleared and the wetlands needs has to be filled in to the DES’s satisfaction, he explained.

Everett said the school board has not indicated it wants to develop any additional fields at this time but the issue needs to be resolved before the permit expires or the school could lose its legal right to develop the athletic fields in the future.

The board recently made a public appeal for “fill” to resolve the wetlands issue and Everett said he understood that a donor has come forward.

The board has also discussed getting a extension of its permit from the DES but so far that issue has apparently not been resolved.

Everett said he does not know if the school board will move ahead with dealing with the wetlands before the permit expires. “That’s a decision of the school board,” he said.

He was also unable to say how much it will cost to fill in the wetlands. “It (the issue) was in the discovery stage and now it’s in a planning stage, but it’s not yet been approved by our board,” he said. “We just gathered the information for them… Most likely it will be discussed at their next meeting.”

The next PMHS board is scheduled for Tuesday, 6:30 p.m., in the school library.

PMHS has had been problems with its athletic fields ever since the school opened several years ago. The main field in the front of the building still has grading problems. At one time, a broken septic pipe caused officials to suspend use of a field behind the school. And more recently school board member Dan LaCroix of Alton, who is chairman of the buildings and grounds committee, told his fellow board members that the school had received a violation of wetland notification from the DES.

Everett said the violation was not connected in any way to the wetland permit situation the board is currently facing. “That was a contractor’s violation and it has been resolved,” he said. “We have a clear bill (from the DES). What was in violation has already been taken care of.”