Butler expansion
takes key step
By MEGAN ROLLAND
Sun staff writer
Butler Enterprises took a big step Thursday
by submitting a pre-application to the state
documenting the impact of a proposed
150-acre mixed-use retail center north of
the existing Butler Plaza.
Continue to 2nd paragraph The plan, called a
Development of Regional Impact, includes few
details of what the development could look
like, but rather focuses on the impact the
development will have on traffic, the
environment, public facilities and other
resources of concern.
Basic descriptions call for a lifestyle
retail center that would be constructed in
two phases over 10 years.
"It's all so preliminary, and the numbers
all can change because nothing is final on
it," said Deborah Butler, who with her
father, Clark Butler, developed the stretch
of land on Archer Road between Interstate 75
and SW 34th Street.
The first phase of the proposed Butler Plaza
North is planned for completion in 2013, and
includes 800,000 square feet of retail,
200,000 square feet of office space and 250
hotel rooms.
Phase 2 is dated for completion by 2018 and
would add an additional 500,000 square feet
of retail and 150 additional hotel rooms.
The application is the first of many steps
in the process of receiving mandatory state
approval for a project of this size, and at
the least it will take 18 to 24 months
before the proposal is sent for
consideration by the Gainesville City
Commission.
First the plan will be presented in a series
of conferences to the North Central Florida
Regional Planning Council; after questions
have been answered satisfactorily, the
council will make a recommendation of action
to the City Commission.
A description of the final design indicates
this portion of Butler Plaza will be
constructed differently from the current
retail center, with a pedestrian-oriented
design, avoiding strip-mall development and
enhancing open spaces.
Megan Rolland can be reached at 338-3104 or
megan.rolland@ gvillesun.com.
GRU pick coming
from big coal area
By NATHAN CRABBE
Sun staff writer
If he takes the top job at Gainesville
Regional Utilities, Bob Hunzinger would be
moving from coal country to a place where
coal has become a dirty word.
Gainesville city commissioners this week
selected Hunzinger as their first choice for
general manager of GRU. He spent four years
as general manager at Owensboro Municipal
Utilities before resigning in September.
The Kentucky utility shares similarities
with GRU: both are publicly owned, provide a
range of services and ultimately answer to
local government.
But there are notable differences, perhaps
none more significant than the view of coal
in the communities that they serve.
GRU has just closed the chapter on five
years of contentious battles over a
coal-fueled power plant. The utility is now
moving forward with increased spending on
energy conservation and could build a
biomass power plant fueled by wood.
Owensboro lies in the middle of Kentucky's
western coal belt. Its utility gets
electricity exclusively from a coal-fired
power plant and lacks aggressive
conservation programs.
Hunzinger said conservation is a tougher
sell in a place where abundant coal means
inexpensive energy. But he said he supports
such programs, pointing to his experience on
a public-power industry group on climate
change.
"These issues are important to everyone and
they're becoming more important," he said.
Hunzinger is negotiating with Mayor Pegeen
Hanrahan on a contract for the GRU job. He
said he expects those negotiations to finish
sometime after Christmas.
GRU has been without a long-term general
manager since Mike Kurtz resigned nearly two
years ago. Karen Johnson has since served as
general manager but told commissioners she
planned to retire by September.
Johnson said the fact that Owensboro has a
municipal utility would help Hunzinger
succeed in Gainesville. She said general
managers of public utilities must feel
comfortable answering to elected officials
and being criticized by the public.
"Sometimes democracy is ugly," she said.
At the Owensboro utility, the general
manager reports to a five-member board
appointed by the city's mayor. GRU's general
manager is a charter officer who reports
directly to the seven-member City
Commission.
Hunzinger said working for a public utility
requires an understanding that customers are
the top priority. He said he tried to convey
such an attitude to his employees.
"There's kind of an ownership there, more
pride than you see in other utilities," he
said.
"You're always on," he added.
Local Sierra Club chairman Rob Brinkman said
Hunzinger's experience and soft-spoken style
should serve him well. He said the contrast
would be great from Kurtz, whose public
advocacy of a coal-fired plant played a role
in his departure.
Brinkman said Hunzinger's membership with
the climate change group spoke of his
support of conservation, even if he wasn't
able to implement such programs in
Owensboro.
"That community wasn't interested in going
there yet. We are," Brinkman said.
While Gainesville provides rebates for
measures to conserve energy or use solar
power, the Owensboro utility lacks such
programs. Inexpensive energy provides little
incentive for conservation there, said Aloma
Dew, a Sierra Club representative in
Owensboro.
"Because electricity is so cheap here,
people take it for granted," she said.
Dew said western Kentucky's embrace of coal
has created environmental challenges. She
said the region's many coal-fired power
plants have increased asthma rates, while
mining is devastating the landscape.
"We're seeing the mountaintops being taken
away daily," she said.
Owensboro's Elmer Smith power plant has two
units that burn about 1.25 million tons of
coal a year. The plant has the ninth-worst
rate for emissions of carbon dioxide and the
12th-worst rate for emissions of nitrogen
oxides in the country, according to a 2007
report by the Environmental Integrity
Project.
Carbon dioxide is believed to contribute to
global warming, and nitrogen oxides can
damage lungs and cause smog and acid rain.
Hunzinger said the plant meets federal
regulation and is getting an upgrade in its
environmental controls. GRU is installing
similar controls, which are federally
mandated, at its coal-fired Deerhaven plant
In addition to coal, GRU uses natural gas
and a small amount of landfill gas and solar
energy to produce power.
GRU and the Owensboro utility are similar in
that they provide telecommunications
services and drinking water pulled from
aquifers.
Unlike Owensboro, GRU also provides
wastewater services. GRU is also much
larger, serving about 90,000 customers
compared with about 25,000 in Owensboro.
The two cities are quite different, said
Nick Brake, president of the Greater
Owensboro Economic Development Corporation.
Hunzinger served as chairman of the
corporation.
Brake said western Kentucky's coal fields
and natural gas pipelines make energy the
major industry in the region. Without a
major university in Owensboro, he said,
there isn't a large contingency of
environmental advocates.
"It's a lot different political dynamic," he
said.
Hunzinger will be coming to a state where at
least three plans for coal-fired power
plants have been scrapped in the past year.
Gov. Charlie Crist has pushed for more
nuclear and renewable energy to address
climate change.
Hunzinger served on the American Public
Power Association's climate change task
force. He said the group gave him a better
understanding of the human contribution to
global warming.
"Certainly, there appears to be a link
there," he said.
The group recommended in June that the
federal government regulate greenhouse gas
emissions, as long as regulations were
implemented across the board and funding was
given to research and tax incentives for
utilities.
Brinkman said looming regulations on
greenhouse emissions will matter more than
Hunzinger's background with coal.
"I think it's pretty well universally
recognized in Florida that coal is going
nowhere," he said.
Nathan Crabbe can be reached at 352-338-3176
or crabben@gville sun.com.
Ranches and
rodeos are the story of his life
As a farrier -- one
who shoes horses -- Jeff Hucknall is the
cowboy way
ARCADIA -- Jeff Hucknall kicks off his
workday with Circle K coffee and a pinch of
Copenhagen. He jumps behind the wheel of a
Ford pickup truck that serves as home office
and roving business. He rolls with
everything from a laptop computer and
ink-jet printer to a portable anvil and
propane forge.
Have horseshoes, will travel.
On the road between jobs, the 39-year-old
cowboy describes the life of a farrier. He
talks about working on a ranch in Montana
and becoming a rodeo clown before moving
down to Florida.
Most of the stories end with Hucknall in
pain, having been gored by a bull or
trampled by a horse, but he shrugs and
smiles.
Right now, he is nursing a row of nasty
sores on his hand.
"A little pony down in Bonita decided to
take off on me," Hucknall says. "Burned the
rope right through my fingers."
He is still favoring the broken ribs he got
a few weeks ago.
"I was shoeing a colt and he backed me into
a stall and I couldn't get out of it,"
Hucknall says. "He reached back and kicked
me in the ribs."
Those injuries are nothing, though, compared
with his worst experience as a rodeo clown.
"I had a cowboy get knocked out, so I had to
cover him -- that's what you do," Hucknall
says. "The bull put his horn right through
my vest and punctured a lung and broke three
ribs. I didn't think I was hurt that bad,
you know, with my adrenaline going. I fought
five more bulls and then I walked out of the
arena and passed out.
"They took me to the hospital, but I'd done
my job."
Country courtship
Hucknall got married earlier this year. His
wife, Amanda, used to work as a waitress at
The Clock restaurant in Arcadia. That is
where they met.
"When I was working the rodeo in Kissimmee
once a month, I'd come home and she'd be
working the late shift," he says. "I was
still wearing my clown makeup, and I'd pick
on her at the restaurant."
Amanda laughs at that memory.
"I thought he was crazy," she says, "but
pretty soon we started talking and dating
and then we had the baby and got married."
Amanda, 25, is a self-described farm girl
who grew up in Bradenton, Plant City and
Arcadia. They shared a country courtship.
"We actually never went to a movie on a date
or anything like that," she says. "We used
to go four-wheeling a lot. And we'd have
barbecues with friends."
Amanda nursed Hucknall back to health after
a drunken driver smashed into his truck two
years ago. He was paralyzed for several
days, but managed to walk out of the
hospital.
A few years before that, Hucknall injured
his knee at an Englewood construction job.
While recuperating, he lived in the Sarasota
bunkhouse of a retired rodeo performer named
Hub Hubbell.
"He needed a place to stay, and it was a
pleasure to have him," Hubbell says. "He's a
cowboy, sure enough. And a mechanic, too. He
fixed this old tractor I had on the
property."
Hucknall, for his part, appreciated the
hospitality and enjoyed the company.
"I loved hanging around with that old man,"
he says. "He's got a lot of knowledge in his
head. He's the one who taught me how to
trick-rope."
Soaked in sweat
The tricks of the farrier trade include
dealing with the heat and humidity of
Florida.
Hucknall wears a visor, not a cowboy hat,
because it is cooler on hot summer days. He
wears soft-soled shoes, rather than cowboy
boots, because they are easier on his feet.
He wears Wrangler jeans under his shoeing
apron.
He's still lean and muscular, at 5-feet-10
and 180 pounds, but he is not ready for a
rodeo comeback.
"Being a bullfighter is very, very
athletic," he says. "You're in tiptop
shape."
Hucknall's horseshoeing clients include
ranches, farms and single-horse families. He
is often on call for weekend horse-jumping
competitions at Fox Lea Farm in Venice.
Shoeing a horse requires strength and
stamina.
Even a small horse is heavy and powerful.
Hucknall has to wrestle their legs into
position for cleaning, trimming and shoeing.
He is soaked in sweat after a few hooves.
Working horses are easier to handle than
pets.
"Those horses are babied, not made to mind,
and they'll walk all over you," he says.
"That's the biggest danger for a farrier --
a backyard horse that's been babied and
pampered."
For a difficult horse, Hucknall uses what is
called a "humane twitch," a clamp that
pinches the horse's sensitive upper lip. The
pain releases endorphins which help make the
animal easier to control.
Hucknall studied horseshoeing and corrective
work in Montana. He has learned to shoe
differently in Florida, where the soil is
soft and sandy.
"There's a lot more to it than slapping
shoes on a horse's foot," Hucknall says.
"You've got to balance a horse's foot. It's
an art."
New York to Montana
Hucknall still considers Montana home, even
though he has been in Florida for five
years. He grew up on a family farm in
upstate New York and learned horseshoeing
from the father of a friend.
His first rodeo was near the state prison in
Attica. His first bull was named
Bonecrusher.
"I rode him for 4 seconds," he says. "A few
broken ribs later, and a dislocated
shoulder, I wanted to ride another one."
Hucknall went off to college in Montana, but
wound up becoming a farrier and a cowboy. He
worked on a huge ranch near Billings. He
rode through blizzards and hunted elk.
He got to know the regulars at the Jersey
Lilly Saloon and Eatery in Ingomar, Mont.,
an old sheep-shearing town of 14 people.
Hucknall loved Montana, but his brother had
moved to Englewood. He got talked into
giving Florida a try.
Trading stories
On the Gulf Coast, Hucknall found his way
back into horseshoeing. It is not lucrative
work, and the cost of gas eats into his
profits, but he gets by.
Sometimes he drives a tow truck at night.
Sometimes he works security at Bradenton
drag races and livestock auctions in
Arcadia.
Hucknall enjoys trading stories with horse
owners and rodeo fans. That is one of the
perks of traveling from barn to barn as a
farrier.
When he stops for lunch at the Mango Tequila
restaurant, he remembers the name of the
waitress. He waves to the president of the
Arcadia rodeo. And he knows the guy running
the backhoe out in the parking lot.
At his rental house, Hucknall keeps a box of
photos from his days out West. One shows a
bunch of young cowboys after a Wyoming
rodeo. He is the one with cuts and scrapes
across his face.
"I took a beating there," he says. "That's
when I chipped my tooth."
Clowning and shoeing
Today there are bullfighters and
bullfighting competitions, but Hucknall
comes from the tradition of the rodeo clown,
makeup and all. Besides protecting the
cowboy, they entertained the crowd.
"I loved clowning, being the comedy guy," he
says. "When you're out in the arena, you're
not trying to be funny for the adults. If
you can make the kids laugh, you can make
the adults laugh."
Hucknall has seen some ferocious bulls,
horrendous accidents and hilarious moments.
At the Rodeo of Rodeos in Phoenix, a clown
hid from a bull in a barrel. The bull caught
that barrel in his horns and tossed it on
top of a fence.
"The barrel was on top of the fence,
teetering back and forth, and the clown
looked out to see where he was," he says.
"Then the barrel fell over and knocked him
out. The whole crowd was laughing, just
cracking up."
Hucknall laughs, too, retelling the story
for the hundredth time.
Shoeing horses is not so glamorous -- no one
applauds his work -- but he seems happy
steering his truck along the highway east of
Arcadia. He enjoys being his own boss,
working outdoors with horses, and cannot
imagine being cooped up in some office.
"I tell ya," he says, "I wouldn't change
anything. I wouldn't change anything at
all."
Florida
Identifies 272 Impaired Waterbodies for
Cleanup
TALLAHASSEE, Florida,
December 21, 2007 (ENS) -
The Florida Department of Environmental
Protection, DEP, has identified five groups
of waterbodies that are impaired and in need
of water monitoring, cleanup and
restoration.
In the latest round of evaluating
impairments in the surface waters of
Florida, DEP Deputy Secretary Mimi Drew
signed a final order on December 12
targeting 272 impaired waters for cleanup in
the Everglades, Indian River Lagoon, Perdido,
Springs Coast and Upper East Coast Basins.
Under the federal Clean Water Act, each
state must identify impaired rivers, lakes
and estuaries for cleanup.
Pollution limits, called total maximum
daily loads, TMDLs, are then developed for
each impaired waterway. A TMDL is the
maximum amount of a specific pollutant a
waterbody can absorb and still meet its
designated uses, such as fishing, swimming,
shellfish harvesting or as a source of
drinking water.
"Due to the enormous work of our
scientists and staff, the Florida Department
of Environmental Protection has now
completed its first five-year cycle to
identify the state's impaired waterways,"
said DEP Secretary Michael Sole.
To target impaired waterways for cleanup,
DEP divided the state into 29 watersheds.
 |
The eastern
section of the St. Joseph Bay
estuary is on the new impaired
waters list. (Photo
courtesy
DEP)
|
Each year the state
assesses groups of waters to determine which
are impaired and require restoration and
which need further study. Once designated,
DEP scientists design plans to reduce
pollutant loads and monitor progress being
made to restore degraded waterbodies
throughout the state.
After collecting extensive scientific
data, the state established a fifth group of
rivers, lakes, and coastal waters for
restoration, identifying 272 additional
waterbodies as impaired.
This fifth verified list of impaired
waters went through the public review
process at six public meetings in July 2006
and two additional meetings in October 2007.
The list will now be submitted to the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for
approval.
The state has already proposed more than
200 TMDLs for impaired waterways in the
Group 1, 2, 3 and 4 Basins, including the
Ocklawaha River chain, the Orange Creek
Basin, and Lake Okeechobee.
Currently, the state is working with
federal and local governments, water
management districts, public and private
utilities, industry, agriculture, and
environmental groups to develop, adopt and
implement basin management action plans.
A blueprint for restoration, basin
management action plans promote improved
farming practices, increased wastewater and
stormwater treatment, and better land use
planning to reduce pollution.
DEP anticipates completing the list
evaluation process for the waters in the
Florida Keys early in 2008.
Sole says the DEP is improving water
quality through long-standing environmental
regulations, technical assistance, and an
annual investment of hundreds of millions of
dollars to build water infrastructure,
acquire conservation lands and restore
waterways.
DEP's final order on December 12 started
a 21 day period during which interested
parties may petition the decision to list or
not list a waterbody as impaired.
View the
Group 5 Basin list.
Live, work and play in planned
community
By LIZ FLAISIG,
The Times-Union
Clay County has its share of the large,
master-planned communities that have come to
define Northeast Florida.
Eagle Harbor and other large communities
have brought shopping, restaurants and
office complexes to the once rural area,
along with thousands of new homes.
The one component county and city leaders
have been advocating for - larger job
centers within these mixed-use communities -
hasn't fully surfaced yet.
A proposed 3,267-acre community just south
of Green Cove Springs could change that.
Governors Park would have 3.5 million square
feet of industrial, commercial and office
space, in addition to 6,000 single- and
multi-family homes.
By comparison, when OakLeaf Plantation was
announced in 2002, it included plans for
11,000 homes.
Developer Jackson-Shaw and its engineers,
England, Thims & Miller, estimate it would
bring 6,312 new jobs with annual earnings of
$225 million at its completion.
Because 60 percent of Clay's workforce
commutes to Jacksonville, the county has
struggled with attracting businesses whose
jobs might keep residents in Clay. A
significant hurdle has been a lack of water
and sewer lines and roads.
Danita Andrews of the Clay County Chamber
has been on the front lines of the effort
for several years as director of economic
development.
To her, Governors Park represents the kind
of "live, work, play" development that
offers many opportunities.
"This totally fits with the vision for
Clay's economic outlook 10, 20, 30 and 40
years from now," Andrews said. "If we don't
preserve land for that all-important job
growth then we lose the sustainability of
our community going forward."
That sustainability was on the minds of the
Gustafson family when it decided to use
one-third of its land for the development,
said Tom Jones, regional development partner
for Jackson-Shaw.
The Gustafson land will be impacted by the
state's Outer Beltway road project, which
will connect Interstate 95 and Interstate 10
between Duval and Clay counties.
