Deed Woes Put Man At 'Wit's End'

By JULIA FERRANTE The Tampa Tribune

Published: Nov 4, 2006

NEW PORT RICHEY - William Magee didn't know how long he would live with a heart condition that sometimes makes it difficult to breathe. He expected his next home would be his last, and he wanted to keep his children from fighting over the estate when the time came.

So in 2000, when Magee moved from Tampa to a three-bedroom house in Fairway Springs in Pasco County, he sought advice from an attorney, he said. The attorney recommended Magee put the home in his sons' names. Magee paid cash for the house and listed sons Joseph and John on the property deed. He also claimed a $25,000 homestead exemption, a tax break for full-time residents, in Joseph's name.

Six years later, circumstances have changed, and Magee, now 73, finds himself fighting the county to keep his taxes from doubling.

Pasco County Property Appraiser Mike Wells said the case is an unusual one, but also an unfortunate example of "homebuyer beware."

The trouble began for Magee a year ago, when he learned that his son, Joseph, intended to become a full-time resident of New Jersey, thus making him ineligible for a homestead exemption.

State law limits yearly property tax assessment increases for those who qualify for homestead exemptions. Once the home is sold or the homesteader name changes, however, a new assessment is made, and the property owner is subject to pay taxes at the current market value.

Magee again sought advice from the property appraiser's office, he said, and was told he could swap his name for Joseph's and still be eligible for the tax break. Wells said that information was incorrect, and his staff must not have been told Joseph was the homesteader.

Magee received an estimated tax bill in August showing the value of his 1,677-square-foot house had jumped from $102,471 last year, to $184,166 this year - minus a $25,000 homestead exemption. Estimated county, school and other taxes doubled from $1,290 to $2,463. His homeowners insurance soared from $1,074 to $1,261.

"I can't afford my homeowners insurance. I had to cancel it," Magee said. "Something's got to give. I'm at my wit's end."

Officials Say Their Hands Tied

Magee wrote to state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, who, in turn, wrote a letter to Wells.

Wells wrote back that Magee had a hearing scheduled on the matter, but the complicating factor was that the original homestead qualifier, Joseph Magee, "discontinued his address" in 2005. That triggered a new assessment and reset the clock on the homestead exemption. The letter said there were no "extenuating circumstances that would cause such action to be reversed."

In most cases of ownership change, a new assessment is triggered according to state law, said Renee Watters, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Revenue.

What Magee should have done was to list his name on the property deed when he purchased the house and to claim the homestead exemption in his own name, Wells said. Had he done that, Magee could have removed from or added to any other names on the property deed without penalty, according to a law enacted last year.

"So long as the homesteader is there, it doesn't make any difference," Wells said. "What's key here is that you stay in the house, and it's still your homestead. Those are the rules."

Magee said he was afraid to put his name on the property deed because he did not want his three sons and daughter to fight over his estate. A will may have taken care of that, but Magee feared his daughter, from whom he is estranged, may contest his wishes.

Son John claims a homestead exemption in Pasco and thus was ineligible.

"I feel bad for this man's situation, but it's an error he committed," Wells said. "His name should have been on that deed, and he should have been a homestead qualifier &hellip unfortunately, there's not a lot I can do for him."

The property appraiser's office reviews complaints about property assessments each year and sometimes makes adjustments, Wells said.

Special Magistrate Hearing

In some cases, assessments are reduced to reflect a costly home repair or poor property sales because of proximity to a highway. If the issues cannot be resolved, the cases proceed to a hearing before a special magistrate, who makes a recommendation to a panel of county commissioners and school board members called the Value Adjustment Board.

The property appraiser must provide to the petitioner information that will be presented in a hearing within a certain time period, much like information must be provided in court cases.

Pasco County assessed more than 300,000 properties this year, of which about 1,000 were contested, Wells said. That's a slight increase over previous years, most likely due to rapidly rising assessments. Of those, 693 petitioners filed for late homestead exemptions, and most were granted. Another 108 petitioners claimed they were unduly denied homestead exemptions; half prevailed. The appraiser also received 178 petitions, including Magee's, contesting home values. Of those, 42 resolved their concerns or withdrew their petitions.

Magee hopes he will be able to convince a magistrate that his case is a special one. He bought his house for $108,000 and invested another $35,000 to renovate it, thinking the home would be his last.

"When I bought it, it was in very bad shape," Magee said. "I gutted it and totally renovated it. I plan to die here. That's what has got me so upset."

