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A spokesman for the company that's expected to do most of the cleanup work at the former Sunflower Ammunition Plant near DeSoto says he's confident the project can be completed for $37 million, the amount Oz Entertainment Company has said it's ready to spend.

Ken Hertowski, a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency, right center, and IT Group vice president Marty Battistoni, left center, were among the 16 state and federal officials who took part in a news conference Monday on the proposed Oz theme park near DeSoto.

"Based on the data, we're confident we can do it for that amount," Martin Battistoni, vice president of commercial engineering and construction for the New Jersey-based IT Corporation, said Monday.

Battistoni said his company has spent more than 700 man hours reviewing the "reams of information" on the 9,065-acre site.

The $37 million price tag is considerably less than the earlier estimates of between $90 million and $130 million.

Battistoni said the site does not appear to be as contaminated as other abandoned ammunition plants the company's worked on.

"Subjectively speaking, it seems better than what I've seen from some of the others," he said. "This particular site has been managed very well."

Battistoni said IT Corporation has "cleaned up or (is) currently in the process of cleaning up approximately a dozen other ammunition type plants and, correspondingly, we've cleaned up literally hundreds of sites similar to this site."

Battistoni was part of a 16-member panel convened by the U.S. General Services Administration to answer questions about the proposed cleanup of the site and its eventual transfer to Oz Entertainment Company. The panel met with reporters and area residents Monday afternoon at DeSoto High School.

Ken Cornell, senior vice president and chief underwriting officer for AIG Insurance, a company that specializes in covering cost overruns on environmental projects, said he, too, is confident in the $37 million price tag.

AIG has agreed to insure the project for up to $100 million in cost overruns. Oz Entertainment Company also has agreed to take out two $100 million policies to cover the disposal of any yet-to-be-discovered hazardous waste.

The U.S. Army will assume cleanup costs not covered by the insurance, Army spokesman Bob Lingo said.

Oz development company president Robert Kory, right, and AIG Insurance executive Ken Cornell, left, both expressed confidence that cleanup costs at the former Sunflower Ammunition Plant would be close to $37 million.

The arrangement makes sure the site is cleaned up at no expense to the state, Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Clyde Graeber said. And to make sure it's done right, he said, KDHE retains the authority to set the standards for the cleanup.

Graeber's assurances did little to soothe concerns of area residents, many of whom belong to the Taxpayers Opposed To Oz group.

"What we heard today was pretty much the same as what's been said in the past and that's obfuscated answers and faulty documentation," said TOTO spokesman Bill Sheldon.

Throughout the two-hour meeting, TOTO members raised concerns about faulty cleanup, unwarranted tax breaks, protection against the project's unknowns and destruction of the rural tranquility surrounding DeSoto.

Blaine Hastings, General Service Administration project director, said the arrangement will lead to the site being cleaned up quicker and to a higher standard than if it were left up to the Army.

Robert Kory, president of Oz Development Company, said he hopes to open the theme park by 2003. The clean up, he said, is expected to take 12 years.

"We will clean not only where the theme park is going to be located, but a very broad zone around the park as well and this will be before the park opens, so there will be no doubt whatsoever that visitors will be safe," Kory said.

The arrangement now requires approval by the Johnson County Commission, the Kansas Development Finance Authority and the U.S. Congress.