The family - known for its dairy businesses
-had learned the state would need more than
100 acres of the land it has owned since the
early 1900s for the beltway. So, they chose
to plan a community with a job center, Jones
said.
Jackson-Shaw got the job, he said, because
of its Northeast Florida experience on
projects such as the Jacksonville
International Tradeport.
A representative of the Gustafson family was
unavailable to comment Thursday afternoon.
Included in plans for the community are 800
acres of green space, $100 million for
transportation improvements and three public
schools sites.
Dallas-Based Jackson-Shaw will construct
part of Alternate U.S. 17, a bypass that
will route traffic, particularly trucks,
away from downtown Green Cove Springs.
The formal application process for the
community is expected to begin by the end of
this month.
The first phase of Governors Park will be
500,000 square feet of industrial space and
900 residential units, and is expected to
open by the time the first section of the
beltway opens around 2012, Jones said.
The development's cost is expected to exceed
$1 billion, with all four phases finished by
2028.
liz.flaisig@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4640
Development plan
for Indiantown gets planners' OK
By
JASON SCHULTZ
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 21, 2007
STUART- — Martin County commissioners
should approve a new development that
would add 1,650 homes to Indiantown, the
county's planning board unanimously
recommended late Thursday night.
"This is so far beyond our wildest
expectations of what we ever could have
envisioned," said Indiantown resident
Brian Powers of the Indiantown
Development of Regional Impact.
Local Planning Agency board member Sandy
Zweben said: "Indiantown needs it.
Indiantown wants it."
Development company Irongate Group plans
to build 1,165 single-family homes and
485 townhouse and apartment units on
about 750 acres in Indiantown. The
project also would include a 50-acre
site that could be used for a middle
school, elementary school and a 20-acre
community park.
Nearby residents said the project was
needed to provide a boost to their small
rural community. Resident Kevin Powers
said the projects would bring more
people, shops and services while still
keeping the community a small town.
"Even at build-out, we won't qualify for
a Super Wal-Mart, and I'm happy about
that," Kevin Powers said. "Even at
build-out, we won't be as big as Palm
City."
County planner Joe Banfi said county
growth management officials did not
recommend approval because of
outstanding issues, including traffic
congestion problems on the roadways the
residents of the project would use, such
as State Road 710.
Don Cuozzo, the land planner
representing the developers, said
several issues could easily be resolved.
The project, for example, would pay its
share of the cost of improving State
Road 710 to handle more traffic, he
said.
But, Cuozzo said, a county request that
the development pay $90 per home for
fire emergency services on top of
regular impact fees, will only make it
harder to build any affordable housing
in Indiantown.
"Every single dollar you add to the cost
of the units makes them less
attainable," he said. "Our entire
project is workforce housing."
County commissioners will have the final
vote on the proposal next year.
Permit use draws plenty of
discussion
Argument made that
burdens are placed on families.
Published:
Friday,
December 21, 2007 6:06 AM EST
Plenty of
discussion was generated Thursday
during the first public hearing of
two
proposed text amendments to the
Columbia County land development
regulations pertaining to the
special temporary use permit and the
special
family lot permit during Thursday’s
meeting of the Columbia County Board
of County Commissioners.
The special family lot permit allows
a land owner to deed a minimum
one-half acre to a relative for a
trailer providing it is his or her
primary residence.
The relative occupying the trailer
must be either a grandparent,
parent, step-parent, adopted parent,
sibling, child, stepchild, adopted
child or grandchild of the owner.
The proposed regulation changes set
a limit for the number of special
family lots that can be deeded to
family members.
No more than two special family lot
permits shall be issued on parent
parcels of less than 15 acres (10
acres were originally proposed);
three on parent parcels of
15 (10 were originally proposed) but
less than 20 acres; and four on
parent parcels greater than 20
acres.
Carmen Mikulic argued that the
restrictions placed a burden on
families who wish to have their
children or other family members
near them.
Mikulic said that she believed that
“these rules are against family
values.”
Stewart Lilker said that
the land use regulations should be
followed and land owners shouldn’t
be allowed
to subdivide their land into
half-acre lots.
The board voted to consider the
objections and charged County
Planner Brian Kepner to go back to
the drawing board and design an
amendment taking into consideration
the objections voiced at the
meeting.
The special temporary use permit
generated public debate as well.
“I think the board should go back to
the method used in 1986 when
individual requests for temporary
use permits were heard on a
case-by-case basis,” Lilker said.
The board again carried the debate
over to the second hearing scheduled
for Jan. 3.
n In other business, the board
approved the regular land use
amendment change from residential
low density (less than or equal to
2 dwelling units per acre) to light
industrial (a new land use
classification).
Of the three small land
use amendments, two were approved
and the third, requested by Nick
Karantinos, was denied.
Karatinos had requested a change
from very low density (less than or
equal to 1 dwelling unit per acre)
to residential low density (less
than or equal to
2 dwelling units per acre).
Tavares delays vote
on condos at Gator Inlet
December 21, 2007
TAVARES
City Council members delayed until Jan.
16 a decision on whether to annex and
rezone 6.2 acres slated for a major
waterfront development just west of the
Dora Canal and south of U.S. Highway
441.
A developer had submitted plans to build
101 condominiums spread over three
buildings that could reach eight stories
on the mostly wooded area known as Gator
Inlet.
The proposed development, called Quiet
Waters, also would feature clubhouse
cabanas, a pool and a marina with boat
slips for residents.
On Dec. 5, City Council members granted
preliminary approval to annex and rezone
the property.
The board was scheduled to have a final
vote Wednesday. However, attorney Steve
Richey, who represents property owners
Tom Swartz and Tavares Waters LLC, the
project developers, said Wednesday that
he needed more time to review the
testimony and minutes from the Dec. 5
City Council meeting.
He added that he wanted more time to
work with city officials on the
project's design.
Martin E. Comas and Katie Fretland of
the Sentinel staff contributed to this
report
Hometown
Democracy: People want right to say no
By Maggy Hurchalla, guest columnist
---STUART NEWS (thanks
gimleteye)
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
It's easy to tell who the bad guys are
in the Hometown Democracy debate. They
lie so viciously and creatively that
they make normal dirty politics seem
friendly. They are committing huge piles
of money to say and do whatever is
necessary to stop Florida Hometown
Democracy from getting on the ballot.
They clearly believe that people will
vote for it and it will slow growth.
And then there are the innocents — the
frustrated, angry public that have
watched the best planning laws in the
country turn into bureaucratic pablum.
They want the right to just say "no."
What's puzzling are the good guys caught
in between. Tom Pelham, one of Florida's
better state planning directors in the
past, is fighting Hometown Democracy
while warning the Legislature that
growth management in Florida has failed.
1000 Friends of Florida is reluctantly
and ever so politely not a friend of
Hometown Democracy. The American
Planning Association state chapter is
afraid of it.
When your thoughtful friends question a
decision, it's time to stop and think. I
have thought long and hard over all the
arguments against it. I think my hopeful
friends in the middle are wrong.
Opponents go on and on about how
difficult it will be to vote on each and
every comprehensive plan amendment. They
miss the point that local governments
are handing out amendments like chewing
gum. The problem is that we have too
many amendments.
Everyone agrees that our local plan is
our constitution. We should treat it
like one. We should be conservative in
making changes. We should let the people
vote on those changes.
It's very clear from the opposition that
there will be far fewer amendments
proposed if the public gets the right to
say "no."
As long as there are 8,000 plan
amendments around the state every year,
there will be chaos. We're watching it
happen. Comp plan amendments should be
rare. They should happen every two years
at the general election. They should be
something the public can understand. Our
politicians have proved rather
dramatically that they are not smarter
than we are on planning issues.
Doubters of Hometown Democracy propose a
list of bold legislative changes that
would restore the public's role in
planning without giving them the
"draconian" power to say "no".
I think any of us who have watched the
Legislature in recent years can say with
complete confidence that there is not a
snowball's chance in hell that any of
those reforms will pass, unless Hometown
Democracy makes it onto the ballot for
next November.
Go to: www.floridahometowndemocracy.com
or call the toll-free number for
petitions: 866-779-5513. Download a
petition and mail it in ASAP. E-mail
your friends. Beg your neighbors. Time
is running out.
And when we get it on the ballot, we
will see whether the Legislature can
meet the challenge to make growth
management work for people instead of
developers. If they can't, then we know
for sure that we need Hometown
Democracy.
Opponents keep saying that letting the
people vote will turn over important
planning decisions to the side that has
the most money for advertising. I find
that viewpoint incredibly offensive in
terms of its attitude toward voters and
democracy in general.
But if we get on the ballot, the
November election will produce an
unbiased answer to the accusation that
voters can always be bought.
The campaign is clearly going to be
David versus Goliath. The opponents of
Florida Hometown Democracy have already
shown that they will be the big bad mean
Goliath with most of the money on their
side.
So if the people of Florida vote
overwhelmingly for the Hometown
Democracy amendment, they will have
proved that democracy and honesty can
win over big money.
That's a happy thought.
Hurchalla, a former Martin County
commissioner who lives in Port Salerno,
co-authored Martin County's
comprehensive plan and has been a
longtime statewide advocate for
conservation and land preservation.
Commission
OKs land use change despite residents'
fears
BARTOW - A parcel of land next to
Bartow's city's limits totaling
approximately 333 acres almost didn't
receive a land use change during
Wednesday's Polk County Commission
meeting.
Currently, the site has a land use
designation of agricultural and
residential-rural and is located north
of State Road 60, south of Gerber Dairy
Road, east of 91 Mine Road and west of
Rifle Range Road.
Dale Albritton, the applicant, wants
to change the land use designation to
residential-low, convenience center and
an urban development area.
The convenience center would hold
smaller businesses such as a barber
shop, small retail stores and small
offices.
Public safety services such as police
and fire are available for this area and
while a utility provider hasn't been
designated, Bartow is the closest city.
"The city has included the project in
the anticipated gallons-per-day for
water and wastewater in a recent
Swiftmud (Southwest Florida Water
Management District) permit," said
Chandra Foreman, a representative from
the growth management division.
George Lindsey, the applicant's
representative, said the land use is
consistent with the surrounding area,
but residents disagree.
One resident said the area is
spacious with one house on two to 20
acres. The resident said he sees
wildlife such as bald eagles, deer and
foxes around the area. He also said
Peace Creek runs through the property,
which if developed, may have to have
burns next to it.
Lindsey said any changes such as
burns near the creek would be discussed
at a later date.
Commissioner Jean Reed moved for the
denial of the land use change because
she doesn't think the proposed changes
are consistent with the area.
"I think it would be a mistake to
change the land use on this property at
this time," Reed said. "It's not
consistent or compatible and is
premature."
Reed's motion to deny the approval of
the land use change failed. A motion was
passed to approve the land use change
and was approved with a 3-2 vote.
michelle.godefrin@newschief.com
Editorial: Orlando gulps,
Florida swoons
Cities’ big water grab on the
St. Johns River exposes problems
throughout Sunshine State
By TCPalm Staff
Tuesday, December 18,
2007
The South Florida Water
Management District announced new,
water-saving initiatives last week.
It’s hard to argue against them.
Water is a precious resource and
conservation is a good thing.
But Florida’s water problem goes
much, much deeper than these
marginal measures will ever reach.
Real or anticipated shortages are
not due to folks who let the faucet
run while brushing their teeth. It’s
not even because Mother Nature has
delivered a drought to the
Southeast.
The problem is that Florida’s
unsustainable growth has tapped out
more surface supplies and is
steadily draining the ages-old
Floridan Aquifer.
While SFWMD dispatches the
sprinkler cops, water managers
ignore the 800-pound gorilla at the
northern end of their region. There,
Orlando and its neighboring cities
want to take 250 million gallons a
day from the St. Johns River.
Orlando & Co. are desperate.
Regional basins are drying up and
officials know their 500 million
gallons-a-day fix from the Floridan
Aquifer won’t last. Water quality is
dropping as salt intrusion threatens
to increase.
To slake its powerful thirst,
Orlando proposes to construct a $1
billion pipeline to suck from the
St. Johns. That spells trouble for
Indian River County, which sits at
the headwaters of the river, yet has
no representation on the appointed
board that governs the St. Johns
River Water Management District. The
county can only hope that its
distant neighbor downstream,
Jacksonville, can head off this
power play.
The rest of the Treasure Coast
could feel a ripple effect. If
Orlando can’t get a slurp of St.
Johns — or even if it does — it will
ultimately demand more from
elsewhere, perhaps the south. Woe to
Martin and St. Lucie counties, which
also suffer from a relative lack of
representation on South Florida’s
water board.
Make no mistake: Water wars are
increasing, and they’re fueled by
growth.
“Orlando has grown at a rate
that, frankly, is not sustainable,”
Neil Armingeon, of the St. Johns
Riverkeeper group, told the Orlando
Sentinel.
The same can be said for much of
Florida. Consuming more water per
acre than agriculture, urbanized
areas guzzle at a rate that even
hurricanes can’t satisfy.
(Ironically, Orlando has been
praised for adopting among the
state’s most stringent conservation
measures.)
Clearly, the state’s 20-year-old
Growth Management Act has failed to
preserve long-range supplies. At the
local level, councils and
commissions continue to approve
building plans, mining permits and
other consumptive uses. Regional
authorities, which are charged with
managing resources and usage, have
gone AWOL until only recently.
Rather than badgering residents
during periodic and increasingly
intense crises, officials
responsible for water must become
proactive. If that means saying no
to development until supply and
demand find a sustainable balance,
so be it. If new demand can be met
via desalination plants, then build
them.
Purveyors of the status-quo may
object that stricter growth policies
will kill the economy. But look
where decades of sprawling,
steroidal growth have gotten us. A
state that gets 40-plus inches of
rain a year is running dry — and
empty houses are everywhere.
Others dismiss desalination as
too costly. Indeed, a new plant in
Tampa is over budget and far behind
schedule. But its $140 million price
tag is a drop in the bucket compared
to the $1 billion Orlando is ready
to spend on two straws.
Florida’s parched conditions
suggest that provincial, short-term
thinkers at regional water districts
are in over their heads. It’s
equally obvious that Band-Aids and
half-measures are of limited
utility, and that business as usual
won’t work.
“The quick fix, the typical
Florida political fix, is to stick a
pipeline in the St. Johns River,
skim as much water as you can and 10
years from now, when the river is
dead and we still don’t have enough
water, then we’ll fix that,”
Armingeon says.
Where is the leadership in this
state? Where’s clean, green Charlie
Crist? (While all this was going
down, our peripatetic governor was
in Brazil, checking out “trade
relations.”)
If
business is so slow, homebuilders can't
be paying too many impact fees. The
reason things are so slow is because the
market is flooded with homes. What is
the point of lowering impact fees so builders can build more homes at a
higher profit that no one wants to buy?
Feeling the
impact
By Jim Hunter
The county commission heard a chorus of
pleas for help this week. It came from
all sorts of people who had one thing in
common -- economic woes because of the
near-shutdown of the homebuilding
business.
There were builders, contractors,
construction workers and their family
members, as well as owners of businesses
that are related to or serve the
building industry.
The plea to commissioners Tuesday was
simple: roll back impact fees.
Most all said they understood that doing
so wouldn't turn the current situation
around. But they felt it would be
something that could help and would be a
show of concern by the commission for an
industry they said was critical to the
county's economic well-being and its tax
base.
The commission didn't roll back fees,
but it agreed in a split vote to hold a
hearing Jan. 23 to consider rolling them
back to the 2002 levels for 90 days.
Commissioner John Thrumston made the
motion, and was joined by Dennis Damato
and Gary Bartell in voting for the
hearing.
Commissioners Joyce Valentino and Vicki
Phillips voted against it. They pointed
out that a consultant's study for the
county on the effect of impact fees and
alternative revenues that can be used to
pay for growth needs could be in the
county's hands at the end of February or
early March.
But dozens of construction industry
supporters, many organized by Ray
Stevenson and Brandy Watson, wanted a
show of good faith by the county.
Building industry representatives have
told the commission that when impact
fees are too high, as presently set,
that drives home buyers to other
counties with lower fees and prices.
When home sales come close to a near
standstill, as they have presently, the
higher fees can really make a
difference, industry representatives
say.
Stevenson told the commissioners it was
a grim situation, and since the industry
and the county needed each other, he
pleaded with the commission to pull
together with the industry and roll back
and then freeze the fees.
Citrus County had out-priced itself with
high fees, and the economic downturn was
made even worse, he said, noting that
there had been only 19 permits in
December so far when there should be 200
in a month.
"I don't think you know what's going on
out there," he said. "These people are
suffering."
Larry Swain told commissioners that
impact fees could be a good thing when
responsibly used, but when irresponsibly
used, they become "a huge weight on a
county." He said the county should make
it more affordable for new businesses to
locate in the county to create the jobs
and wages. He warned that current
conditions were on the way to making
people homeless, bankrupting businesses
and creating broken families because of
the severe financial stress.
Damato, a builder, said he didn't know
why the commission couldn't act. "We
don't need to wait for a study. We know
where we are," he said, and advocated
rolling back fees to last May's levels,
just before the last increase. That way
it would not impact the current budget,
he said.
Damato said that in the current economic
crisis, the county couldn't control most
variables, for instance, like the cost
of land, the cost of construction
materials, the state sales tax or the
insurance rates. One thing it could
control, however, is the impact fees,
and it should take action on the thing
it could control.
Phillips said the building industry
representatives were the ones who
previously demanded that the commission
get the consultant's study done before
any change, in particular any increase,
in impact fees was considered. Now they
were calling for action before the study
was done, she said, adding that if she
thought reducing the fees would change
the economic conditions, she would
consider it, but added the economic
slowdown was not just a local
phenomenon.
Phillips said she wanted the information
from the study so she could make the
best decision. "I want to see the
financial impact of what we are doing,"
she said, adding of the 90-day rollback:
"I don't see it making a difference."
Although Bartell said he would support
the motion for the hearing, he agreed
that understanding the alternatives
would be important in making a decision
that would affect the future,
particularly when the economy came back.
"I don't want a knee-jerk reaction today
that will hurt us down the road," he
said.
He said if the commission rolled back
the fees, it should cut back some
capital improvement projects a
comparable amount.
Commissioner Joyce Valentino said she
didn't support the hearing idea because
she didn't see the benefit of it.
There were a few speakers against the
hearing proposal, like James McIntosh,
who said the idea of reducing the fees
was "immoral," and argued that they
instead should be increased. But the
vast majority wanted a reduction.
Speaking for the Citrus County Builders
Association, Mike Moberly said reducing
the fees wouldn't cure the current
situation, but it would help spur the
recovery. Incoming CCBA President Randy
Clark echoed that, saying the industry
was looking for a show of good faith. He
said the effects of the industry
slowdown are far reaching.