He argues that the substitution of his name for Joseph's was a formality and that no money changed hands.

'Caught In The Wheels'

A retired automobile business consultant and a Korean War veteran, Magee lives on a tight budget. He receives $1,086 per month in Social Security benefits, and that is about the extent of his income.

He moved from Tampa to a smaller house in Pasco to save money on property taxes and insurance. Yearly property taxes were about $900 when he moved to the Carrollwood area in 1986 and about $2,500 when he left.

"You talk about getting caught in the wheels of the wagon," Magee said. "This is everything I need. I'd love to stay here."

Even if Magee wanted to move, he surmises that with the downturn in the real estate market and skyrocketing insurance premiums selling his house would be difficult.

"How can I move?" he said. "Did you see all the houses for sale in here?"

HOMESTEAD EXEMPTIONS

For information about homestead exemptions, call the Pasco County Property Appraiser's Office at:

Dade City: (352) 521-4433

Wesley Chapel: (813) 929-1390

Land O' Lakes: (813) 929-1280

Gulf Harbors: (727) 847-8151

New Port Richey: (727) 847-8151

Reporter Julia Ferrante can be reached at (813) 948-4220 or jferrante@tampatrib.com.

Running on slower growth

Most seafood may be gone by 2048, study finds

Almost 30 percent of edible species have 'collapsed' from overfishing, toxins

STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Ninety percent of the fish and shellfish species that are hauled from the ocean to feed people worldwide may be gone by 2048, according to a report in today's edition of the journal Science.

Even now, 29 percent of those species have "collapsed," meaning a 90 percent decline in the amount being fished from the sea, says Boris Worm, lead author and a professor of marine conservation biology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.

"It is a very clear trend, and it is accelerating," Worm says. The paper represents four years of work by an international team of researchers at various universities who analyzed oceans species diversity during the past 1,000 years.

The report held no surprises for Jon Shenker, associate professor of marine biology at Florida Tech in Melbourne. "Very few of our fisheries stock are being managed efficiently," said Shenker. "But with proper attention it might be possible to get these stocks back."

Striped bass, he noted, have made a comeback in New England and the mid-Atlantic states.

Overfishing is a big part of the problem.

"Every year it's estimated that human beings remove 150 million metric tons of life from the seas," says Joshua Reichert, environment-program director at Pew Charitable Trusts in Philadelphia.

But fishing isn't the only problem, the report states. Destruction of coastal areas, estuaries and reefs by dredging, building and pollution destroys nursery habitats for young fish. Global warming and the changes in water temperature and salinity are thought to play a role.

As marine species disappear, the ability of others to survive is further harmed by the drop in the ocean's overall productivity and stability, the researchers found.

Some Brevard County fishermen are skeptical about the study.

"The claim seems astounding," said Ron Rincones, retired charter boat captain who lives in Valkaria. "I know they are doing lots of things to protect stock and over-fishing."

Fisheries management in the rest of the world needs to be brought up to standards used in the United States, added Jerry Sansom, executive director of the Organized Fishermen of Florida - a statewide organization of commercial fishermen based in Cocoa.

"Most fishing is at sustainable levels," Sansom said. "But given the level of fisheries management in the rest of the world, we might not be too far off from what the study is predicting."

Fish and seafood are key protein sources for a world that's expected to add another 3 billion people by 2050. But it's also problem for people who don't eat fish. Sixty percent of Americans live within 60 miles of a coast. Declines in marine biodiversity can:

- Increase coastal flooding because of loss of floodplains and erosion control provided by the wetlands, reefs and underwater vegetation that have a symbiotic relationship with marine life.

- Reduce water quality by destroying the plankton, plants and shellfish that are the ocean's biological filtering ability. A single oyster, for example, can filter 50 gallons of water a day.

- Increase beach closures because of harmful algae blooms, such as red tide, facilitated by the diminished filtering.

The good news is that it's not too late to turn this around, Worm said. When marine ecosystems are protected, the trend can be reversed, he says. Scientists studied 48 areas worldwide that have been safeguarded and report dramatic recoveries in the variety of species and stability of the ecosystem.

"We know how to do this. But it must be done soon," he said. "With each species that is lost, the opportunity for the system to repair itself is diminished. The oceans define our planet, and their fate may to a large extent determine our fate, now and in the future."
Staff writer Kaustuv Basu contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- You don't have to be in the path of a hurricane to understand the power of wind.

While such storms can cause death and destruction, there is a growing conviction that wind can help fill the country's energy needs.

