Gambit Owners Propose Expansion

The owners of the Gambit golf course in Vienna are looking to the state for help in expanding their property.

Owner Bruce Monzulla wants to build a gated residential community and a 90-room motel on the property to go along with the course and the restaurant already there.

The catch is he would like to acquire a 115-acre tract along I-24 that the Department of Natural Resources owns.

Check out the Southern for the rest of the story.

Major Development Set for Lake of Egypt

Efforts by the Southern Illinois Power Company to sell off part of their land holdings along Lake of Egypt to a large developer have been circulating for at least a year, if not longer.

If anyone is keeping track of entries for "Worst Kept Secret Award" this one should be in the running, or better yet, "Biggest Story Not Yet Covered" might be a better category.

Last November, The Cypress Company of St. Petersburg, Florida, filed the deeds for hundreds of acres of power company lands with the county clerk's office in Johnson County.

According to their website, they're planning a $25 million development with 427 housing units as well as some commercial development. No word yet, if any the development would be specifically tourism-related.

The biggest hurdle will be water, believe it or not. Despite being on a lake, the Lake of Egypt Water District is short water and had been planning on securing water from Marion's new lake before the Army Corps of Engineers decided to kill the project.