"You can drive around Citrus County and
feel the difference," he said.
Construction industry representatives
like Larry Swain said the people in the
local building industry were not greedy
and he listed projects like parks,
churches and schools in the county to
which they have donated time, equipment
and materials.
Brenda Harness told the commission her
husband had been in the construction
since 1983 and now faced being laid off.
She warned that with high impact fees,
the county could wind up with "wonderful
infrastructure -- for a ghost town."
Stevenson urged the commission to do
something meaningful.
After the vote passed to schedule the
hearing, the county attorney reminded
the commission that state law required
90 days before any change in impact
fees, which would mean that if the
commission voted for a rollback on Jan.
23, it wouldn't take effect until late
April.
Phillips said Wednesday the
commissioners could have their report by
March, but Thrumston noted that the vote
on the consultant's contract hasn't even
taken place yet and there were no
guarantees on the study and so the
hearing made sense.
Miami commissioner's memo implying
payoffs is disputed
BY MICHAEL VASQUEZ AND CHARLES RABIN
A highly unusual memo that Miami
City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff wrote
to himself -- and that suggests a
fellow commissioner has been seeking
payoffs from developers -- became
public Wednesday after a monthslong
public records battle.
The centerpiece of the
four-paragraph memo, dated May 15
and written to ''File,'' is a
summary of a conversation Sarnoff
said took place with former City
Manager Joe Arriola.
''Joe Arriola had called and
requested a meeting concerning a
conversation he did not wish to have
over the telephone,'' it begins.
When they met, Sarnoff wrote, the
manager dropped a bombshell: City
Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones
would vote in favor of a proposed
Coconut Grove condo project in
exchange for several of her
associates receiving a combined
$150,000 from the developer.
The memo said Arriola ''further
advised'' that Spence-Jones sought
$50,000 from another developer.
''The whole thing is all
hearsay,'' Spence-Jones said in an
interview Wednesday evening.
``That's one person saying to
another person that another person
told them that something like this
happened.''
The developers say they did
nothing illegal and did not attempt
to influence votes.
Arriola contends the conversation
at the heart of the memo never took
place.
''I never had that conversation
with him,'' Arriola said. ``If Marc
Sarnoff says that, he's lying, and I
don't care if he's a commissioner.''
Replied Sarnoff, in an interview:
``I stand by the memorandum. It's
accurate . . . What he chooses to
remember now might be a memory of
convenience.''
Sarnoff says he wrote the memo to
be used as a future memory aid for
what he considered a sensitive city
matter with criminal implications.
He says he never intended for it to
become public.
''As I became aware of this
information, it was passed on to law
enforcement,'' Sarnoff said.
The Miami-Dade state attorney's
office has been examining the
allegations.
No charges have been filed, and
when the memo was released
Wednesday, State Attorney Katherine
Fernández Rundle urged caution in
assessing its merits.
''We ask that the public not rush
to judgment, because the memo, which
is based on second- or thirdhand
information, may contain some
erroneous or inaccurate
information,'' Fernández Rundle
wrote.
The document was released after
The Miami Herald filed a lawsuit
seeking a copy of it under Florida's
public records law. A lower court
agreed with Sarnoff, who argued it
was a private matter. Wednesday, the
Third District Court of Appeal sided
with the newspaper.
Sarnoff opted not to appeal
further, and released it.
The two condo projects cited in
the memo have both been highly
controversial.
In each case, the memo alleged,
Spence-Jones was demanding
developers pay huge sums to her
friends to secure her approval.
Those friends included a former
Miami-Dade County commissioner and a
political strategist -- both of whom
were paid consultants on one
developer's Coconut Grove project.
Spence-Jones said she never asked
a developer to hire anyone.
''I voted for what I felt was
right,'' she said.
The Grove project, 300 Grove Bay
Residences, drew protests from some
residents as well as supporters of
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens who
feared its three towers would
disrupt views.
Commissioners approved that
project by a 3-2 vote in April, with
Spence-Jones voting for it, Sarnoff
against.
Sarnoff has been supportive of
the other condo mentioned in the
memo, Overtown's Crosswinds project.
Some community groups, however, have
criticized the project as
unaffordable, and construction has
been delayed by court challenges and
other obstacles.
In Sarnoff's memo, Arriola is
quoted as saying Crosswinds faced a
separate hurdle: Spence-Jones, it
alleged, was likely to delay
approval because the developer had
not paid one of her associates an
expected $50,000.
Spence-Jones ultimately voted in
favor of the condo -- on multiple
occasions. A Crosswinds Communities
representative on Wednesday said the
company was unaware of any hiring
request.
The Grove developer -- the
high-profile Related Group -- did
hire key consultants close to
Spence-Jones, but contends there is
no connection to the commissioner.
Sarnoff said a second City Hall
source, former Miami Chief of
Operations Mary Conway, also told
him about that developer's hiring of
the commissioner's friends.
Conway told The Miami Herald she
had spoken to Sarnoff about the
circumstances surrounding the condo
approval. That conversation came
after Conway had spoken to the
developer's project manager on the
condo job -- former city employee
Alicia Cuervo.
What Conway says Cuervo told her:
After having previously hired former
County Commissioner Barbara
Carey-Shuler, Spence-Jones'
political mentor, to do work for the
development team, Related received a
request to also hire political
strategist Barbara Hardemon, another
Spence-Jones associate.
Where was the request coming
from?
''That I don't know,'' Conway
said. Cuervo did not return phone
calls Wednesday.
Was Spence-Jones offering her
vote in exchange for a friend's
hiring?
''That was the implicit
message,'' Conway said. ``Not
explicitly stated, but implied.''
Related Chairman Jorge Perez said
Wednesday that the two women were
hired for community outreach.
''Absolutely to sell the project,
particularly to black community
leaders and black community business
people. Just like what we did in the
Cuban community,'' he said.
Perez said they were ''absolutely
not'' paid to secure votes at City
Hall.
Earlier this year, Related
attorney John Shubin said Hardemon
received less than $50,000 and
Carey-Shuler between $50,000 and
$100,000.
Carey-Shuler could not be reached
late Wednesday -- a phone message
left with her sister was not
returned.
Reached Wednesday, Hardemon
called Sarnoff's memo ''damnable
lies'' and said she has not been
interviewed by prosecutors.
''This is nothing but slander,
and I intend to sue him for this,''
Hardemon said.
Kendall Coffey, Spence-Jones'
attorney, called it ``outrageous to
give any credence to utterly false
information simply because someone
wrote down somebody's gossip.''
Miami Herald staff writers Scott
Hiaasen and Jennifer Lebovich
contributed to this report.
New stadium could be
suite deal for
commissioners
By CHARLES RABIN
Miami and
Miami-Dade
County officials
pushing the
Florida Marlins'
Little Havana
ballpark could
end up with
quite a view
should the $525
million deal
reach consensus.
Under a
framework being
negotiated, the
Marlins would
provide the city
and county with
two private
suites, parking,
plus 22
additional box
seats for all 81
regular-season
home games at
the proposed
37,000-seat,
retractable-roof
park that could
open in 2011. At
no cost.
If the
two-time World
Series champions
make the
playoffs, the
rules change.
Miami and
Miami-Dade would
be allowed to
purchase those
seats, suites
and parking --
at regular cost.
That
arrangement
bears a close
resemblance to
one in
Washington, D.C.
There, council
members recently
awarded the
Washington
Nationals $631
million in
public money to
build a stadium
-- and district
leaders receive
a double-suite
that fits 24
people, and 25
other seats to
each ballgame.
The district
has the option
of purchasing
those seats and
suites for
playoff games.
''Every
stadium deal is
different, it's
on a
case-by-case
basis,'' said
Major League
Baseball
attorney Irwin
Raij, who helped
negotiate the
Nationals' deal
and represents
MLB in the
Marlins'
negotiations.
County
Commission
Chairman Bruno
Barreiro said
he's OK with the
idea -- in part.
''I've been a
proponent that
all
commissioners
should get
tickets at all
county venues,''
said Barreiro.
But he added:
``Now the suites
-- I'm not too
sure about
that.''
The seating
arrangement is
one small piece
of a much larger
financing deal
being finalized
by the county,
city and
Marlins.
A vote on
that agreement,
originally
scheduled for
County Hall on
Thursday, is
likely to be
delayed until
January.
''I'm
considering
deferring it so
all parties --
the city, the
county and the
team -- can hash
things out, take
a breather,''
said Barreiro.
A delay would
give the team
time to iron out
kinks, and give
commissioners
time to study a
massive
multi-billion
dollar
public-works
agreement that
would provide
money for the
stadium and
other downtown
projects.
City and
county
commissioners
approved the
downtown and
ballpark
projects amid
criticism they
gave the public
little say, and
rushed through
the proceedings.
The stadium
financing plan
could change
before it's
final.
The Marlins
support the
broad terms of
the working plan
and are
confident a
final contract
will come.
Among the
nuggets crafted
in the working
structure:
• The
Marlins must
agree to
continue funding
charities,
educational and
community
organizations,
and other public
works in South
Florida.
• If the
Marlins are sold
within 10 years
of the
agreement, the
county would
collect a
sliding scale of
between five and
10 percent of
the profits in
years one
through 10.
• Each
year, the team
will be required
to provide
50,000
regular-season
tickets at no
more than 75
percent of full
price, and 5,000
free tickets, to
underprivileged
youth and
Miami-Dade
charities.
The contract
must come
together through
consensus from
the Marlins,
Miami and
Miami-Dade.
The blueprint
calls for the
team to pay $155
million, the
city $121
million in
mostly tourist
tax dollars, and
the county $199
million in
similar taxes,
plus $50 million
in bond money
originally
planned to
renovate the
soon-to-be-blown-up
Orange Bowl.
Orlando Sentinel
Our position: If
Florida's to grow right, the Legislature
can't dance around DCA Secretary Tom
Pelham's plan
December 20,
2007
Once lauded nationally but now
lampooned regularly by developers
and local government officials
alike, the state's growth-management
act badly needs a boost.
Tom Pelham, Florida Department of
Community Affairs secretary, is
ready to do the heavy lifting.
But Mr. Pelham, who helped craft the
act in 1985 only to see others make
a mockery of it after leaving his
job in 1991, needs the Legislature
to take his plan to reinvigorate the
act and run with it.
Good luck to Mr. Pelham, whom Gov.
Charlie Crist returned to the DCA
this year.
The Legislature, almost since the
act's inception, has worked with the
precision of a sous chef to gut and
debone it.
Out has come a provision allowing
regional planning councils to appeal
local government decisions to the
governor and Cabinet. Now, only
developers or the DCA can appeal
those decisions.
Out has come a requirement that
marinas and airports within
Developments of Regional Impact,
typically mixed-use behemoths that
straddle several jurisdictions, get
reviewed.
Out have come dozens of parts that
once made the act a viable vehicle
for regulating growth in the state
-- usually at the insistence of
hungry developers and of the local
planners and elected officials who
have been so eager to please them.
How bad has it gotten? Under the
act, local governments can revise
their own growth management plans
twice a year. But because of 30
categories of amendments added to
the act, they actually can do it a
lot more often.
Florida's cities and counties now
amend their comprehensive plans
about 12,000 -- that's 12 THOUSAND
-- times a year.
No wonder that some residents, angry
at how the Florida they cherish is
getting lost to developers and their
legislative lackeys, have gotten
behind the Hometown Democracy
amendment, which would require
public votes on significant changes
to any local comprehensive plan.
But with so many changes possible
under the current growth-management
system, the time and cost needed to
engineer so many referendums on them
could be prohibitive.
Mr. Pelham's utterly sensible
initiative would effectively put
enough stuffing back into the
planning process to allow it to
serve Florida. It would require more
than a simple majority of local
officials to tweak their comp plans.
They'd have to lengthen the
now-inadequate notice they give the
public about changing the plans. And
they could change the plans
radically less often than has become
their custom.
The current system has "growth
driving planning, rather than
planning managing growth," says Mr.
Pelham.
Time to make that right. Time for
the Legislature, despite its
disposition to do otherwise, to get
behind Mr. Pelham.
His folk songs lamented old
Florida's demise
The man who hosted the
Florida Folk Show was on a
mission to wake people up, a
friend says.
By
STEPHANIE HAYES, Times Staff Writer
Published December 20, 2007
TAMPA - Pay $100,000 for a condo,
about 99 more than it's worth. Talk
about how big and cheap and
wonderful everything was up north.
Well they don't give a damn about
nature. They cut down the last pine
tree. So if the hurricane comes
tomorrow, it'll be all right with
me.
***
People heard Bobby Hicks'
message. They couldn't help it,
really.
In a loud, gravely voice, he used
his folk songs to rail against the
forces that chipped away his beloved
Florida - condo developers,
politicians, polluters, phosphate
dumpers, tourists, greedy
corporations.
"He was on a mission to try to
wake people up," said folk singer
Frank Thomas. "They listened to
Bobby, whether they wanted to or
not."
He's been called a radical
Cracker. Sometimes, his bold
approach made listeners squirm. But
mostly, they sang along.
"He wrote songs with a passion,"
Thomas said. "He wrote about this
great state of Florida. He loved it,
and it came across."
His family goes back five
generations in Florida. As a boy, an
educator named D.G. Erwin mentored
Mr. Hicks, taking him fishing and
hunting, and showing how phosphate
dumping damaged the Alafia River.
Mr. Hicks passed down Florida
stories to his son, Dawson, who has
the middle name "Erwin." He was in
diapers when he first heard his
dad's music and started going to
festivals.
"That was one of the things he
always embraced," said Dawson Hicks,
24. "You can't change your heritage.
You can't rewrite history. That was
a big thing he always tried to show
with his music."
For a few years, Mr. Hicks
co-hosted the Florida Folk Show on
WMNF-FM 88.5. He was selective about
what music to play, and he often
sparred on air with callers.
"He got right in the face of the
development and the politicians, and
he stood there and he blasted them,"
said Peter Gallagher, Mr. Hicks'
Florida Folk Show co-host. "No one
was a greater orator for
environmental destruction than Bobby
Hicks."
Mr. Hicks spent the last six
months battling lung cancer, his
family said, but his mind wasn't far
from the local scene. He sent
Gallagher text messages asking about
a weekly folk show at Ka' Tiki, a
club on Sunset Beach.
"He was asking me how the show
went," Gallagher said. "Did a lot of
people come? Who played? Just a
couple nights ago."
Mr. Hicks died Wednesday morning
at home in Tampa. He was 54.
***
I'm the Spanish moss hanging from
the live oak tree. I'm what's left
of the panther and the old manatee.
I'm an eagle in flight, I'm the
ocean's roar. I'm Florida, need I
say more?
Researcher Carolyn Edds
contributed to this report.
Stephanie Hayes can be reached at
shayes@sptimes.com
or 727 893-8857.
Biography
Bobby Hicks
Born: Sept. 4,
1953
Died: Dec. 19,
2007
Survived by:
Wife, Gini; son, Dawson.
Services: 2 p.m.
Jan. 12 at the Beach Theater, 315
Corey Ave., St. Pete Beach.
To hear a sample of Bobby Hicks'
music, visit tampabay.com
More
mammals washing ashore
81
strandings alarm scientists
BY JIM WAYMER
FLORIDA TODAY
At least 81 marine
mammals -- mostly dolphins, but also a
half-dozen whales and even an Arctic
seal -- became stranded this year in
Central Florida. All the washing ashore
has scientists wondering whether
something natural or unnatural is
sending so many astray.
Recent red tide may account for a few
of the stranded mammals, but researchers
suspect there may be something more at
play.
"Many things could be adding to this
year's count," said Wendy Noke Durden of
Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute in
Orlando. "What we're seeing could be
part of a trend that will best be
understood over the span of five to 10
more years of data."
Brevard's 48 strandings made up
almost 6 in every 10 dolphins, whales
and other marine mammals that washed in
dead, sick or injured within the
four-county area that Hubbs researchers
cover: Brevard, St. Johns, Flagler and
Volusia counties.
Those numbers mean this year is
shaping up to be the worst dolphin and
whale stranding year in the region since
2003, when 78 marine mammals became
stranded. In 2005 there were only 49
strandings in the four counties. Last
year, there were 71.
"This area is highest of any in the
state," said Megan Stolen, a
research biologist at Hubbs.
Scientists got especially curious
when a bearded seal -- an Arctic native
-- popped up in the Indian River Lagoon,
as happened near Stuart in May. The seal
died the next day at SeaWorld in
Orlando.
"I don't think we ever had a bearded
seal," said Teresa Mazza, a research
assistant with Hubbs.
Although thought to be the first
bearded seal ever recorded in Florida,
it wasn't the first seal to make an
appearance. Florida biologists have been
flabbergasted in recent years by random
seals turning up in the subtropics. In
September of last year, two Arctic
hooded seals washed up a day apart in
South Florida.
But most of this year's stranded
marine mammals -- 73 -- were bottlenose
dolphins. Most died.
More deaths could be on the way.
Recent studies have shown bottlenose
dolphins can die several weeks after
exposure to red tide. The tide's
lingering toxins build up in their
systems as they eat menhaden and other
fish.
"The extent of the red tide problem
in Florida's dolphin and whale
population isn't yet clear," Duane De
Freese, Hubb's vice president of
research said in Wednesday's statement.
Hubbs biologists have recorded nine
dolphin deaths on the Central Atlantic
Coast since Dec. 12, De Freese said.
That's high, he said, adding that
laboratory tests to prove cause of death
are expected in several days.
Brevard had a record 63 bottlenose
dolphins stranded in 2001. Some
suspected those dolphins were victims of
a relatively new algae toxin called
saxitoxin.
While most strandings this year have
been dolphins, a whale or two has washed
up in the mix. In January, two humpback
whales were among the casualties,
including one in Cocoa Beach and another
in Daytona Beach.
Contact Waymer at
242-3663 or
jwaymer@floridatoday.com.
List of
arsenic-tainted wells continues to grow
TONY MARRERO
Published:
December 19, 2007
SPRING LAKE - Jeanne Gavish is
well number 116 on the Hernando
County Health Department's growing
list.
The department so far has tested
some 200 private wells for the toxic
metal arsenic in an area near Batten
and Powell roads, according to
environmental manager Al Gray.
Gavish, who lives on Old Spring
Lake Road, recently got the report
for her well.
The result: 53.1 parts per
billion. That's five times the level
of arsenic deemed safe by the
federal and state governments.
Arsenic is a natural element
found on the periodic table and is
often found in water at low levels.
But it also is a by-product of
agricultural and industrial uses
that can cause elevated levels in
wells.
