LaSalle County board sells long-vacant Enchanted Forest property in Utica to local bidder

LaSalle County Board voted Nov. 3 to sell the long-vacant Enchanted Forest (also called the Gramma Bear) commercial property in Utica to local bidder Mike Bird for $20,000.

County staff said the property had been off the tax rolls for more than a decade after a bankruptcy tied to the prior operator, and that the parcel had accumulated many years of unpaid taxes and interest. County staff told the board the assessed value from when the facility was last in active use was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that the districts outstanding real-estate taxes alone totaled roughly $471,000 (interest and court costs had driven a larger historic total). The countys packet showed five bidders; county staff said only two bids complied with the surplus-sale addendum that described acceptable uses consistent with Utica…