Wind advocates see modern turbines and wind farms as the metaphorical pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

"I recognize the importance of wind power," President Bush said in February. "It's possible we could generate up to 20 percent of our electricity needs through wind."

That would be a huge jump from the 1 percent of power wind generates this year, according to figures from the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).

"There's as much energy within our wind resource as there is in a Saudi oil reserve, and the wind resource is not depleted over time," says AWEA executive director Randall Swisher.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. wind energy consumption more than doubled between 2000 and 2004, from 57 trillion Btus to 143 trillion.

The amount of total installed wind capacity also grew, from 10 megawatts in 1981 to more than 10,000 by August 2006 -- enough to power more than 2.5 million homes on a typical day, according to AWEA.

As advocates urge the rapid construction of new wind farms, skeptics want a more cautious approach.

"We don't know enough at this point, nor do we have enough unbiased studies out there to evaluate what the impacts are," says Lisa Linowes of the Industrial Wind Action Group.

Plans to build a wind farm off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, have met with strong opposition from critics, who say the big wind turbines are ugly, kill birds and bats and damage property values.

"It's the proper siting and the proper review of these facilities," Linowes said. "And if we can see to it that that's happening, I think you would see opposition to wind drop off."

Wind has become an additional crop for Midwestern farmers who put turbines on their land and sell electricity to power companies.

My Organic Market -- MOM's -- in suburban Washington, D.C., is one of a growing number of businesses that get electricity from wind -- and approval from customers.

Using wind, MOM's may pay 2 or 3 percent more for electricity now, but in a typical contract the price is fixed -- which customers say saves them money in the long run against fluctuating energy costs.

Similarly, Whole Foods Market decided in January to use wind for all of its power -- making the Austin, Texas-based supermarket chain the largest buyer of wind energy in the nation, according to Time magazine.

The second largest is Vail Resorts Inc., a Colorado ski and recreation company that recently said it would also buy all of its power from wind farms.

To do so, the companies buy "wind power credits" from Boulder, Colorado-based Renewable Choice Energy, which in turn pays wind farms across the country to produce electricity.

The credits and wind power created offset the actual energy the companies use. Individuals can sign up for similar plans.

While wind credits are becoming popular, the question now is whether the industry can sell itself as a viable alternative to more conventional means of power generation over the long term.

"This industry has gone from a science project to something that is viable, on a utility scale, in the past five or 10 years," Steve Zwolinski, president of GE Wind Energy, told Fortune magazine last year.

"Will it get to 50 percent (of total energy use) in the U.S.? Probably not," Zwolinski said. "But will it get to 10 percent, 15 percent long-term, maybe a little more in the Midwestern states that are wind rich? Yes, I think it can."

Building America's State Parks

SEBRING — It was the midst of the Great Depression, and Oliver Malcolm was a tall and lanky teenage farm boy living in Georgia.

It was a time of soup lines, widespread unemployment and deep despair, he recalled.

Wanting to escape, the 19-year-old fled to Miami in 1936 to live with his aunt – only to find he couldn’t run from the Great Depression in the Sunshine State, either.

“Old man Depression was there too,” he said.

With nowhere left to run, he enlisted in the Civilian Conservation Corps and was sent to work in Sebring at today’s Highlands Hammock State Park. He spent two years removing trees to build cabins, pave roads and construct bridges.

“It was the best two years of my life,” he recalled. “The CCC paid for our living expenses, clothing, medical, and on top of that, gave us money for working.”

The CCC was a work and relief program through which young, unemployed men worked on conservation projects in rural areas for $1 a day. They worked 40 hours a week and were paid $30 a month, with the requirement that $25 of that be sent home to family.

Back then, it would take nearly 30 “boys” to remove a single pine tree. Machinery to do work that we take for granted was not an option then.

But the arduous labor made a man out of a boy, Malcolm said.

“When I first started I weighed only 127 pounds and had a 27-inch waist. That Christmas I went home had the same waist size but weighed 156 pounds – all muscle.”

When people talk about America’s Greatest Generation, the work of the CCC is usually neglected but from 1935 to 1942, millions of young men moved away from their homes to build today’s parks.

Now, 90, Malcolm is among fewer than 500,000 living CCC veterans of the 3 million who built America’s state and national parks, forests, bridges, dams, fish hatcheries, fire towers, roads and lakes between 1933 and 1942.

The era of the CCC is a time the surviving former members of Camp 453 in Highlands Hammock State Park remember well, even as America’s subsequent generations have all but forgotten, or never knew about those desperate times in history.