Long-term exposure to arsenic has
been linked to cancer of the
bladder, lungs, skin, kidneys, nasal
passages, liver and prostate.
"We've been drinking bottled
water ever since we found out,"
Gavish said. "And I understand there
are people worse off than me."
In fact, of the wells tested so
far, 62 have levels above 10 parts
per billion, Gray said.
The health department began
collecting the samples in February
after a Batten Road resident voiced
concerns about high levels found
during a test at her home.
Since then the department has
collected samples in half-mile
increments. The list of wells above
the safe limit continues to
lengthen, and the sampling area now
covers several square miles, Gray
said.
The testing area will continue to
expand until results are
consistently at or under the level
deemed safe, Gray said.
The Department of Environmental
Protection will try to pinpoint the
source by analyzing the hydrology
and topography of the area, said DEP
spokeswoman Pam Vazquez.
One of the suspected sources is
pesticides used for agricultural
operations such as orange groves,
Gray said.
Another possible culprit:
so-called "dip vats" used until 1964
to treat cattle with chemical
concoctions to kill the ticks that
caused cattle fever. The pits,
usually made of concrete and about
seven feet long, were typically
emptied each spring, according to
the Florida Extension Service.
The used chemicals were typically
dumped in pits or buried.
Cattle have grazed on the gently
rolling hills of Spring Lake for
decades, and many of the vats
themselves have since been buried,
Gray said.
"You can't see them, but they're
there in the ground," he said.
So far, the highest levels — 165
parts per billion — have been found
in a well at employee housing for
the Pleasant Valley Dairy on Powell
Road.
Filters installed for entire home
For years, the level of arsenic
deemed safe in drinking water was 50
parts per billion. That changed as
of January, 2006 after more research
came in, said Charlie Donahue,
environmental manager for the
Florida Department of Health.
Officials the set daily ingestion
of 10 parts per billion over 30
years as safe, Donahue said.
Research shows skin cancer is
among the most common effects of
ingestion; perhaps ironically, the
skin acts a good barrier to arsenic,
so exposure from showering and
bathing isn't considered a great
concern, Donahue said.
The DEP's first responsibility is
to get clean water to the residents
whose water exceeds safe levels,
Vazquez said.
Until about mid-September, the
department provided a kitchen filter
for residents' homes.
Now the department has begun to
install free of charge a so-called
point-of-entry system that filters
arsenic from all the water that goes
into the home, Vazquez said.
DEP recently installed such a
system at the Batten Road home of
Mark and Rita Faltus, whose well
showed more than nine times the
accetable level of arsenic. The
couple and their 17-year-old son
live not far from Renee Holcomb, the
resident who first raised concerns
about higher levels in her water.
The Faltuses have lived in the
home since about the time their son
was born and have used bottled water
for drinking and cooking for years,
Rita Faltus said.
But, she added, "We definitely
weren't going to feel comfortable
about this until they did something
for the whole house."
Holcomb, whose well had nearly 10
times the safe level also has a
point-of-entry system however, has
done much research on the subject
and was surprised to find other
parts of Florida with similar
problems of elevated arsenic.
More residents should be aware of
studies by the National Academy of
Sciences, Holcomb said.
According to the studies, one out
of 100 people who drink water
containing 50 ppb of arsenic will
get cancer, based on drinking two
liters of water per day over the
course of a lifetime.
"In my personal opinion," Holcomb
said, "more people should get their
wells tested."
Reporter Tony Marrero can be
reached at 352-544-5286 or
lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.
Project
Required Long-Term Planning,
Cooperation
By
Jim Konkoly of
Highlands Today
Published: December 20, 2007
SEBRING — Construction
crews began work on Phase
Two of the Sebring Parkway
in July, doing mostly
off-road work near Sebring
High School.
On Jan. 2, those
construction crews will
start the serious road
building work, causing the
complete shut-down of
Eucalyptus Street, between
Center and Grapefruit
streets, for at least four
and possibly as many as six
months.
This section of the
parkway will replace the
current two-lane Eucalyptus
Street with a five-lane
roadway with turning lanes.
Phase Two of the parkway
also will convert the
current Highlands Avenue
into a five-lane roadway,
running all the way to U.S.
27.
Ramon Gavarrete, the
Highlands County Engineer
who has been in charge of
the Parkway Project since
May of 1996, said two
questions about the parkway
always come up.
First: Why does the
parkway, in the rural
section that has a 55-mph
speed limit, have a
90-degree, right-angle turn,
forcing drivers approaching
it to slow down to 15 mph?
Second: What exactly is
the Sebring Parkway, and
where exactly will all of
the four phases go to?
Gavarrete says the answer
to the second question is
answered by explaining the
answer to the first
question. So does Elius F.
Nortelus, the county
engineer's top engineering
assistant.
"Everywhere I go (for a
speaking engagement),
everybody always asks the
same question, 'Why is there
that crazy, sharp,
right-angle turn on the
parkway?'" Gavarrete said.
"Well," he continued,
"right now it looks like a
right-angle turn, but that's
not what it really is. What
it really is, is the hub of
a wheel, and there will be
four parts of the parkway,
when it's finished, going
out from that hub."
Nortelus, the highway
engineer who designed
Sebring Parkway back in the
late 1980s and early 1990s,
said the 90-degree,
right-angle turn will become
a four-way intersection,
with a four-way traffic
light, when the entire
parkway project is
completed.
Gavarrete said the
parkway is essentially a
connected, four-part,
wheel-shaped roadway system.
The 90-degree, right-angle
turn is the hub of the wheel
and the four parkway phases
create the four spokes of
the wheel.
Phase One, already
completed, runs from U.S. 27
at Wal-Mart south to the
90-degree, right-angle turn
and then on to the beginning
of Eucalyptus Street at
Ridgewood Drive.
Phase Two, under
construction now, will
continue Phase One,
replacing both Eucalyptus
Street and Highlands Avenue,
converting both into
five-lane roadways, ending
where Highlands Avenue now
ends at U.S. 27.
Phase Three, Gavarrete
said, will connect Phases
One and Two of the Parkway
to Avon Park. It will run
from the 90-degree,
right-angle turn north to
the entrance of South
Florida Community College.
The fourth and final
phase of the Parkway will be
the shortest, Nortelus said.
He is a native of Haiti who
left the Highlands County
Engineer's office in the
1990s after designing
Sebring Parkway, worked as a
highway engineer for the
Massachusetts Department of
Transportation in Cambridge,
and then came back to
Highlands County as
assistant county engineer.
"Phase Four will go only
about one mile, and it will
connect (from the 90-degree,
right-angle turn) to
Arbuckle Creek Road,"
Nortelus said.
Gavarrete said purchasing
land for the right of way of
Sebring Parkway Phase Four
will be much easier than for
the first three phases,
since all of the Phase Four
land is owned by one person,
Joe L. Davis.
"Cities and counties
across the whole state of
Florida are watching the
Sebring Parkway very
closely," Gavarrete said.
Why?
"Because," he answered,
"to do this project, we have
had cooperation – great
cooperation – between the
county, the city (of
Sebring) and the school
system. And that is rare in
this state. That is
something that does not
happen very often anywhere
in Florida."
Without that cooperation,
Gavarrete added, the parkway
probably would never have
gotten off the ground, and
would now have only the
slimmest chance for
completion.
"The city is helping the
county pay for this
project," he explained. "And
the school board has been
giving us right-of-way."
In about two years,
Gavarrete said, "There's
going to be a five-lane
roadway – and make sure you
call it a 'roadway,' not a
'highway' – going right past
Sebring Middle School."
|
Retiree Flow To
Florida Slows
By MICHAEL SASSO,
The Tampa Tribune
Published:
December 20, 2007
SUN CITY CENTER - Retirees used
to view Florida as the land of sun,
golf and the good life. But these
days, Florida sometimes gets a
different reaction.
"What I hear from people is, 'Oh,
I wouldn't move to Florida with all
those hurricanes,'" said Paul Wheat,
69, president of the Sun City Center
Community Association and a Florida
fan.
If they're not complaining about
Florida's hurricanes, Northern
seniors occasionally cite concern
about Florida's sinkholes, expensive
housing, and high property taxes and
insurance, Wheat said.
There may be something to his
impromptu surveys. Florida has been
losing ground as a retirement
destination since at least 1980, but
recent U.S. Census data suggest the
state's appeal among retirees is
starting to slip further.
Don Bradley, a sociologist at
East Carolina University who has
studied retirement migration, said
in 2006 that Florida attracted an
estimated 13 percent of people 56
and older who moved across state
lines. That was down from about 16
percent in 2005. Figures from 2000
show that Florida received 19
percent of migrating seniors.
Until 2006, Florida had led the
nation in the "net migration" of
people 56 and older (people moving
into the state minus people moving
out), according to Bradley's
analysis. However, in 2006 Florida
fell to fourth in the nation in net
migration of seniors, after Texas,
Georgia and North Carolina. Florida
fell because fewer seniors moved
into the state last year than in
previous year, while more seniors
left the state.
While hurricanes and a higher
cost of living have hurt Florida,
other Southern states appear to be
picking off Florida's share of
retirees through tax incentives,
marketing plans and other
incentives.
Other States Trying Harder
Florida developers continue to
market to the retirement-minded. But
Florida's state government has no
formal effort to lure the coming
wave of Baby Boomer retirees,
according to calls to several
Florida government agencies.
A big question: Even if Florida
resolves its tax and insurance
problems, has the retirement
momentum shifted elsewhere for the
long term?
"Florida's been sort of the big
kid on the block for so long," said
Charles Longino Jr., an expert on
retirement migration at Wake Forest
University. "But other states are
trying harder now, so it's bound to
affect the outcome."
There's debate about whether
Florida even needs more retirees.
The state now has about 4.1 million
seniors, or about 23 percent of its
population of 18 million, according
to the Florida Department of Elder
Affairs. That may swell as the Baby
Boom generation retires.
The United States generated about
2 million new retirees in 2000,
according to a report by David
Denslow, an economist at the
University of Florida's Bureau of
Economic and Business Research. That
will grow to about 2.6 million per
year in 2010 and swell to 3.5
million per year in 2025. That
should increase demand for Florida,
Denslow said.
Being a retiree haven hurts
Florida's schools, some state
economic development leaders say,
because some seniors oppose tax
increases to fund education. Denslow
said retirees also create a demand
for low-paying service jobs - with
the exception of health care workers
- and create less demand for
high-paying scientists, engineers
and managers. That's because those
highly-paid professionals often work
for companies that serve national
and international markets, not local
markets, Denslow said.
Still, retirees are a plus for
state economies, Denslow and other
economists say. Retirees cost states
money for Medicaid, but generally
require less in state and local
services. Generally, retirees
provide $4 in revenue for every $3
they cost in government services,
Denslow said.
With that in mind, neighboring
state governments and private
developers are aggressively courting
Baby Boomers. For example:
•In Georgia. Gov. Sonny Perdue
has been pushing the state's
legislature to exempt income from
retirement plans from Georgia's
state income tax. Starting next
year, the first $35,000 in
retirement income will be exempt
from the tax. Perdue wants the
legislature to exempt all retirement
income, said Bert Brantley, the
governor's press secretary. "It's
certainly meant to help attract
retirees to the state," Brantley
said. "The governor sees it as a
revenue-positive idea."
•In Tennessee, the state's
economic development department has
a new initiative called "Retire
Tennessee." The state has chosen
nine largely-rural communities that
have amenities and lifestyles for
retirees and is helping them market
themselves as retirement
destinations. Among them is
Chattanooga. The state also is
sending representatives to
retirement-related trade shows
nationwide and is advertising in
Southern Living magazine.
•In North Carolina one of the
hottest retirement destinations is
the Asheville region. Richard
Lutovsky, president of the Asheville
Area Chamber of Commerce, estimated
his area has up to 30 planned
communities under development, half
of which are estimated to have golf
courses. Retirees may buy many of
the homes, he said.
'Florida's Slipping'
One new Tennessee retiree is
Laura Imboden, a 57-year-old from
Colorado's ski country. In the past
18 months, she and her husband have
toured the country in an RV, but
come July, they will retire to
Tellico Village, a planned community
in eastern Tennessee. Tennessee's
close to family across the Midwest
and Northeast and has relatively low
taxes, she said.
"Florida had entered our minds,"
Imboden said. "Most people from
Colorado retire in Arizona, but we
knew that Arizona was farther than
where we wanted to be. And so is
Florida. And it's just so hot there
in the summer."
Developers that have retirement
communities in Florida and actively
market to retirees include Del Webb,
a division of Pulte Homes, Inc., and
WCI Communities, Inc. Company
representatives did not return calls
for this story.
How many other new retirees will
pass over Florida is anyone's guess.
But William Haas, a sociologist
at the University of North
Carolina-Asheville, has studied
Census data and found that in 2006
Georgia attracted 2.78 people aged
60 or older for every person who
left the state. In contrast, Florida
attracted 1.12 people aged 60 or
older for every person who left the
same year.
Haas' conclusion: "Florida's
slipping."
Five years ago, former Gov. Jeb
Bush created a commission called
Destination Florida to find ways to
keep the retiree pipeline flowing.
Among its recommendations was
freezing property tax increases for
people 55 and older. The tax
increases would be deferred until
death, when the person's estate
would pay the deferred amount.
It also recommended eliminating
the intangibles tax on stocks and
bonds, and having Florida's
Department of Elder Affairs get more
involved in the state's economic
development arm, Enterprise Florida.
The state eventually nixed the
intangibles tax, but commission
Chairman T. O'Neal Douglas said most
of its recommendations were never
enacted. Douglas declined further
comment.
Representatives of Enterprise
Florida, Elder Affairs, and Visit
Florida, the state's tourism agency,
said their agencies have no
marketing program to attract
seniors, and it's not a formal
economic development goal.
Douglas Beach, secretary of the
Department of Elder Affairs, said
the state is working with its cities
and counties to make Florida more
attractive for young and old alike,
part of a program called Communities
for a Lifetime. An example is
putting in larger street signs to
help seniors, Beach said. Also,
Florida is starting an effort to
attract out-of-state health care
workers to the state, Beach said.
Back in Sun City Center, a
handful of seniors were molding
ceramics during a morning arts and
crafts class. Their prediction:
Florida will never lose its luster
for retirees.
Even Atlanta is too cold for Nan
Burgett, who moved here from Atlanta
nine years ago.
"I would never move back," she
said. "I love the weather here."
"We came down here because we
fell in love with it," said Terri
Wherle, who moved to Sun City Center
two and a half years ago from Ohio.
"I do not miss shoveling 20 foot of
snow at all."
Reporter Michael
Sasso can be reached at (813)
259-7865 or msasso@tampatrib.com.
Rule Protecting
Florida Citrus Weathers Fight
By BILL KACZOR,
The Associated Press
Published:
December 20, 2007
TALLAHASSEE - An emergency rule
designed to guard Florida's citrus
crop against a fungus that might be
on California fruit shipped into the
state withstood an initial court
challenge Wednesday.
Circuit Judge William Gary denied
a temporary injunction sought by
California citrus growers. He
decided in part that they had failed
to show the rule is unconstitutional
or that they are likely to suffer
irreparable harm pending final
resolution of the lawsuit.
Florida agriculture officials
issued the rule to protect the
state's citrus industry from
Septoria citri, which appears as
small, pitted lesions. It ultimately
can cause fruit to fall off trees
and plants prematurely.
The rule requires California
fruit to be inspected and treated
with a fungicide before it can be
shipped to Florida, which already
requires in-state citrus to undergo
similar treatment for other
diseases.
"Our growers are already under
siege by citrus greening and canker,
and the measures we implemented were
designed to ensure Septoria citri is
not introduced into this state,"
Florida Agriculture Commissioner
Charles Bronson said.
"It's extremely disappointing,"
said Joel Nelson, president of the
California Citrus Mutual growers
association, one of four plaintiffs.
"It's unfortunate this action was
taken to punish family farmers in
California over a pest that most
countries worldwide - including the
U.S. Department of Agriculture - do
not consider to be a major problem."
USDA has classified the black
fungus as being of "minor
significance" and only two cases
were verified in California last
year, according to the lawsuit.
California Citrus Mutual is a
nonprofit organization representing
growers of 200,000 acres of fruit.
The other plaintiffs are Sunkist
Growers, the Pro Citrus Network, and
the Corona College Heights Orange
and Lemon Association.
Gary wrote that the California
growers should seek a remedy through
state administrative procedures.
Florida officials are drafting a
permanent rule, and the California
growers have been invited to
participate in that process, said
Florida Deputy Agriculture
Commissioner Craig Meyer. He noted
that Florida delayed and modified
the emergency rule in response to
the growers' comments.
"I'm fairly confident that the
permanent rule will be adopted and
we'll be able to make it stick,"
Meyer said.
The citrus industries in the two
states are about equal in size,
about $1.1 billion in annual sales
each. But most of Florida's oranges
are turned into juice, while the
bulk of California's crop is sold as
fresh fruit.
To meet Florida's emergency rule,
California growers and shippers say
they will have to radically change
the way they package and haul
California citrus to Florida and
elsewhere. Growers will have to
tailor shipments to Florida and
document them, a process that will
cost more, require more trips and
drive up prices, California growers
say.
Meyer, though, said 78 of 80
California packing houses as of
Tuesday certified, through the
California Department of Food and
Agriculture, that they were in
compliance with Florida's treatment
requirements. Shipments of
California citrus have continued to
enter Florida.
Family Savors The
Sweet Life
By TOM JACKSON
The Tampa Tribune
Published:
December 20, 2007
DADE
CITY - The road that passes by the
Croft family farm is much like many
others in Pasco County, composed of
dirt and rock and months overdue for
a grooming by John Gallagher's busy
road crews.
It's a dusty washboard stretching
north from Enterprise Road, three
miles southeast of the historic
county courthouse, passing
rectangles of private enterprise
featuring a place to purchase
"contented puppies" and, nearby,
hopeful Florida peach trees, beneath
which busy hens and roosters in
rust-flavored hues scratch out their
livelihoods; meanwhile, regal
peacocks observe with measured
disinterest.
Escorting the dusty ribbon toward
God-knows-where, tangles of wild
vines embrace sagging wire fences;
overhead, the canopies of hardwood
trees give cover to cardinals,
mockingbirds and nuthatches knocking
out code on sturdy branches and
tangles of wild vines. Folded in the
shaded greenery, cows with heavy
eyelids rest motionless except for
the occasional flick of an ear and
the hypnotic grinding of their cud.
Which is to say, the strip, in
spite of its melodious name - Duck
Lake Canal Road - is
indistinguishable from dozens of
similar unpaved thoroughfares that
are both bane and opportunity to
Pasco County's longtime traffic
plan.
