St. Clair County and George E. Hilgard American Legion Post 58 have reached an agreement for the county to purchase the post’s 104-acre property in rural Freeburg that has been plagued by squatting and criminal activity in recent years.
The property is known as the Freedom Farm, where Post 58 once operated a recreation area with a campground and lakes for swimming and fishing and hosted scout camps, military gatherings, fish fries, concerts and festivals.
The county wants to turn the now-overgrown land littered with derelict buildings into a community park.
The St. Clair County Board on Monday night earmarked a total of $660,000 in COVID-19 relief money toward the Freedom Farm property, including $640,000 it has agreed to pay Post 58 to purchase the property. The board approved the real estate purchase agreement after a roughly five minute executive session discussion.
Board members didn’t publicly discuss the agreement on Monday, but County Board member Andy Bittle, whose district includes the Freedom Farm, said in a mid-November interview that he hoped to see the park plan go through.
“The neighbors are all stressed out, and their kids don’t want to go outside. If it’s a park, I know (the county will) take care of it,” he said. “It will open at a certain time and close at a certain time. They’ll patrol it and keep all that trouble out of there.”
County Board Chairman Mark Kern said the contract with Post 58 won’t be finalized, allowing the county to take over ownership, until July.
July 1, 2025, is when the last of the post’s veteran members who signed long-term land leases for clubhouses or full-time residences on the property — mostly mobile homes and pole barns — have agreed to vacate.
The post has owned the property and used it for a headquarters since the 1940s.
Post 58 attorney Doug Stewart previously told the Belleville News-Democrat that maintenance at the Freedom Farm has decreased over the years as clubhouse owners and other members have died, which has led to security problems.
It has 134 members today, down from about 600 in the 1990s.
When asked about the timeline for the new park, Kern estimated that it took the county two and a half to three years to turn the 143 acres of former farmland at Engelmann Farm in Shiloh into a public park with a large paved walking trail, picnic pavilions and benches.
“I would think that (the Freedom Farm) isn’t going to instantly be the recreational space that we want it to be, but we think with some demolition and some mowing we can get pretty far to at least using part of the area,” he said.
“We look forward to the public input,” Kern added of future plans for the park. “But we have a good roadmap in that we remember what Freedom Farm can be and what it was not that many years ago, so we look to just bring it back as a wonderful recreational space for residents.”
Three County Board members were absent from Monday’s meeting: Democrats Ken Easterley of District 9, Jerry Dinges of District 15 and Richie Meile of District 25.
Money reallocated for Freedom Farm and other projects
The County Board moved money from its share of federal COVID-19 relief money to fund the Freedom Farm and other projects.
Three projects are getting less funding than originally planned. They include:
- Remediation, retrofitting and improvements to the property formerly occupied and used as the Illinois National Guard Armory in Belleville for public use purposes and related expenditures. The $1 million allocation was reduced to zero.
- Design, engineering and construction of water utility infrastructure to the Signal Hill area and related expenditures. A $400,000 allocation was abated to $24,165.
- Design, engineering and construction of roadway improvements to Adeline Court and related expenditures. The $293,300 allocation was abated to $21,679.
In addition to the $660,000 allocation to the Freedom Farm, two other projects are getting more funding than originally planned:
- Design, engineering and construction of capital improvements to the St. Clair County Fairgrounds and related expenditures. The $14 million allocation was increased to $15.2 million.
- Design, engineering and construction of an Animal Control facility and related expenditures. The $4.3 million allocation was increased to $6.2 million.
The end of 2024 is the federal deadline for cities and counties to finalize their plans for COVID money. They have until the end of 2026 to spend it all.
Annual St. Clair County Fair returning soon
In other business, the St. Clair County Board also declared its intention to bring the annual county fair back to the Belle-Clair Fairgrounds in Belleville starting in September 2025.
Board members approved a resolution on Monday requesting $60,000 in state funding available for county fairs:
- $15,000 for expenses directly related to the operation of the fair
- $15,000 for the purchase of new or additional land
- $10,000 for financing premiums
- $5,000 each for agricultural exhibits, educational exhibits, trade exhibits, and scientific exhibits
Officials originally hoped the county fair could return in 2023, but pushed the date, first to 2024 and now 2025.
Renovations have been underway at the fairgrounds since this spring.
Editor's note: This story was originally published by the Belleville News-Democrat. Lexi Cortes and Teri Maddox are reporters for the Belleville News-Democrat, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio.
