Friday, July 8, 2011 The Shepherdstown Chronicle 3

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done quickly. He saidsince the project has beenin HLC’s hands, thingshave been happening on a“minute-by-minute basis.”

“My hope is that bythe end of the month wehave a definite answer,”Burke said.

Patsy Noland, countycommission president,said after the commissionrescinded its position onthe project, the $100,000in taxpayer money thecounty set aside to gotowards the purchase ofthe cement mill propertyis no longer on the table;however, there is stillapproximately $325,000left for negotiations.

The Department ofTransportation providedtwo transportationenhancement grants,totaling $200,000. TheCivil War Trust agreedprovide $100,000 ofmatching funds, andDelegate John Doyle, D-Jefferson, has said hewould put approximately$25,000 of communityparticipation project fundstowards the purchase.

And Burke said thoughthe official deadline for theDoT grants ran out lastweek on June 30, therewasindication for an extensionbecause appraisal of theland took some time.

Jeff Harpold, of DoT,said the deadline couldbe extended, also becausethe scope of the projectchanged over the years.Before the county com-mission considered thepurchase, JeffersonCounty Parks andRecreation was originallyapproached by Ed

Dunleavy, president ofthe ShepherdstownBattlefield PreservationAssociation, in late 2009to take the lead on theproperty’s purchase.

The parks and recre-ation commission alsohad the original appraisaldone. The latest appraisalvalue was $339,000, andaccording to Burke, theDepartment of Highwaysdetermined that was fairmarket value.

And, Burke saidthough he has been incontact with the NPS,there is no definiteanswer yet if the entitywill take over the proper-ty if the opportunity aris-es, though he said NPSofficials continue to“express interest.”

NPS is currently con-ducting a resource studyon the land, which waspart of theShepherdstownBattlefield, to determine ifit is linked to the HarpersFerry National HistoricalPark or AntietamNational Battlefield. Moreinformation on the studycan be found athttp://planning.nps.gov/document /criteria05final.pdf.

“My hope is that by

the end of the month

we have a definite

answer.”

Martin Burke,

county historic

landmarks

commissioner