But turn left just past the
clutch of mailboxes, when you see
the black sign announcing in white
block letters, "Croft Family Farm
and Produce," at the end of a slow
crawl that, nonetheless, promises to
loosen your dental work, and you
will discover the road for what it
is: a time machine.
Darwin and Franklin Croft,
brothers, grew up here. A cousin,
Harold Croft, was reared nearby.
Each spent his youth seeing after
working-farm chores appropriate to
their ages, all the while
cultivating a deep and abiding
affection for the charms of living
close to the land.
"We didn't have much money,"
Darwin says, "but we never went
hungry."
Each took separate paths off
their fathers' farms: Franklin, now
64, into heavy machinery, then
accounting for Withlacoochee
Electric Cooperative, retiring as
plant auditor; Darwin, 67, into meat
department management for Kwik
Chek/Winn-Dixie in Dade City for 20
years, ending in 1985; and Harold,
66, into lawn maintenance and
irrigation installation in
Bradenton.
Now each has drifted back to the
family homestead, reviving the farm,
along with farming methods that
would have been familiar to their
fathers, Henry Drew and Wade Hampton
Croft, the latter named for one of
two Civil War generals (J.E.B.
Stuart was the other) with whom the
old farmers' grandfather rode.
Boutique Agriculture
It's true that history, tradition
and constancy are important to these
sons of the South's sense of self.
As lads who came of age before the
turbulent 1960s, who were brought up
among those who heard eyewitness
accounts of the "War of Northern
Aggression," Darwin, Franklin and
Harold had finished high school
before they realized "damnYankee" is
two words. That sort of upbringing
has a lasting effect on a fellow.
But as they pursue the art of
boutique agriculture, resurrecting
Croft Farms' 300 acres of fallow
fields one modest patch at a time,
these gentlemen cultivators have
rediscovered not simply the truth of
calluses well-earned, but the
economic genius of achievement by
hand.
Their latest adventure in
hand-to-crop farming has involved
the growing, harvesting and
processing of about an eighth of an
acre of sugar cane - a couple of
hybrid strains developed at the
University of Florida for climes
more prone to freezing than in the
cane belt, that region of the state
below Clewiston and Belle Glade, off
the south shore of Lake Okeechobee.
Today's farming Crofts are
growing sugar cane because their
daddies grew sugar cane, and they
are tickled to report that, at an
age when everything seems to be
smaller, dimmer, duller and less
sweet, the 2007 Croft Cane exceeds
everything Henry Drew and Wade
Hampton ever raised from that
ancient, dark, east Pasco soil.
Wielding their hand-harvesters -
stubby, wooden-handled knives with
broad stainless-steel blades
resembling oversized painters' wall
scrapers - bought from a flea market
vendor who had no idea what they
were, the trio felled about half of
two rows of cane one recent morning.
Each low-arcing swing cleanly
dropped another 13-foot stalk,
setting the knife to singing in
metallic soprano.
As usual, the harvest attracted
volunteers, among them Ron Ferguson,
a classic field hand of few words
who doubles as an unofficial adopted
brother, and "Just Plain" Bill
Biemer, a restorer of sports cars
and a sun-follower who, along with
his Dade City-native wife, splits
time between east Pasco and New
Mexico.
The exercise reminds Harold of
his UF college days and Thanksgiving
break, and no more getting inside
the front door before his mother
would put a cane knife in his hand
and send him into the field to join
the others in hacking, stripping and
loading the autumn's sugar cane
harvest.
"After a while, I got smart,"
Harold says. "I stopped coming home
at Thanksgiving."
Now he volunteers, driving up
from Bradenton with his wife, Kay,
every chance he gets, happy to
become reacquainted with the young
man who mistakenly thought he had
better things to do.
Old Ways Work Best
The next morning finds them
stationed around the Croft family
cane mill, an oxidizing antique from
the middle 1800s that, oiled and
attached to the rear end
cannibalized from an early 20th
century Chevrolet truck, extracts
juice from the cane. Except that the
tractor has replaced a mule as the
source of power, the contraption
operates exactly as it did, with
brutal efficiency.
Three solid iron drums, one the
size of a gallon paint can, the
other two slightly smaller, stood on
end and arranged, if observed from
above, like the iconic Mickey Mouse
silhouette, turn in a motion that
draws the cane through the center,
flattening stalks 2 inches in
diameter to corrugated-paper depth.
Dirty green juice spills from the
mill spout, through a filter of
burlap draped over a coarse screen,
down a PVC gutter to another
strainer - a double layer of felt
over a fine screen - into a
100-gallon cast iron kettle (circa
1845) set into a concrete block
cooker.
Sort of a plain, squat barbecue
with a firebox in the back right (to
take advantage of the Northern
Hemisphere's Coriolis effect)
flanked by a simple chimney, the
cooker is surrounded by an
aluminum-roofed gazebo with
roll-down sides to block the wind
and control the juice's boil.
Bud Klein, a neighbor who has
come to observe, offers a cautionary
suggestion: "Watch carefully. When
they're done, you won't ever see
this again."
Darwin loads the firebox with
locally gathered lighter, or heart
of pine, the resin-rich "fatwood"
that retailers market for $12 or
more per pound. But opportunity
costs are irrelevant when a plume of
black smoke feathers through
overhanging oak branches and into
the sky, inviting a fly-by
inspection by one government agency
or another, and announcing to
neighbors that syrup-making has
begun.
Soon, the juice attains a rolling
boil, bringing impurities to the
surface, trapped in foam. Skimmed
off and dumped in a bucket, this
noxious byproduct will, left to
itself, separate inside two weeks'
time, the bottom layer becoming
crystal clear rum - "200 proof,"
Harold boasts. But the Crofts are
more determined to obtain homegrown
syrup, liquid sugar the color of
strong tea anxious for hot buttered
biscuits, pancakes or waffles.
The trio is not unaware of the
implications suggested by their
successful harvest and processing of
sugar cane in West Central Florida.
In a world recoiling from its
hydrocarbon addiction and dismayed
by corn's shortcomings as an
alternative energy source, the
ability to grow mass quantities of
sugar cane - which as its name
implies, is able to skip the
energy-sucking step of being
converted into sugar (corn's major
drawback) - in areas once considered
risky boosts the prospects for
affordable domestic ethanol.
That's neither here nor there for
the Croft fellows, Franklin, Darwin
and Harold. For them, it's all about
recapturing what almost got away,
and cultivating a manner of living
that inspires patience, teamwork,
ingenuity, resourcefulness and an
appreciation for neighborliness.
These characteristics distinguished
most everyone the Crofts came upon
when they were young; take a
frame-loosening drive down Duck Lake
Canal Road and you'll find them new
and thriving all over again.
The fresh cane syrup is just a
sweet, sweet bonus.
Tom Jackson can be
reached at (813) 948-4219
Our
view: The ocean's SOS
Florida Today editorial
12-19-07
Red tide
latest evidence of need for long-term
policies to protect Florida's coastal
waters
The casualties
mount:
More sick people, more dead dolphins,
more dead sea turtles, more dead fish.
And more concern about how long the
trouble will last, and the impact it
will have on public health, marine life
and tourism.
We're talking about the red tide
plaguing Brevard County and other areas
along Florida's East-Central coast, a
SOS from a sick sea if there ever was
one.
The scourge is nothing new along the
Gulf Coast, which has been the victim of
repeated blooms in recent years. For
example, a new attack along the
Panhandle from Pensacola to Panama City
has been going on more than four months.
But the weeks-long outbreak here is
unprecedented in Space Coast history.
Scientists still don't understand the
precise cause of the growing problem,
but suspects abound:
The main ones include fertilizers
washing down the Mississippi River into
the Gulf of Mexico and growing amounts
of fertilizers, septic tank nutrients,
and waste from cruise and gambling ships
and South Florida sewage outfalls
pouring into the Atlantic Ocean.
Major scientific reports have issued
dire warning about the health of the
world's seas unless tough action is
taken to protect them. Yet nowhere near
enough is being done, as evidenced in
Tallahassee.
Gov. Charlie Crist still has not
thrown his full weight behind the
Blueprint for Florida's Economic and
Environmental Leadership, which earlier
this year issued a loud call to protect
Florida's coastal waters by attacking
pollution, protecting fisheries and
coordinating government action to get it
down.
More than 160 businesses, agencies
and organizations in Florida --
including 68 in Brevard -- have signed
on. Crist should get with the program at
once, especially with Florida's tourism
and fishing industries generating $60
billion a year.
Meanwhile, areas in Southwest Florida
hit hard by red tide are making forceful
moves to battle it by regulating
fertilizers, which contain high levels
of the nitrogen and phosphorus suspected
of triggering the outbreaks.
Sarasota County is leading the way,
passing a model law that requires
slow-release fertilizers less prone to
running off into waterways, 10-foot
buffer zones between a water body and
areas to be fertilized, and employee
training for companies that apply
fertilizers.
Lee and Charlotte counties are poised
to follow suit and Brevard County
Commissioners should do the same at a
time when the fertilizer industry is
using its money and power in the
Legislature to fight such farsighted and
badly needed initiatives.
Last year alone, two million tons of
fertilizers were used in Florida with
500,000 tons spread on lawns and golf
courses. Unknown amounts washed into
waterways and eventually reached the
sea, a process of degradation repeated
year after year.
The Space Coast's severe red tide
outbreak had shaken the public out of
its "it can't happen here" mentality.
The ocean is shouting for help and
bold steps are necessary at the federal,
state and local levels to protect the
planet's great engine of life.
Failure to act now will result in
more sick people, more dead marine life
and the real possibility of large scale
disaster to come.
WATER ALTERNATIVES
County demands river data
Marion
won't pay for plans until minimum flows
are established
BY
CHRISTOPHER CURRY
STAR-BANNER
OCALA - When it comes to water, the
Marion County Commission wants to draw a
line in the sand.
On Tuesday, commissioners decided that
county government should not pay for
planning or any other parts of
alternative water supply projects until
after the St. Johns River Water
Management District has established
minimum flows and levels for the
Ocklawaha and Silver rivers.
Right now, there are two alternative
water supply projects in which Marion
might be a partner: the potential
pumping of surface water from the
Ocklawaha River near the Eureka area and
a possible desalination plant in Flagler
County on the Atlantic coast.
There is no price tag for the
desalination plant yet. During a Dec. 10
meeting, consultants working for the St.
Johns district estimated construction
costs for the Ocklawaha project were
$811.3 million for a single water
treatment plant and a 173-mile pipeline.
Marion's estimated contribution toward
construction was $158 million for 21.3
million gallons per day.
The county also could expect $9 million
a year in operations and maintenance
costs, according to the consultant's
numbers.
St. Johns officials want counties and
municipalities to choose by March or
April the alternative water supplies
they plan to be part of, so planning and
early design may start. But minimum
flows and levels for the Ocklawaha and
Silver rivers are not due until the end
of 2009. The Silver River feeds the
Ocklawaha with water from Silver
Springs.
Minimum flows and levels are intended to
show a point at which any more surface
withdrawals or groundwater withdrawals
in the area could cause environmental
harm. St. Johns officials told the
County Commission during a meeting in
late October that no plans to pump the
Ocklawaha would be approved until
minimum flows and levels were in place.
County commissioners greeted that with
skepticism, saying plans to pump the
river have moved ahead before the
environmental effect is known. Instead,
commissioners want planning to halt
until the minimum flows and levels are
established.
St. Johns district spokesman Hank Largin
said district officials could not
comment on the county's letter until
they receive it.
SPRINGS COMMITTEE
Development attorneys, environmentalists
and a sod farm owner are all expected to
be part of a nine-member advisory
committee that the county will form to
work on revisions of the recently
voted-down springs protection ordinance.
Each of the five county commissioners
will choose one member. Then they will
vote on the other four members as a
group.
To try to accelerate the timetable for
bringing a scaled-back version of the
springs protection ordinance to a vote,
commissioners want the committee to
deliver a report by the end of March.
Committee membership should be finalized
at the commission's first meeting in
January.
NO WATERING RESTRICTIONS
The County Commission has indefinitely
delayed action on a proposed landscaping
ordinance that could give code
enforcement officers the authority and
responsibility to issue fines to
residents and property owners who
violate lawn watering restrictions.
Chief Assistant County Attorney Thomas
D. MacNamara said the delay is intended
to allow the St. Johns River and
Southwest Florida Water Management
districts time to reach an agreement on
unified watering rules in Marion. St.
Johns covers the county east of
Interstate 75 and Southwest Florida has
jurisdiction west of the interstate.
MacNamara said the two districts may
have a written agreement in two to three
months.
Christopher Curry
may be reached at 352-867-4115 or
chris.curry@starbanner.com.
LOST LAKE
Staff
— By Jeff Waters
jeff.waters@gaflnews.com
Dog fennel, grass and a large, water-filled
hole are all that is left of the back half
of Peacock Lake just east of Live Oak. The
148-acre lake was once a place for skiers
and anglers alike. Now it's drying up fast
and grass has already begun to take over.
Peacock Lake is shaped like an hourglass
now. There's a pool of water left in the
front part of the lake, but the boat ramp is
completely dry. Boathouses and docks stretch
out into the lakebed, but no water laps at
the poles. You can see evidence that a lake
was once there. There are homemade anchors,
rods and reels and fish bones on what had
been the lake bottom. The only living things
that are happy with this are the buzzards,
which feed on the dying fish.
Frank Ingram, who has lived on the lake all
his life, says he has never seen it like
this. Ingram remembers his dad telling him
that the water drained once years ago, and
that he could hear the whooshing sound of
the water draining. He remembers his father
telling him that the lake started draining
at night and was gone by the next day. He
says his father used to haul logs across the
drained lake.
County Commissioner Billy Maxwell, who lives
on the lake, fondly remembered the water
shimmering "like diamonds" when moonlight
reflected off it.
Now that the lake has dried in the back you
can see what could be a sinkhole, plus
several smaller holes that are opening up.
Sinkholes - often the products of drought -
may be the culprit in the massive loss of
water.
"We are at a 25 inch rainfall deficit
lacking over a two year period," said
Suwannee River Water Management District
Communications Coordinator Cindy Johnson.
Johnson said the district does not monitor
Peacock Lake but that other lakes in the
area are showing signs of depletion. The
only lake in the area they do monitor is
Lowe Lake in Wellborn. "It is the lowest it
has been since 2002," says Johnson. White
Lake, partially located on the Camp Weed and
the Cerveny Conference Center grounds, is
also extremely low. Mandi's Chapel used to
sit on open water but now sits on a marsh.
Johnson added that drought conditions in
Georgia are unrelated to the current
situation in the Suwannee River Valley.
The DROUGHT CONTINUES
o The Suwannee River Water
Management District reports
that districtwide 21 of
the last 23 months have had
below-normal rainfall.
o Throughout the district, 32 ground
water monitoring wells have set new
November lows and 12 of those
have set historic lows.
o 128 emergency construction
permits for dry wells have
been issued since April and
11 of those were issued in November.
o A voluntary reduction in water use
remains in effect districtwide.
Water district offers
settlement to developer
Wrecked Pine Island’s Willow Lake for tree
farm
By Ryan Lengerich
rlengerich@news-press.com
Originally posted on December 19, 2007
A developer who wiped out a natural water
habitat in Pine Island would have to pay a
fine and restore 6 acres where Willow Lake
once existed, under settlement terms offered
by the South Florida Water Management
District.
In mid-October, as Russell Weintraub and his
business, Treeco, cleared ground for a palm
tree farm, they went past boundaries
approved by the South Florida Water
Management District.
The developer has offered to restore 1.45
acres he admits he should not have cleared.
Pine Island resident, former attorney and
environmental activist Phil Buchanan has
data he said proves the area is 6 acres.
The water district, in a settlement offer
dated Dec. 14, agreed and said Weintraub
must restore 6 acres of wetlands and pay
$40,100 in fines, or face the district in
court.
“I am happy, everybody has done their job,”
Buchanan said Tuesday. “The data is just
overwhelming, the only person that said it
didn’t exist was the land owner.”
Weintraub has until this weekend to accept
or reject the deal. His attorney Cami
Corbett said she has not seen the
investigation documents or spoken with the
district, and will not make a decision until
she has done so.
Corbett voiced frustration the settlement
terms were made public before she and
Weintraub met with water district officials.
“The district has very recently changed
their mind about how they are handling it,”
said Corbett. “I think it is political, I
think the commissioners are pressuring the
district.”
Lee County commissioners have expressed
outrage, but have no jurisdiction over the
wetlands.
Three weeks ago, water district spokeswoman
Susan Sanders said the district gave the
developer the right to clear the ground for
the tree farm, except for the 1.45 acres.
That’s still the case, Sanders said Tuesday.
But plans are also filed with the county for
migrant farm worker housing on 15 acres
adjacent to what was Willow Lake.
Due to those plans, Sanders said the
developer should have applied for an
Environmental Resource Permit and, had it
done so, the water district would not have
allowed the developer to clear the remaining
portion of the lake.
Corbett said the plans have been adjusted
and will not impact the area, so the permit
is unnecessary.
She said the housing plans were filed in
August and is unsure why the water
district would suddenly use the project in
its ruling. Those are all details she wants
to speak with water district officials
about.
“I can’t advise my client to accept (the
settlement) because don’t have appropriate
information to find out how they arrived at
that,” Corbett said.
Behind the scenes, the Army Corps of
Engineers continues to analyze the issue.
Their decision could further decide the
lake’s size and how much Weintraub must
restore. Corps spokeswoman Cynthia Ovdenk
said a final decision is near.
Buchanan is looking forward to the
restoration.
“The real crunch will be when we come down
to the mitigation or restoration effort,” he
said. “This developer is going to have to
come in with a pretty strong restoration
plan.”
Tide Turning Against
Flood Of Empties
By NICOLA M.
WHITE, The Tampa Tribune
Published:
December 19, 2007
ZEPHYRHILLS -
It used to be simple: Grab a bottle of
water and go.
Once seen as the hallmark of healthy
living, bottled water is facing a
backlash from environmentalists who
worry about all those discarded plastic
containers, more than 80 percent of
which end up in landfills and
incinerators. Then there's the practical
argument: Why pay for something that
flows freely from the faucet?
Even in Zephyrhills, "The City of
Pure Water," a plan that ultimately
would allow the Zephyrhills Spring Water
Co. to expand its Pasco County bottling
plant initially met with opposition from
residents.
Aside from disposing of the 28
million bottles of water the Container
Recycling Institute estimates Americans
drink each year, environmentalists say
the industry's rapid growth is straining
the world's scarce oil resources. It
takes the equivalent of 17 million
barrels of oil per year to produce that
many water bottles, according to the
Pacific Institute, a California think
tank.
