Whittell estate purchase deadline extended

Thursday, May 8, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

The American Land Conservancy has been trying to secure the estate for public use but has met with resistance from the federal government, which maintained it didn't want to be in the business of maintaining buildings.

About a year ago, the conservancy contacted the college about managing the buildings, said Mike Sion, spokesman for the college. As it stands, UNR would partner with the University of California, Davis.

The announcement and subsequent meetings within the last month with federal officials was enough of a push to allow the conservancy to extend a contract with the property owner, Jack Dreyfus, until the end of the year.

"We assured Mr. Dreyfus that we were working diligently to assure that some action takes place by the end of the year," said Ame Hellman, the ALC Nevada project manager.

If the deal goes through, the university would purchase the buildings at fair market value and do a lease-back to the Forest Service of the land for public access, Hellman said.

"This is a compromise situation. The land that would be open to the public would include more than one mile of lakefront property," she said.

The buildings would be used as a base for various lake and environmental research projects.

"There is a whole array (of issues UNR would like to study)," Sion said. "Lake biology, watershed and runoff issues, water resources, chemical constituents of runoff, air pollution's affect on the lake, forest health at the lake and the effect of the drought on pine trees at the lake."

Hellman said the group is still waiting on action from Congress that would complete the deal.

In the meantime, she encouraged residents to call their congressmen and, "tell them that it is a high priority - It is our highest priority."

The Forest Service agrees.

"The acquisition of the property is still a high priority for the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit," said Dave Marlow, staff officer of the lands office. "We realize it would be a real plus for the U.S. public as well as the basin at large."

The process could be aided by the Southern Nevada Lands bill that passed the House of Representatives April 23 and that is now moving into the Senate.

If approved, it would allow the federal government to sell off Bureau of Land Management lands in Las Vegas and use the proceeds to buy other sensitive lands in the state, said Karen Kirchgasser, a spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nevada.

"The advantage to getting it passed is that the lands that would be disposed of would be sold at auction and we'd get market value for it," she said.

"If it goes through, the Dreyfus property may be one of the first to be acquired," Marlow said.

Kirchgasser said Bryan has expressed a lot of interest in the Whittell property and has been talking with interested parties about acquiring it for the public.

Regardless of how the deal comes together, the ALC wants to "at least get it in the pipeline so Mr. Dreyfus feels comfortable with it by the end of the year," Hellman said.