Monte Bernadoni, site superintendent, described cleanup and staged public-access work for the Matheson Annex during the LaSalle County Tourism Committee meeting on Aug. 15, 2025. He said environmental studies and salvage work will come first and that limited visitor facilities are planned for the annex’s northern section.

Bernadoni said the state expects significant cleanup after purchasing an old quarry and that hazardous debris and sunken vessels on the Vermilion River must be removed before opening areas to the public. “Right now, though, we have a lot of work to do as far as cleanup. When you buy an old quarry, with stuff like that there, there's gonna be a lot of cleanup to be done to make safe and everything else out there,” he said.

Why it matters: The annex adds roughly 2,500 acres to park holdings and contains rare plant communities and wildlife habitat. Committee members pressed staff for timing, money and avenues for local help because cleanup and initial access work will drive early costs and determine what areas can open to visitors safely.

Bernadoni described the planning as zone-based, with Zone 1 in the north — near Jonesville and just west of the Route 71 bridge — targeted first. He said Zone 1 would include a roughly 30-space parking lot, an access entrance, a set of restrooms, a kayak-type river launch and short trails. “Zone 1 would be the north section, which is over by Jonesville...that that's gonna have, like, a 30 space parking lot...there'll be a set of bathrooms...there'll be a river launch, almost like a kayak type of launch,” he said.

He said environmental work will include plant and wildlife inventories (including bats recorded in sinkholes), fisheries assessments, and invasive-species surveys. Bernadoni noted a “Boltonia field” in the northern riverside area and said state ecologists want to confirm presence of rare or endangered plants before large-scale construction.

On schedule and budget: Bernadoni said preliminary work and cleanup are the immediate priorities and that construction of Zone 1 was more likely to begin next year, with an estimated opening in “late summer” if timelines hold. He did not give a total capital cost; when asked about overall outlay, he said cleanup will absorb a large share of funds and that exact totals were “something I really can't go into.”

Staffing and management: He said roughly three employees are currently assigned to the Matheson annex but that long-term operations may require separate crews and budgets rather than managing the annex and Starved Rock (the committee uses “Starved Rock” in discussion) under a single crew. “It would be beneficial to state to have 2 different parks...It'd be a lot to handle under 1 budget,” Bernadoni said.

Agency coordination and next steps: Bernadoni said the project team will coordinate signage and road repairs with Illinois Department of Transportation where needed, and reach out to townships and municipalities (Oglesby was identified as the nearest municipality for early development) for utility and access planning. He told the committee he would contact them if staff needed help advocating for signage or other local support.

Discussion vs. decision: The meeting recorded discussion and staff reporting only; the Committee did not take a formal vote on the annex at this session. Committee members asked for timelines, acreage and staffing details; Bernadoni supplied approximate dates and quantities but no firm funding commitments were made during the meeting.

Ending: Bernadoni and the committee agreed to stay in contact as studies and cleanup progress. He said he would return with updates as work advances.