"That's a lot of oil for a product
that, frankly, is a luxury," said Peter
Gleick, president of the institute.
The bottled water industry has tried
to respond to its critics. Locally,
Zephyrhills Spring Water is rolling out
a lighter, hourglass-shaped bottle that
uses 30 percent less plastic. The
International Bottled Water Association
also has pledged to encourage more
recycling efforts. In August, the
organization took out full-page ads in
The New York Times and the San Francisco
Chronicle in response to what it called
misleading attacks.
It is unclear what - if any - effect
the negative publicity could have on
bottled water sales. For the past five
years, Americans have been buying more
of the bottled stuff, with sales growing
8 percent to 10 percent every year;
sales of Zephyrhills brand water have
kept pace, a company spokesman said.
Only Soda Quenches More Thirsts
Apart from soda, Americans drink more
bottled water than any other
commercially packaged beverage,
including juice, beer or coffee,
according to the Beverage Marketing
Corp.
That consumers are choosing bottled
water over sugary drinks is a good
thing, those in the industry say. And
buying a bottle of water is just that: a
choice.
"I love my tap water, but when I'm on
the road between Pensacola and
Zephyrhills, I'm not interested in
trying out the water in the shady little
water fountain at the gas station. I'd
rather buy some bottled water," said Jim
McClellan, spokesman for the Zephyrhills
Spring Water Co., which is owned by
Nestle Waters North America, the owner
of Poland Spring and Deer Park brands.
Defending the company's environmental
stewardship, McClellan points to the
green technology used in Nestle's
buildings and its maintenance of the
Crystal Springs Preserve, a nature
center on the grounds of the southeast
Pasco spring where Zephyrhills water is
pumped.
Besides, soda manufacturers use
plastic, too, and some commercial
ventures use more water than bottlers
do, he said.
Zephyrhills Spring Water pumps an
average of 755,000 gallons per day from
Crystal Springs. By comparison,
Saddlebrook Resort in Wesley Chapel uses
an average of 619,000 gallons per day,
according to the Southwest Florida
Management District. CF Industries, a
phosphate company in Plant City, uses 4
million gallons a day.
Tap Water's Benefits Touted
Still, bottled water is facing
scrutiny for a reason, said Ruth Caplan,
chairwoman of the Sierra Club's water
privatization task force.
"The reason we focus on bottled water
particularly is that you can't turn on
your tap and get soda out of your tap or
apple juice out of your tap," she said.
"We truly do have an alternative to
drinking bottled water. We also have an
alternative to buying these one-use
bottled water bottles."
In June, the U.S. Conference of
Mayors discussed the irony of buying
bottled water for city meetings and
functions while touting the quality of
municipal tap water. Some cities have
even banned buying bottled water, both
as an environmentally friendly move and
as a cost-saving measure.
In Zephyrhills, jumping on the
bandwagon would pose challenges.
The Zephyrhills Spring Water Co.
provides 325 local jobs and donates free
bottled water during emergencies and to
city hall workers.
"It would be like Detroit saying,
'We're all driving Toyotas,'" City
Manager Steve Spina said.
Reporter Nicola M. White
can be reached at (813) 779-4613 or
nwhite1@tampatrib.com.
Senator
wants probe of earmark for
Lee County highway
interchange
By The
Associated Press
Story Updated: Dec 19,
2007 at 11:47 AM EST
ESTERO, Fla. (AP) - An
Oklahoma senator wants
an investigation into a
disputed $10 million
congressional earmark
for an Interstate 75
interchange in southwest
Florida.
Republican Sen. Tom
Coburn said Tuesday he
wants a special
committee to investigate
the earmark to a 2005
transportation bill that
provides money to
connect Coconut Road to
I-75 in Lee County near
Fort Myers.
The earmark was inserted
into the bill by U.S.
Rep. Don Young,
R-Alaska, even though
local lawmakers didn't
ask for it. Watchdog
groups have charged that
he did it to benefit a
developer who owns land
around the interchange
and who hosted a $40,000
fundraiser for Young in
2005.
Coburn and at least one
other senator had placed
holds on the bill.
On Tuesday, Coburn's
office said he wants a
committee to look into
how the language of the
funding bill was changed
after Congress voted on
it and before the
president signed it.
"Because secret,
improper and
unauthorized changes to
congressionally passed
legislation call into
question the integrity
of our entire
constitutional and
legislative process, I
believe a full and open
investigation into this
matter is necessary to
restore the integrity of
both the U.S. Congress
and the Constitution,"
Coburn wrote in a letter
to Senate Minority
Leader Mitch McConnell.
Coburn wants to attach
the requirement for the
committee's formation to
a pending bill that
would restore the
original language to the
legislation, which
provided for widening
and improvements to I-75
in Lee and Collier
counties rather than the
money being earmarked
specifically for the new
interchange.
Young has repeatedly
declined to comment on
whether he initiated the
changes in the bill. His
office said he welcomes
an investigation into
the earmark process.
Taxpayers for Common
Sense, a nonpartisan
watchdog group, was
unsuccessful in trying
to get the House ethics
committee to investigate
the matter in September
EPA shuts down dewatering on
Marco Island, for now
By WINK News
Story Updated: Dec 18, 2007
at 6:36 PM EST
The EPA is threatening jail
time and fines against Marco
Island leaders if data
related to the septic tank
replacement program is not
provided.
A spokeswoman for the city
says the certified letter
the EPA sent is just
procedure.
Lisa douglas says the city
plans to provide all data
requested by the EPA.
City leaders were unaware
they need a permit from the
EPA to discharge ground
pumped out of the ground to
make way for new sewer
lines.
Douglas says the city has
been cooperating with the
DEP and South Florida Water
Management with no problems.
De-watering has been put on
hold for now, but douglas
expects the project to be
back on line within two
weeks.
Some blame those who are
against the sewer project
for sending daily pictures
to the EPA of the project.
"We believe that there is
constant contact with both
the DEP and EPA, " says
Douglas.
Meanwhile, resident Jim
Kennedy, who is against the
sewer project admits making
repeated contact with the
EPA in an effort to stir
interest.
"Sure, why shouldn't we.
It's our right, in fact,
it's our responsibility. We
need to be responsible
citizens," says Kennedy.
The EPA says it has always
required a ground water
discharge permit for any
agency dumping ground water
into a marine area.
The EPA could not say why
they didn’t approach city
leaders about the permit
from day one of the project.
EPA
issues formal letter to
City of Marco Island
Request made in writing
to satisfy permit
requirements requested
from DEP
By
LESLIE WILLIAMS
Originally
published 12:02 p.m.,
December 18, 2007
Updated 01:23 p.m.,
December 18, 2007
After several weeks
using the Department of
Environmental Protection
as a middle man, the
Federal Environmental
Protection Agency has
directly issued a letter
to the City of Marco
Island seeking
information on the
city’s dewatering
activities.
The information
sought by the EPA is
part of a larger process
casting deeper scrutiny
on the city’s dewatering
activities. Dewatering,
the process of pumping
out groundwater to
enable underground
digging, is one step
employed by construction
crews as part of the
city’s sewer
installation for the
Septic Tank Replacement
Program. Dewatering has
been a topic of
contention since
questions were raised
starting in July about
the release of hydrogen
sulfide gas from the
removed ground water.
An EPA representative
said her agency has
received about 40
complaints about city
construction work since
August, though not
necessarily from 40
individual callers.
Subsequently, said
EPA representative Dawn
Harris-Young, “We called
the state concerning
permit requirements
differing from
activities permitted by
the South Florida Water
Management District.”
But until the letter
received Monday by the
city, communications by
the EPA have been routed
through the DEP, which
is essentially a
subordinate organization
of the federal agency.
DEP Ombudsman Eli
Fleishauer said his
agency is uninvolved in
the most recent EPA
communication.
Harris-Young said
last week that the EPA
has initiated an open
investigation involving
the dewatering
activities, but she
could not give any
details while the
investigation is under
way.
Nothing has changed
in the last week,
though, to prompt the
letter, Harris-Young
said.
“The letter is
basically to gather
information,” she said.
“It is an open
investigation, so I
cannot comment any
further.”
In addition to water
samples and tests
already conducted by the
city, the EPA’s Dec. 14
letter requests
information on “what
actions the city has
taken to minimize the
impact to waters of the
U.S. from the
discharges.”
The city is even
being asked to detail
the time and date each
groundwater discharge
started and ended,
provide maps of the
activities, list where
the water was pumped to,
how much was pumped and
the purpose of each
discharge.
While the city has
maintained that this
information was
consistently shared with
the Department of
Environmental Protection
throughout the last two
years when the
dewatering process was
used, the EPA is going
so far as to request
“(c)opies any of reports
or notifications sent to
the Florida Department
of Environmental
Protection, including
emails.”
City Public Works
Director Rony Joel said
the city had asked its
attorney in the matter
to review the letter and
contact the EPA for
clarification. Attorney
Kevin Hennessy, of the
Bradenton-based firm
Lewis, Longman & Walker,
has said he has been in
contact with an EPA
attorney throughout the
process.
Hennessy did not
return phone calls
Tuesday in time for
deadline.
“We had anticipated
it because we knew it
was coming,” Joel said.
“We didn’t know the
specificity that it
covered.”
Joel said the city is
seeking clarification on
the time period covered
by the EPA’s request.
“We don’t understand
how far back they want
to go,” he said. “Do
they want to go back the
last 10 years, one year?
Is it specifically
related to the STRP?”
Though sewer
construction has been
under way for two years,
In the meantime, the
city is still dewatering
from one site, on
Seagrape Avenue, where
the groundwater is being
fed into the sewer force
main. DEP officials and
the city have been in
regular contact about
the dewatering under way
now by the city, which
officials say needs to
be undertaken in order
not to cause substantial
delays to sewer
construction.
California citrus growers
sue Florida over quarantine
By
AARON C. DAVIS
Associated Press Writer
|
SACRAMENTO
(AP) -- For decades, the
little black fungus has been
a pest so common and minor
that California citrus
farmers say they nearly
forgot about it.
So they
were taken by surprise
earlier this month when it
prompted Florida to begin
quarantining truckloads of
oranges. The move has
threatened to cut off one of
California's most lucrative
domestic markets for
oranges, lemons and
grapefruits and prompted a
lawsuit by the California
citrus industry.
"We've
stopped shipping to Florida.
It's hurting," said Joel
Nelson, president of the
California Citrus Mutual, a
nonprofit representing
farmers who grow 200,000
acres of citrus. "The cruise
lines are crying, the retail
stores are crying, the
trucking companies are
crying. This affects a lot
of people, all along the
line."
California
exports about $75 million
worth of citrus to Florida
each year.
Growers
and agricultural officials
faced off in state court in
Tallahassee on Tuesday
battling over the validity
of the quarantine, with a
decision by the judge
expected as soon as
Wednesday.
The fight
is unusual territory for the
nation's two citrus titans.
The
relationship between the
Florida and California
industries has usually been
a cordial one, in large part
because their markets are
different. Most of Florida's
crop is crushed for juice,
while most of California's
is sold as whole fruit.
But on
Dec. 7, Florida officials
declared a quarantine on
California citrus, idling
hundreds of tractor trailers
a week that normally are
bound for the Sunshine
State.
At issue
is Septoria citri, a common
fungus the U.S. Department
of Agriculture has
classified as a disease of
"minor significance" to
citrus crops. Under the
quarantine, every container
of California citrus must be
inspected for Septoria citri
spots, treated with a
fungicide and stamped with a
certificate authorized by
the state.
Steve
Lyle, spokesman for the
California Department of
Food and Agriculture, said
he does not believe any
California grower has yet
been certified to meet
Florida's stringent new
requirements. Growers say
they will not be able to
fully meet the requirements
before the end of the
season.
California
growers are convinced the
quarantine is retaliation
for federal rules that have
banned Florida orange
exports to California, Texas
and other citrus-growing
states. Those rules are an
attempt to prevent the
spread of the more
infectious citrus canker
disease.
To meet
the Septoria citri
requirements, California
growers and shippers say
they will have to radically
change the way they package
and haul California citrus
to Florida and elsewhere.
Rarely
does one tractor trailer
deliver to just one state.
To meet the new
requirements, growers will
have to tailor shipments to
Florida and document them, a
process that will cost more,
require more trips and drive
up prices, growers say.
Florida
officials dispute that the
quarantine is malicious or
retaliatory.
Rather,
state regulators say they
have simply decided that
enough is enough and that
they will do anything
necessary to protect Florida
growers who have been forced
to destroy entire groves to
deal with citrus canker,
greening disease and leaf
miner.
Septoria
citri, which is not found in
Florida, could scar more of
the state's harvest, Florida
officials say.
The
disease first appears as
small, pitted lesions and
ultimately can cause
premature fruit drop. Under
a microscope, the fungus has
dark spores that appear
hairy.
South
Korea began requiring
inspections of citrus from
two California counties for
Septoria citri four years
ago. The U.S. and South
Korea remain embroiled in a
trade dispute over the
inspections.
"They say
(citri's) been in California
for years, so why do we need
to do this now? Well,
frankly, we were not aware
of how much it was in
California and our job is
protect our growers. We just
don't need another disease
in this state right now,"
said Liz Compton,
spokeswoman for the Florida
Department of Agriculture
and Consumer Services.
"To be
clear, we're not saying we
don't want (the fruit).
We're just saying we don't
want the disease."
California
growers - led by the citrus
nonprofit and Sunkist
Growers - have sued the
state. They claim the ban on
California imports amounts
to violations of interstate
commerce and unjustifiably
discriminates against
California products. There
were just two documented
cases of the fungus in
California last year,
according to the lawsuit.
"This
action is not to protect the
health and safety of the
Florida citrus industry, but
is an improper burden upon
interstate commerce that
protects the Florida fresh
industry at the expense of
the California fresh
industry," according to the
lawsuit.
California
growers ship about 7,000
tractor trailers full of
citrus to Florida annually.
Florida
imports oranges from
California because 90
percent of its commercial
orange production is crushed
to make fresh orange juice.
Only about 21 percent of
California oranges are used
to produce juice.
The citrus
industries in California and
Florida are mirror images in
size, about $1.1 billion in
annual sales each, according
to the lawsuit.
California
is seeking an emergency
injunction to lift the
quarantine. After an all-day
hearing Tuesday, 2nd
Judicial Circuit Court Judge
William L. Gary said he
would rule on the case
Wednesday, Compton said.
California
growers flew an entourage of
citrus industry executives
and experts to Florida to
testify.
Among
other evidence, they
submitted letters showing
Florida asked the U.S.
Department of Agriculture if
it has entry requirements
for citrus from other areas
of the world where Septoria
citri is present. Federal
regulators responded that
they do not because imports
do not usually contain the
disease. The reason:
Infected fruit already has
dropped prematurely from the
trees.
"The
ironic part is they still
need citrus," said Nelson,
of the California Citrus
Mutual. "If they're
successful in their
quarantine against us,
they'll have to import from
Spain, Australia and other
places that also have" the
disease.
|
County plans to
host summit on mining's impact on ag
land
By HECTOR FLORIN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
WEST PALM BEACH — Faced with what they
say are crucial questions about the
impact rock mining will have in the
county's vast agricultural land, county
commissioners on Tuesday decided to host
a summit in two months to help get
answers.
Commissioners want federal, state and
county officials to sit at a table with
environmental groups and mining
companies to see how blasting rock will
affect water quality and still-unplanned
Everglades restoration projects in the
agricultural area.
But some commissioners warned that a
movement is afoot in the legislature to
take rock mining decisions away from the
counties and turn it over to the state,
as state Department of Transportation
officials have said rock for roads is
badly needed throughout Florida.
Residents and organizations expressed
their concerns about the environmental
effects of digging holes in the
Everglades Agricultural Area. But aside
from one Florida Rock Industries
employee who said the rock coming from
county land proved viable for road
building, lobbyists and representatives
for the mining industry did not speak
publicly at the meeting.
Rinker Materials has a pending
application with the county to mine
about 3,000 acres over a period of 36
years that is scheduled for a county
commission vote on Jan. 3. That proposal
will still come forward despite plans
for the summit, Deputy County
Administrator Verdenia Baker said.
Tuesday's discussions dealt mainly with
what's not known about mining in the
Everglades Agricultural Area, and how
answers could be found.
What is the geology of the area? What
kind of testing should take place to
determine if mining could affect water
quality? Would mining negate any
potential Everglades restoration
projects in the area?
And, of course, how long would it take
to find out these answers?
"Some issues will exist six months from
now, a year from now," County
Administrator Bob Weisman said. "I don't
think that we can afford to do the work
that's being spoken about" and get all
the information in a short amount of
time.
But gathering more information is
necessary, Commissioner Burt Aaronson
said. "We don't know what's under the
ground," he said. "I want to have clean
and fresh drinking water."
A state strategic aggregates review task
force is scheduled to submit a report by
Feb. 1, and Commissioner Jeff Koons, who
sits on the task force, said "they might
take this mining stuff way out of" local
hands.
Commissioner Karen Marcus said a locally
held summit, which would include state
legislators, would give the county a key
forum to voice concerns.
Dry Times
By
Douglas Carman of Highlands
Today
Published:
December 19, 2007
SEBRING — Charles Vealey's boat
sat in his garage for two years. He
and his fishing buddy, Aaron Seward,
used to take the boat out to Lake
Jackson or Istokpoga, sometimes
going elsewhere in the state to
catch some bass.
Vealey said he couldn't put his
boat in those lakes anymore, and he
had better uses for the garage space
the boat was taking up.
"I don't want it stored in the
garage if the lake's so low," said
Vealey as he cleaned out his boat
Tuesday. He just sold it and was
about to deliver it to someone.
Highlands County continues to
have less than average rainfalls,
causing most of the lakes to dip up
to several feet below where they
should be. Erin McCarta, the
county's assistant lakes manager,
said this is beginning to interfere
with the public boat ramps at lakes
Tulane and Jackson.
Ecologically, the lowering lake
levels are not a major concern yet,
McCarta said, even though "they're
suffering a little bit."
But if a boater has one sitting
in any of the lakes right now, she
warned that they may have trouble
getting them out in the near future,
as the lakes are expected to decline
further through the winter.
"It wouldn't be a bad idea to pull
it out," she said.
Of course, some of the homeowners
are already seeing nothing but sand
under their docks, and that has been
the case for a year.
Judy Brooks, who owns one of
those boat docks, remembered when
she had to mow the grass in front of
her dock back in 2000. That's
"front," as in beyond the end of the
dock. She's wondering if it's going
to get that low again.
