The federal government is giving the former U.S. Army Reserve center in Belleville to the city after nearly 60 years of military use, and the city is selling it to St. Clair County for $250,000.
In the past three weeks, both the City Council and County Board have voted to enter into an intergovernmental agreement to transfer ownership of the center, which sits on more than 5 acres at 500 South Belt East at its intersection with Illinois 13.
The county plans to use the center, which local residents often refer to as "the armory," mainly as a storage facility, according to County Board Chairman Mark Kern.
"We have emergency equipment stored at, for lack of a better word, a barn, a pole building that (MidAmerica St. Louis Airport) acquired when it bought property for the airport," he told County Board members at a committee meeting on Monday before the board voted on the agreement.
"It isn't the best facility to store items like masks and gowns and cadaver bags and all the things that you have to have for a disaster. So we'll be moving (them) to the armory, which is a much nicer, cleaner and capable building."
Kern also mentioned that the center has office space that could someday be used as a command base for St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency in case of disaster.
The sprawling brick complex was officially known as the Pfc. Raymond Gantner Army Reserve Center. It was dedicated on May 29, 1960.
Sights most visible to the public included military trucks filling the parking lot and camouflage-clad reservists doing training exercises on the grounds, next to Walnut Hill Cemetery.
John Bradley, deputy director of Army Reserve media relations, verified last week that the federal government was relinquishing the property. He said he didn't know when or why it was vacated, and he didn't call back with answers to those questions.
The center was still being used by the 657th Transportation Detachment in 2019, when the BND reported that two of its reservists had been killed in an accident in Kuwait. Several other units also have deployed overseas from Belleville.
"We met there one weekend a month," said Lori Elliott, formerly Lennon, 62, of Florissant, Missouri, who served from 1989 to 1999 with 657th reservists from Illinois and Missouri.
"We did training there, and we did a lot of the prep work before we were deployed or sent somewhere for our annual training."
Reverter Clause Expired
The city of Belleville donated land for the Army Reserve center to the federal government in the 1950s, according to Garrett Hoerner, one of the city's current attorneys.
The deed, filed in St. Clair County, included a "reverter clause," which required the property to be returned to the city if the military stopped using it for five years.
"But under Illinois law, a reverter clause can only be in effect for 40 years," Hoerner said.
As a result, U.S. representatives and senators from Illinois had to add a provision to the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2023-2024 to get the property back in Belleville's hands.
The process also was delayed by federal efforts to mitigate environmental problems, such as lead, to make sure the complex was safe, Kern and Hoerner said.
Belleville City Council voted at its July 15 meeting to accept a quit-claim deed from the federal government for the property, which includes two parcels, one 5.12 acres and one .5 acres, county records show.
Ward 1 Alderman Bryan Whitaker, who works as assistant director of St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency, abstained from the vote. He didn't return multiple calls seeking information.
Also on July 15, aldermen voted to enter into the intergovernmental agreement and sell the property to the county for $250,000. Hoerner said the city hired an appraiser around the time that the military vacated, and he determined that its fair-market value was $290,000.
City officials didn't make the agreement available to the public at the July 15 meeting, but it was part of an agenda packet for the County Board meeting on Monday night.
"The City finds the Property is unnecessary and inconvenient for its use and that the best interests of the residents would be served by transferring all of its right, title and interest in the property to the County," the agreement states.
County Board members approved the agreement by a unanimous vote of 27-0 with one absence.
The county plans to buy the property and renovate the Army Reserve center with up to $1 million in federal money it received from the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion economic-stimulus package designed to help with COVID-19 recovery in 2021.
"There is additional money that was intended for this building should there be any roofing (problems) or whatever's going to be required to make it exactly what we want," Kern told board members.
Namesake Was WWII Hero
Raymond "Tiny" Gantner was working as a 28-year-old laborer in Belleville when he entered the service in 1941, according to a BND Answer Man column written by Roger Schlueter in 2006.
For the next four years of World War II, Gantner fought with the 7th Division of the 17th Infantry as it battled across the Aleutian and Marshall islands and Okinawa, Japan. His honors included the Bronze Star, Distinguished Service Cross and Purple Heart.
Gantner's most gallant feat is described on a plaque at the Army Reserve center in his hometown.
"During the advance of our troops on Attu Island, Private First Class Gantner displayed outstanding courage in the face of almost certain self-destruction when his platoon was pinned to the ground by heavy machine gun fire," the plaque reads.
"He dashed across open terrain, silenced the machine gun with grenades, and then charged forward, killing the remaining enemy with his rifle."
Gantner was killed on May 1, 1945, on Okinawa. He was 32.
In the past 20 years, the BND has reported on the comings and goings of several Army Reserve units based in Belleville, including the 871st, 458th, 969th, 892nd and 657th Transportation Detachments.
The 657th formed a Facebook group to help former reservists keep in contact, but no one has posted on it since 2021.
Elliott said she has fond memories of getting together for meetings and training exercises in Belleville, going on weekend camping trips and traveling once or twice a year to Germany, Amsterdam and other destinations for advanced training in the 1990s.
In recent years, Elliott sensed that operations at the Gantner center were winding down, and that made her sad because it was once a place full of activity and camaraderie.
"The last time I visited, there were maybe two little units left," Elliott said. "We're talking about only a handful of reservists."
City and county officials began planning for the property transfer about two years ago, Kern said. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been in charge of maintaining the vacant center.
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