Meanwhile, she and her husband
have not had the chance to use the
boat since they returned to Sebring
from Kentucky last month. She said
some of the parties she and her
neighbors had on the lake were
affected because they couldn't
launch their boats.
"It's a shame that the water
level is so low," the 11-year
seasonal resident said. "My
husband's in the lake practically
every year."
Well Owners Face Low Water Tables
As the lakes are down, so are the
aquifers.
The latest data from the
Southwest Florida Water Management
District showed that the water table
for the southern part of the
district, which includes the western
part of Highlands County, is already
1.5 feet below where it should
normally be.
And with the water tables staying
low, James Lewis, of Lewis Well
Drilling in Lake Placid, said he's
having to install well packers for
several residential wells to keep
them working.
Owners of the smaller irrigation
wells, which pump about twice as
much water as the residential
counterparts, might have to dig
4-inch wells if the water tables
continue to drop, he said.
Plan to
spur growth in Nokomis OK'd
SARASOTA COUNTY -- Taller
buildings, denser
development and a signature
"Old Florida" architectural
style could soon be the
standard for Nokomis after
the County Commission on
Tuesday tentatively approved
the community's
revitalization plan.
The plan is intended to
stimulate development and
tourism in Nokomis, a
community with few
businesses besides a handful
of strip malls, restaurants
and gas stations.
To entice developers, the
county is poised to increase
building height limits to 45
feet from 35 feet along the
U.S. 41 business corridor
and Colonia Lane.
Meanwhile, the adjacent city
of Venice is going in the
opposite direction,
proposing that building
heights be limited to 35
feet.
The city is considering a
moratorium on taller
buildings retroactive to
Nov. 27, when the City
Council first discussed the
limit.
Any new proposals for
buildings over 35 feet would
not be considered.
"We're looking at putting it
in place for one year or
until the council adopts a
new comprehensive plan,"
City Manager Marty Black
said.
The taller buildings in
unincorporated Nokomis would
have to be constructed in a
"more decorative Old Florida
Key West" design theme with
metal roofs and other
special features.
Development likely would be
denser too, with up to 25
residential units instead of
13, if the developer makes
the first floor commercial.
The county has been working
on a revitalization plan for
Nokomis since July 2005, a
process Commission
Chairwoman Nora Patterson
described as "long and
checkered."
"I think we're there,"
Patterson said.
The new rules must be
finalized at a public
meeting on Feb. 13, but
commissioners agreed on
everything except the
increased density.
Nokomis residents who
created the plan described
Tuesday as a "historic day"
for the community.
"This really sets the tone
for future development,"
said Bruce Dillon, chairman
of the Nokomis
Revitalization Committee.
John Ask, chairman of the
Nokomis Civic Association,
said the changes will make
Nokomis a more desirable
place to live.
"We're really short on
restaurants and commercial
development," Ask said.
"These new standards provide
a little sizzle."
The standards also are
expected to increase
tourist-related development.
Prominent South County
developer Henry Rodriguez
attended Tuesday's meeting
to back the revitalization
plan.
Rodriguez wants to build two
hotels on Albee Road and
U.S. 41. The new rules would
allow him to put kitchens in
the hotel rooms.
"The market is going to
suites with kitchens, so
this was very important for
us," Rodriguez said.
He estimated that
groundbreaking would take
place next summer.
The Key West style also will
make Nokomis a more
attractive destination
community, Rodriguez said.
Other new standards include
more vegetative buffering
and increased building
setbacks.
The new rules primarily
apply to properties fronting
U.S. 41 from just south of
Laurel Road to the Venice
city limits and along a
portion of Colonia Lane.
Ask and Dillon initially had
proposed 65-foot building
heights for those roads, but
the commission decided that
height was not always
compatible with nearby
residential development. It
will be allowed only by
special exception.
The Nokomis revitalization
plan coincides with the
completion of major
taxpayer-funded efforts to
improve the community,
including the widening of
U.S. 41 to six lanes, and
the widening of Colonia Lane
and beautification with
decorative street lights and
brick street pavers.
Staff writer Kim Hackett
contributed to this report.
Polk County to
discuss supporting Kissimmee
River task force
Conservation groups
want the state to study the
Kissimmee River before
allowing more building.
Amy L. Edwards
Sentinel Staff Writer
December 16, 2007
Polk County commissioners
could join about a
half-dozen conservation
groups in asking Gov.
Charlie Crist to form a task
force to study the Kissimmee
River watershed.
Conservation groups
including The Nature
Conservancy, Defenders of
Wildlife and the Everglades
Foundation want the
Kissimmee River watershed
studied before more homes,
roads and buildings are
constructed in the area.
In a letter sent to the
governor last month, the
groups said the task force
should address key issues
including protecting water
resources and conservation
land.
They want the task force
modeled after one created by
Gov. Jeb Bush to study
development in the Wekiva
River basin.
The groups said that the
Kissimmee Chain of Lakes
watershed, which is part of
the greater Everglades
ecosystem, "is experiencing
some of the most intense
development pressure in the
state of Florida."
Development that was
previously contained within
Orlando, Kissimmee and St.
Cloud metropolitan areas, as
well as the U.S. Highway 27
corridor in Polk County, is
expanding onto agricultural
lands in the watershed.
The groups told the governor
there are 32 major
developments in the
Kissimmee Chain of Lakes
watershed that are at some
point in the approval
process.
In Polk County, a developer
wants to build more than
5,000 homes and a golf
course on thousands of acres
next to a state preserve
near Lake Hatchineha. There
are also proposals for roads
to be built in the area,
which the groups said would
open the region for more
development.
"We believe that time is of
the essence regarding the
growth pressures impacting
this crucial area," the
letter said.
In addition to the
conservation groups, Avatar
Holdings, the developer of
Poinciana, has agreed to
support the high-level task
force.
The South Florida company
recently sent a letter to
Tallahassee stating its
support of a gubernatorial
coalition of public leaders
and landowners that would
plan the future of the
Kissimmee Chain of Lakes
watershed.
Not everyone supports the
idea.
Osceola County officials say
they do not want a state
task force because they say
Osceola is committed to its
own planning process.
Conservation groups,
however, say the issues
extend beyond Osceola
County.
Polk County staff members
are scheduled to recommend
that the commission approve
a letter of support for the
task force.
The commission will vote on
the matter when it meets
Wednesday in Bartow.
Daphne Sashin of the
Sentinel staff contributed
to this report. Amy L.
Edwards can be reached at
aledwards@orlandosentinel.com
or 407-931-5946.
Mascotte delays plan to
become bigger city
Robert
Sargent
Sentinel Staff Writer
December 19, 2007
MASCOTTE
The city has agreed to delay
a proposed annexation of
nearly 3 square miles of
land while opponents argue
that part of it goes against
Florida's statutes.
The City Council was
scheduled Monday night to
consider the massive
expansion, which would
nearly join Mascotte's north
side with the city limits of
Leesburg. The deal would
incorporate huge sections of
rural landscape that
Mascotte later might rezone
for future development.
The Citizens Coalition of
Lake County -- a
fast-growing watchdog group
of local residents -- argues
that a large portion of the
annexation would create a
587-acre enclave with a
portion of the county
surrounded by city property.
State statutes direct cities
not to create enclaves when
annexing property.
But representatives for the
landowners say their
annexation will not create
an enclave because of a
small roadway and a
100-foot-wide sliver of land
that will remain outside of
Mascotte and prevent the
city from completely
surrounding that large area
of the county.
Coalition President Rob
Kelly said that the 100-foot
connector does not
adequately qualify the
annexation.
"By cutting out 100 feet and
trying to say that is not a
valid enclave is gaming the
system. It's not good
planning," he added.
City officials will consider
the annexation again in
February. But until then
City Manager Marge
Strausbaugh said Mascotte
will try to determine
whether more needs to be
done to further conform with
state law.
That may require even more
land to be omitted from the
proposed annexation area.
"We might have to shave part
of it off," Strausbaugh
explained.
City Council member Barbara
Tillman said she has
questions about the disputed
enclave and how the proposed
annexation area may be used
in the future.
"Do they have any specific
use for it?" she asked.
Currently, representatives
for the landowners are
asking only for inclusion in
Mascotte, although they are
expected to later ask for a
change to allow more
development -- possibly
homes.
LPG Urban & Regional
Planners is overseeing three
different land-annexation
requests totaling 1,800
acres. But Monday night the
company asked Mascotte's
City Council to delay a
decision because land-use
attorney Steve Richey could
not attend the meeting. The
city now is scheduled to
have the first of two
annexation votes Feb. 4.
The enclave dispute focuses
on 1,327 acres owned by
Orlando-based Maury L.
Carter & Associates off of
County Road 33 to the east
and Austin Merritt Road to
the north. LPG owner Greg
Beliveau said the site
currently can have up to one
home per 5 acres, but if
annexed Carter might later
request zoning for up to one
home for every acre.
Tuscanooga Investment Co.
wants to annex a separate
285-acre tract along
Tuscanooga Road west of
Mascotte. The Florida State
Baptist Missionary
Foundation Inc. also is
asking the city to annex 265
acres east of C.R. 33.
Strausbaugh said that
property -- a Baptist youth
camp -- could help to bring
Mascotte closer to an
additional 433 acres of land
that Mascotte could annex
later.
Robert Sargent can be
reached at
rsargent@orlandosentinel.com
or 352-742-5909.
County beefs up protection
of old trees
SARASOTA COUNTY -- Tall,
thick, and shady, the
moss-laden branches of
older live oak trees are
a symbol of Old Florida
beauty.
So while Sarasota County
is poised to spend
record amounts on new
trees in the coming
years, on Tuesday the
County Commission
recognized that older
trees are important,
too, and voted to beef
up a tree protection
ordinance.
The new rules require
developers to plant more
trees and protect
existing trees on their
properties. They also
make it more difficult
for homeowners to cut
down trees.
The goal is to expand
Sarasota County's tree
canopy and bring it in
line with federal
standards for urban
forests. Urban trees
reduce energy use by
shading buildings and
provide other community
benefits.
"We're trying to
maximize and replenish
the tree canopy to the
greatest extent
possible," said Matt
Osterhoudt, a resource
protection manager for
the county.
Some of the new policies
include:
 Greater
protection for trees on
lots of five acres or
less. On such
properties, homeowners
could clear trees if
they were within 250
feet of a house. Now the
tree must be within 150
feet.
 Greater
protection for trees on
construction sites.
Contractors must now
erect barriers around
trees out to the edge of
their canopy to protect
them during
construction.
 A
wider definition of
"grand trees." Such
large trees are afforded
increased protection,
and more trees now will
qualify as grand trees.
 Increased
survival requirements
for planted trees.
Anyone required to plant
a tree must prove it is
alive for seven years,
not two years as in the
past.
 Increased
numbers of trees
required to be planted
in every development,
from large subdivisions
to single family homes.
The county began
rewriting the tree
protection ordinance
earlier this year. Many
of the changes were
initiated by people like
Wells Purmort, vice
chairman of the Sarasota
Tree Advisory Council.
Purmort came to
Tuesday's meeting
wearing green and
demanding even greater
protection for trees.
Overall he said he is
happy with the new
ordinance.
"Trees have so many
benefits and this allows
the county greater
latitude in protecting
them," Purmort said.
Two protection measures
did not make it into the
new ordinance despite
the tree council's
unanimous
recommendation.
They involve adding a
"majestic tree"
classification that
increases protection for
trees slightly smaller
than grand trees and
ending the practice of
exempting government
road and utility
projects from protecting
trees.
In both cases
commissioners worried
that the rules would be
too costly or
restrictive.
"I want to tread a
little lightly on
people's use of their
yards," said Commission
Chairwoman Nora
Patterson.
However, Patterson and
the other commissioners
agreed to consider
adding the additional
rules at a later date.
The new ordinance comes
just a month after
Sarasota voters approved
historic spending levels
for tree planting. Using
money from the penny
sales tax, the county
will plant $521,000
worth of trees in 2010
and increase spending
every year until it
reaches $812,000 in 2024
Land Vs. Cash
By
Bill Rettew Jr. of
Highlands Today
Published: December 19,
2007
LAKE PLACID — Should
the town take the money
and run or is land
better?
At last week's meeting,
town attorney Bert
Harris III asked the
town council to consider
whether impact fees
negotiated with builders
should be extracted in
cash or land.
During typical
negotiations during the
development process with
a prospective builder,
municipalities often
assess impact fees.
Builders often "pay"
for those impact fees
with cash for public
projects, including
traffic improvements,
such as installation of
a red light or widening
of an affected roadway.
Other times a builder
will "donate," or set
aside, acreage for an
ambulance station,
police station,
elementary school or
parks and recreation
areas.
Several large
residential developments
are being planned for
properties within and
outside the town's
borders. Development of
the Grigsby property
might add more than 900
new homes, with separate
plans to construct up to
4,600 homes for a
recently proposed
development, just the
north of town limits.
Arleen Tuck, town
clerk, favored taking
land rather than money,
when collecting impact
fees. She noted that
land prices have likely
doubled since acreage
for much of the 50-acre
Lake June Park was
purchased.
"We'd rather have the
land," said Tuck. "Take
the land. It's more
valuable and there's no
telling what (earlier
land purchases) would be
worth now."
Councilman Bill
Brantley said the town
should be careful not to
become "land-locked"
when considering
purchase of additional
areas for recreational
use adjacent to Lake
June Park.
"We'll never get the
land once it's
developed," said
Brantley. "If the
builder is willing to
sell, we should buy."
Purchases of 20 to 30
acres at other sites are
not as valuable as four
or five acre purchases,
by the township,
adjacent to the existing
park, according to
Brantley.
Mayor Tom Katsanis
favored taking land from
developers when
warranted, but said he
expects no "quick
development" or growth
higher than the current
3 percent per year.
"Land keeps going up
and will never be as
cheap," said Katsanis.
"The ideal thing is to
get land now, even if it
takes 10 years to
develop, and you'll have
the land."
Councilwoman Debra
Worley is a real estate
broker.
"You have to look at
the total picture," said
Worley. "You have to
consider whether to take
cash for the town and
that the land won't be
appraised higher and
become more expensive in
the future.
"The best answer: we're
planning – just like a
master plan. It takes a
lot of guesswork."
Worley noted that the
four major area
developments of Leisure
Lakes, Highlands Park
Estates, Sun 'n Lakes
and Placid Lakes public
uses were not planned –
or were "after
thoughts."
"We have to prepare
for all the development
and the schools," said
Worley. "You just have
to be careful ...
especially when children
are in the mix. It's a
little bit different
from roads."
C.B. Shirey, Avon
Park city manager, said
no mega-developers have
yet approached the city,
though Sebring
Councilman Jeff Carlson
talked about working
with builders.
"We have no set
policy, but we've
negotiated development
agreements," said
Carlson. "It's deal
specific."
|
Commission
deadlocks in vote on homes west of
Lantana
By HECTOR FLORIN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
WEST PALM BEACH — No one ever says
county business is an easy thing, and a
deadlocked county commission vote on
Tuesday is an example.
The series of events started last year:
Palm Beach County commissioners twice
defied the county planning division's
recommendation by allowing more homes on
26 acres southwest of Lantana Road and
State Road 7 than permitted under
current land use rules.
County planners then found themselves in
the unusual predicament of defending the
commission's vote to the state's
Department of Community Affairs - which
in turn ruled the comprehensive plan
amendment exceeded growth standards.
After a year of negotiations between the
state, county and property owner Lantana
Farm Associates, which proposed plans to
increase density on the land from two to
26 units, the sides agreed to prepare a
settlement agreement approving the
increase.
Commissioners last month voted 4-1 to
reject the settlement, yet county
attorneys said the vote needed to be
revisited because the property owner and
its representatives weren't properly
notified of the vote.
On the revisited vote Tuesday,
commissioners deadlocked 3-3, with Jeff
Koons absent, resulting in a
postponement on the settlement until
Jan. 15.
All the while, growth watchdog group
1000 Friends of Florida and
environmental activist Rosa Durando have
been challenging the amendment, saying
it is an example of urban sprawl and
there is no justification to move the
property into the county's urban service
boundary.
"This has no need for existence. Your
own staff came down on it," Durando
said, fearing this amendment was a
"backdoor entryway" to more development
in the area.
Commissioner Jess Santamaria agreed. "My
problem is there will be more
applications that will follow this one,"
he said.
State planners had an issue with the
expansion of the urban service boundary,
which allows for water and sewer pipe
connections, into the property. The
county then agreed to expand the
boundary to include two parcels to the
east to square off the boundary, and the
state agreed to that change.
"It seems odd to me that you took
something that you objected to and made
it bigger," Commissioner Karen Marcus
told county staff.
Commissioners Burt Aaronson, Addie
Greene and Mary McCarty supported the
settlement, while Santamaria, Marcus and
Bob Kanjian opposed it. Even if
commissioners support the settlement on
Jan. 15, the challenge by Durando and
1000 Friends of Florida will continue
and is scheduled to be heard before an
administrative law judge.
Marina,
county set to rework rights deal
By JENNIFER
SORENTRUE
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
WEST PALM BEACH — The marina where
former Palm Beach County Commissioner
Warren Newell kept his boat won't be
forced to return $14 million the county
paid its owners to keep most of the
boatyard from becoming condos.
Instead, commissioners want WMJB Marine
Inc., owner of the Palm Beach Yacht
Center, to give up its development
rights on an additional 1.5 acres of
land at the marina - a site where
townhomes have been proposed.
And at least one commissioner is pushing
for marina owners to be required to
provide more public access to the water.
Nearly two years ago, the commission
agreed to give the marina $14'million of
a $50 million voter-approved bond issue
to keep working waterfronts from being
developed. Newell strongly backed the
pact.
But the county began questioning the
deal earlier this year, after criminal
charges filed against Newell showed that
he never disclosed that he docked his
boat at the yacht center at a reduced
dockage rate. The charges also showed
that Newell was involved in two bank
ventures with a marina co-owner and
helped falsify an invoice to hide the
$48,000 he owned in dockage fees.
Opponents of the agreement have argued
that the county overpaid for the
development rights on the original 8.2
acre site along the Intracoastal
Waterway in Hypoluxo. At the time, a
county appraisal valued the land at $9.3
million. The yacht center held out for
$14 million.
In hopes of settling the dispute, the
marina's owners offered to give the
county their development rights on a
second 1.5-acre site for no additional
cost. County officials value the offer
at $20.6 million.
"I think this will cure the issue,"
Commissioner Karen Marcus said. "It's
not the purchase of property, it is the
donation. There is not going to be any
more money spent."
Commissioners voted 6-0 to begin
negotiating an agreement with the yacht
center that would keep the additional
land from being developed.
The yacht center is the only working
waterfront in the southern part of the
county. If it were to be developed,
south county boat owners would have to
go to Riviera Beach to have their
vessels serviced.
"Our members depend on facilities like
this to get to the waterfront," said Tom
Twyford, executive director of the West
Palm Beach Fishing Club. "When we lose a
facility like this, it is gone forever
and there is no opportunity to replace
it."
Commissioner Bob Kanjian said he was
concerned that the original deal did not
provide all county residents with access
to the water and the marina. It helped
only those who pay to use the marina,
because there is not a public boat ramp
or any other public facilities there, he
said.
"I think it would not have happened this
way but for the criminal acts that were
committed," Kanjian said. "I think it is
important for us now to reform this
deal."
Kanjian said he
wanted county officials to try to
renegotiate parts of the original
agreement so that it will give the
public more opportunities to use the
marina.
"In essence $14 million changed hands
and zero else happened," Kanjian said.
Commissioner Burt Aaronson said he was
not aware that the marina did not have a
public boat ramp or any other public
facilities.
Inquiry into
building materials gifts to inspectors
Goal is to
learn extent of practice allegedly
involving building inspectors
MANATEE COUNTY -- County officials
expect to quickly wrap up their
investigation into claims that
building inspectors routinely accept
gifts and take construction
materials from job sites.
Once the investigation is completed,
possibly by the first week of
January, they should have a good
idea if the practice is as
widespread as recently claimed, said
assistant county attorney Robert
Eschenfelder.
Former building inspector Michael
Todoroff and his wife, Nancy, also a
Manatee Building Department
employee, were fired in June after a
sheriff's deputy found the pair with
new siding they had taken from the
Mariner Cove condominiums on Cortez
Road, reports show.
Nancy Todoroff was hired by the
Building Department in February
2003; Michael Todoroff was hired in
November 2003.
Current department inspector John
Darley defended the Todoroffs by
submitting an affidavit claiming
that it was "commonplace" for
Building Department employees to do
so.
County personnel documents released
Tuesday detail the circumstances of
the couple's visit to the site in
the early morning hours of April 29.
Written reports explaining their
firings challenge Todoroff's claims
that he had permission to take the
construction materials.
They also reveal that then-Building
Director Jim Lee had no tolerance
for such activity. In the report,
Lee wrote that Todoroff "has
tarnished the reputation of fellow
inspectors and the Manatee County
Building Department, and thus
deserved termination."
Lee, currently the planning director
for the city of Palatka, could not
be reached for comment.
Todoroff told county officials he
used a gate code a co-worker had
given him to enter the site and take
30 pieces of siding, which he cut to
fit on his truck.
A man approached Todoroff after he
had loaded the materials and asked
him what he was doing on condominium
association property, the county
report states.
Todoroff said he identified himself
as a building inspector and said he
had permission from Kesselring
Construction to take some siding.
Eventually a condo resident called
the Sheriff's Office to report the
incident.
The next stage of the construction
project was the installation of
siding, county officials said. The
construction owner and the site
foreman told the building department
they did not give Todoroff
permission to take any materials.
Theft and trespassing charges were
filed against Michael Todoroff but
were dropped Monday for lack of
evidence.
The case is the first such arrest of
a building inspector anyone can
remember and was the impetus for the
internal county investigation,
Eschenfelder said.
"Though it is likely when the
investigation is done others will
also be terminated if the
allegations are proven true,"
Eschenfelder said Tuesday in an
e-mail to the Herald-Tribune.
A Building Department ethics policy
distributed to employees in August
forbids employees from seeking or
accepting gifts from builders or
contractors.
It also requires employees to notify
their superiors if they are aware of
such activity.
Frank Herold, a partner in Williams
and Herold Communities, said it is
not common practice to discard
surplus materials when a project is
complete.
"If you have anything significant,
you might restock it or save it,"
Herold said. "If it's waste, you put
it in a Dumpster."
Water plant top priority
for next session
By JENNIFER SORENTRUE
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
WEST PALM BEACH —
Money for a regional water treatment
plant in the Glades will be the county's
top priority during next year's
legislative session, Palm Beach County
commissioners agreed Tuesday.
The county will ask state legislators
for $3.5 million next year for the
reverse osmosis water plant, which would
replace three plants owned by Belle
Glade, Pahokee and South Bay.
The county still needs $17.6 million to
pay for the $58 million project.
Also topping the list of 44 priorities
the county's lobbying team will push
state legislators for next year is
reducing the number of unfunded mandates
passed down to local governments by
state officials.
Other priorities include: $7.3 million
for beach restoration, reducing the cost
of providing trauma care for non-county
residents, using traffic cameras to
catch red light runners, and coverage
for autistic children.
It's the first year the county will ask
the state to require private insurance
companies to cover essential autism
treatment for children. Those treatments
are covered by Medicaid and the
Department of Children and Families, but
are only available to those who file
bankruptcy or are indigent.
Commissioner Bob Kanjian, whose son is
autistic, asked that the item be added
to the county's list.
"Unlike things like childhood diabetes
that are fully covered, for some reason
we do not cover autism," Kanjian said.
"It's about making sure the kids have a
good life and giving them an opportunity
to be good
|
Weeki Wachee Owner
Offers Attraction To State
By BILL KACZOR, The
Associated Press
Published: December
19, 2007
TALLAHASSEE - Florida could have
mermaids on the payroll under a
tentative plan to turn Weeki Wachee
Springs into a state park, although
Hernando County officials are also
interested in taking over the troubled
attraction.
Florida Department of Environmental
Protection Secretary Michael Sole on
Tuesday told Gov. Charlie Crist and the
Florida Cabinet the attraction's owners
signed a letter of intent to donate it
to the state.
"Can we keep the mermaids?" Crist
said.
Sole told him they would become state
employees, but he added, "We'll need to
create a new position title."
Unless that's done, they would
probably be classified as park rangers,
department spokeswoman Sarah Williams
said.
Weeki Wachee Springs opened 60 years
ago about 50 miles north of Tampa,
making it one of Florida's oldest
tourist attractions. Known as much for
the performing mermaids as its natural
beauty, it is enmeshed in a legal
dispute that has threatened its
continued operation.
"It's one of the great natural
wonders of Florida," said Attorney
General Bill McCollum, a Cabinet member.
"But it's not been managed particularly
the way we'd like it in the last few
years."
The deal hinges on further
negotiations with Weeki Wachee Springs
LLC, which operates the attraction, and
the Southwest Florida Water Management
District, which owns the property.
The proposed state takeover would
settle lawsuits the company and district
have filed against each other, both
alleging contract violations.
"There is no definitive agreement,"
Weeki Wachee spokesman John Athanason
said. "We can back out of this letter at
any time."
Weeki Wachee officials also want to
see what Hernando County proposes,
Athanason said. He said the attraction
owes a debt of gratitude to local
residents for help in rescuing it.
"We want to do what's right for this
attraction and what's right for the
citizens of Hernando County," Athanason
said.
The attraction fell into disrepair
under a previous owner and was donated
the tiny city of Weeki Wachee in 2003.
The city, which has only nine residents,
then formed Weeki Wachee LLC to run it.
There are about 50 full-time
employees, and about 150 seasonal
workers are hired from March through
September when the attraction's water
park is open, Athanason said. He said
about $1 million in repairs, including
donated material, have been completed
since the city took over the facility.
The state's letter of intent signed
by Weeki Wachee Mayor Robyn Anderson, a
former mermaid, says the department
would seek funding from the Legislature
to operate at current staffing and
salary levels, but there's no guarantee
that lawmakers will provide the
necessary money.
It does, though, promise at least
four key employees, including Anderson
and Athanason, "will be retained as
close to their current annual
compensation as possible."
|
Getting
mixed messages about water supply
S arasota Herald-Tribune letter to the editor
12-18-2007
For the record, let me get this straight. The South
Florida Water Management District has imposed the
region's tightest water restrictions, limiting
watering to once a week, from Orlando south to the
Keys, according to a Herald-Tribune news brief
printed Friday. Our own Southwest Florida Water
Management District has already imposed that
restriction and is considering stricter rules.
Kitson & Partners has proposed building 19,500 homes
in
Babcock Ranch in Charlotte County. The proposed
19,500 homes, built over three decades, "will be
twice the size of Punta Gorda and larger than the
7,000-home Thomas Ranch in North Port and the
roughly 18,000 homes currently approved for Lakewood
Ranch," again according to information published
Friday in the Herald-Tribune.
There is barely enough water for me to irrigate my
yard, but there is enough water to build all these
homes in the future that will strain the resources
of Charlotte and Lee counties? I must be missing
something.
David Doweiko
North Port
charter amendment proposal
Commission
Rejects Plan to Curb Growth
By
Tom Palmer
The Ledger
Write an email to Tom Palmer
BARTOW | County commissioners Monday rebuffed local
planning activist John Ryan's suggestion that they work
together to pass a charter amendment that would put
limits on new residential development in Polk County.
Ryan said afterward he will launch a petition drive to
get the issue before Polk's voters.
"I had hoped to work with the county, but we'll go a
different way," he said. "We'll go out and get the
signatures."
Ryan, a member of the Polk County Planning Commission,
unveiled the proposal in October. It would amend the
county charter to limit residential growth within a
defined urban growth boundary, based on the densities
allowed in city and county growth plans.
If voters approve the proposal, the only way to expand
the county's urban growth boundary would be through
another charter referendum.
Commissioners discussed his proposal Monday after
hearing a staff report from Merle Bishop, the county's
growth management director. The issue will be discussed
again at Wednesday's commission meeting.
Bishop raised a number of issues about the impact of
Ryan's proposal that included:
It would be difficult for city and county planners to
calculate how many residential units are allowed under
the current growth maps.
It would require developers to purchase development
rights from rural areas if they wanted to exceed the
cap.
The restrictions could cause sprawl or increases in
housing costs.
Bishop said that is a different process than has
traditionally existed in Polk County.
"Developers would have to pay for extra density," he
said. "Now you can go to the County Commission and have
them give it to you."
Bishop said one problem with a ballot measure that
refers to urban growth boundaries is that Polk County's
growth maps are out of date and don't reflect
annexations by cities that have expanded urban services
into areas that previously were classified as rural
under the county map.
The other is that if the growth boundaries were expanded
now in anticipation of the charter amendment, it could
encourage urban sprawl, he said.
Bishop said because of the questions and potential
problems, he would prefer to not put the issue on the
ballot and to concentrate instead on the upcoming
periodic evaluation of the local growth plans, which
will be completed by 2009, and to work with the Rural
Land Stewardship Program and Polk Vision.
Although Commissioner Jean Reed didn't dispute Bishop's
recommendation, she asked whether Ryan's proposal would
be preferable to Florida Hometown Democracy, a proposed
amendment to the Florida Constitution that would require
votes on all growth changes. Commissioners and Bishop
oppose the amendment.
She said the proposals reflect the public's frustration
with the growth process.
Commissioner Bob English opposed Ryan's amendment.
"This is going to be another layer of chaos," he said,
and argued it flies in the face of representative
government.
Assistant County Attorney Anne Gibson said there is an
attorney general's opinion that says Ryan can propose
the amendment.
Interim County Attorney Linda McKinley said it would be
up to Ryan to submit the ballot language and to get it
approved, adding the issue will likely end up in court.
"I can't foresee it's going on the ballot without a
legal challenge," she said.
Commission Chairman Sam Johnson said he views Ryan's
proposal as a kind of condemnation of private property,
but Bishop disagreed.
"It doesn't condemn property; it recognizes rights that
this would create," he said.
Commissioner Randy Wilkinson said perhaps it's time to
consider a countywide planning board, but Bishop said
that approach has complications, too, based on the
experience of Hillsborough County, which has had such a
panel since the 1940s.
Nevertheless, Wilkinson said he plans to bring the issue
up at Wednesday's commission meeting.
[ Tom Palmer can be reached at tom.palmer@theledger.com
or 863-802-7535. His blog on county government is at
county.theledger.com. ]
Developer caught between rocks and a horse place
By JASON SCHULTZ
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
STUART — Even though it has already been approved, a
major polo-related housing development in western Martin
County still faces a fight with slow-growth activists.
The developer of the 1,000-acre Lake Point Ranches
project, in Port Mayaca near Lake Okeechobee, wants to
amend his site plan to allow the mining of 2 million
cubic yards of rock.
Martin County commissioners today will take up the
request by Brad Scherer to alter the project, which
consists of 20-acre lots marketed mostly to professional
polo players and horse trainers.
"Rocks and horses don't mix," said Scherer, who is the
son of former U.S. Polo Association Executive Director
Allan Scherer, a key figure in the development of the
Wellington professional polo community.
Commissioners approved Lake Point Ranches, one of three
proposed developments in Martin County banking on
selling 20-acre lots to members of Wellington's polo
community, by a 4-1 vote in May.
But Scherer said that when he went to dig lakes for his
required stormwater retention ponds, he found rock. He
said he can't put it on the horse farms he is selling so
he proposes trucking it off the site to be sold.
But Commissioner Sarah Heard, who voted against the Lake
Point Ranches in May, said she is against allowing a
massive rock mining operation on what is supposed to be
an agricultural development.
"You're talking about 70 acres of rock mining. It would
cause extraordinary environmental damage," said Heard,
who added that all the dump truck traffic from the
mining would also damage roads and cause traffic issues.
Martin County Conservation Alliance Chairwoman Donna
Melzer said she also plans to oppose the changes to
Scherer's project.
"We don't want these gaping holes dug in the county,"
Melzer said. "He's looking at how much money he could
make with the rocks. I don't buy his argument in the
least."
Scherer said he has not contracted with any buyers, but
he'd like to sell the rock to builders or to the state
as base material for road projects or for repairs the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers needs to make to the
Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee.
If the rock ended up going to fix the dike or build
local road projects, Scherer argued, it would actually
decrease truck traffic because the material would not
have be brought in from far away. He added that the
county would get revenue because it charges a fee of 10
cents per truckload on mining operations.
Scherer said mining the rock would not cause
environmental damage.
"The fact that we need to dig some holes should not be a
big deal," Scherer said.
Commissioners approved another polo-related project that
is also near Lake Okeechobee, the Port Mayaca Plantation
development, earlier this year. The third large project,
the Hobe Sound Polo Club, is still in the review process.
Increase Of Corn Fertilizer Expands
Dead Zone In Gulf
By HENRY C. JACKSON, The
Associated Press
Published: December 18, 2007
JEFFERSON, Iowa - Because of rising demand for
ethanol, American farmers are growing more corn than
at any time since World War II. And sea life in the
Gulf of Mexico is paying the price.
The nation's corn crop is fertilized with
millions of pounds of nitrogen-based fertilizer.
When that nitrogen runs off fields in Corn Belt
states, it makes its way to the Mississippi River
and eventually pours into the Gulf, where it
contributes to a growing "dead zone" - a
7,900-square-mile patch so depleted of oxygen that
fish, crabs and shrimp suffocate.
The dead zone was discovered in 1985 and has
grown steadily since then, forcing fishermen to
venture farther and farther out to sea to find their
catch. For decades, fertilizer has been considered
the prime cause of the lifeless spot.
With demand for corn booming, some researchers
fear the dead zone will expand rapidly, with
devastating consequences.
"We might be coming close to a tipping point,"
said Matt Rota, director of the water resources
program for the New Orleans-based Gulf Restoration
Network, an environmental group. "The ecosystem
might change or collapse as opposed to being just
impacted."
Environmentalists had hoped to cut nitrogen
runoff by encouraging farmers to apply less
fertilizer and establish buffers along waterways.
But the demand for the corn-based fuel additive
ethanol has driven up the price for the crop, which
is selling for about $4 per bushel, up from a little
more than $2 in 2002.
That enticed American farmers - mostly in Iowa,
Illinois, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota -
to plant more than 93 million acres of corn in 2007,
the most since 1944. They substituted corn for other
crops, or made use of land not previously in
cultivation.
Corn is more "leaky" than crops such as soybean
and alfalfa - that is, it absorbs less nitrogen per
acre. The prime reasons are the drainage systems
used in corn fields and the timing of when the
fertilizer is applied.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates
that up to 210 million pounds of nitrogen fertilizer
enter the Gulf of Mexico each year. Scientists had
no immediate estimate for 2007, but said they expect
the amount of fertilizer going into streams to
increase with more acres of corn planted.
"Corn agriculture practices release a lot of
nitrogen," said Donald Scavia, a University of
Michigan professor who has studied corn fertilizer's
effect on the dead zone. "More corn equals more
nitrogen pollution."
Farmers realize the connection between their crop
and problems downstream, but with the price of corn
soaring, it doesn't make sense to grow anything
else. And growing corn isn't profitable without
nitrogen-based fertilizer.
"I think you have to try to be a good steward of
the land," said Jerry Peckumn, who farms corn and
soybeans on about 2,000 acres he owns or leases near
Jefferson, Iowa. "But on the other hand, you can't
ignore the price of corn."
Peckumn grows alfalfa and natural grass on the
220 or so acres he owns, but said he cannot afford
to experiment on the land he rents.
The dead zone typically begins in the spring and
persists into the summer. Its size and location vary
each year because of currents, weather and other
factors, but it is generally near the mouth of the
Mississippi River.
This year, it is the third-biggest on record. It
was larger in 2002 and 2001, when it covered 8,500
and 8,006 square miles respectively.
Soil erosion, sewage and industrial pollution
also contribute to the dead zone, but fertilizer is
thought to be the chief factor.
Fertilizer causes explosive growth of algae,
which then dies and sinks to the bottom, where it
sucks up oxygen as it decays. This creates a deep
layer of oxygen-depleted ocean where creatures
either escape or die.
Bottom-dwelling species such as crabs and oysters
are most at risk, said Michelle Perez, an analyst
with the Washington-based Environmental Working
Group. "They struggle to survive," Perez said. "They
can't swim away."
Crabbers complained at a meeting in Louisiana
this year that they pulled up bucket upon bucket of
dead crabs.
Rota warned that if the corn boom continues, the
Gulf of Mexico could see an "ecological regime
change." The fear is that the zone will grow so big
that most sea life won't be able to escape it,
leading to an even bigger die-off.
"People's livelihood depends on the shrimp, fish
and crabs in these waters," he said. "Already, some
of these shrimpers are traveling longer and longer
distances to catch anything."
Given the market pressure to grow corn, the
Natural Resources Defense Council and others argue
that the nation needs a comprehensive, federal
approach to the problem.
Among the ideas floated: rules to force farmers
to use fertilizers with more care, and the
establishment of buffer zones to contain runoff.
Ga., Ala., Fla. governors talk
water sharing
By DAVID ROYSE
Associated Press
Writer
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