Normally, about 200 men were located at the camp at any given time. They are still proud of the work they did for their families and their country.

He said they were stationed in log cabins that surrounded Little Lake Jackson near Harder Hall, a hotel he refered to as an old casino. He said the boys would be taken by five or six U.S. Army trucks to the park five days a week.

On Thursday, the 90-year-old drove alone from his home in Douglas, Ga., to Sebring in time for the 21st annual CCC Festival at Highlands Hammock State Park. On Saturday, he will be joined by more than 30 of his fellow CCC friends at the park. Each year, the national reunion celebrates the CCC anniversary.

This year, Malcolm has brought along with him a valuable piece of local history – the 1937 Annual of the CCC Camp 453, the annual of Highlands Hammock State Park. Malcolm happened to come across the old yearbook a few years ago in an old box.

Malcolm will be donating his annual this weekend to the museum at Highlands Hammock State Park for all visitors to see.

“I promised the park a few years ago that I would donate the book to the park,” he said. “From what I know, it’s the only known annual of Highlands Hammock State Park.”

Neighbors worry development may worsen flooding problem

WESLEY CHAPEL - As the 611-acre Grantham Ranch development heads to the Planning Commission on Monday, neighbors are alarmed that it may worsen flooding in their old neighborhood.

Grantham Ranch, proposed by the developer DR Horton, envisions 474 homes straddling Old Pasco Road just north of Overpass Road. The development sits just west of Interstate 75.

It also sits in sensitive flood zones.

Neighbors there, especially in the old Wesley Chapel neighborhoods of Saddlewood and Quail Hollow, are afraid that the new development would tip a flood-prone area over the environmental edge.

"Our property ... was mainly dry until three years ago," Heidi Goss and Suzanne Chandler wrote. "Since then, the property has been continuously flooded. Any new development in this area will only worsen the flooding problems."

With every new development, stormwater runoff is channeled toward these old neighborhoods with ever greater destructive intensity, resident Jennifer Seney told officials.

Residents wrote at least seven letters to the county, warning that the neighborhood has already seen flooding for the past several years.

Officials have tried to allay their fears.

The developer met at least three times with residents earlier this year.

After Horton got its first round of official approval in September, county engineer Jim Widman recommended strengthening the official permit to include conditions that would require Horton to design drainage to higher-than-normal standards.

Horton had also tried to address environmental conservation needs by clustering single-family homes on one side of Old Pasco Road. The move preserves open space on the western edge of the property.

The Development Review Committee approved the proposal in September, after rebuffing an earlier incarnation of the proposal in July 2005 when the developer sought a land use amendment to put more than 1,400 homes on the property. The county committee said no.

If the Planning Commission agrees to its latest proposal, it is scheduled to head to the County Commission on Dec. 5.

Chuin-Wei Yap covers growth and development in Pasco County. He can be reached at 813909-4613 or cyap@sptimes.com.

The Associated Press

High Springs Tree Board works to protect city's tree population

HIGH SPRINGS – High Springs resident Lys Burden is now part of a High Springs group that fights to protect the very thing that caused tragedy in her family three years ago.

In 2003, Burden’s mother, Rae Brant, died after seven months of medical complications that were from a tree that had fallen on her.

The tree, which was mostly on city-owned property, fell after a storm left its branches heavy with rain. Although it was not on the city’s list of potentially hazardous trees, the giant Laurel Oak tree was mostly rotted through.

But now, Burden said, she can help prevent such events from happening again.

The recently appointed High Springs Tree Board is charged with the duty of creating a tree plan that would call for the replacement of trees that tend to rot and become dangerous.

The plan, which the board has until mid-next-year to complete, also will include amendments to the city’s comprehensive plan.

If adopted by the city commission, the plan would provide more specific regulations on how many trees need to be included in certain zoning classifications, what trees can and cannot be cut down without a permit, how much shade should be in downtown areas and how the city should provide for the health, longevity and maintenance of trees on public property.

City Planner Christian Popoli said that such a plan would make enforcement of tree-related code issues much more effective because the city will have clearer guidelines to work around.

“You’re actually giving us the tools to do our jobs better,” he told the board.

But to get to that point, the board, which had its third meeting Oct. 10, has a lot of work and research ahead.

Sue Weller, chair of the board, said that one of the most important aspects of getting organized will be coordinating with other city departments that deal with trees.

The parks and recreation department, public works department and the building, planning and codes department all work with trees in some aspects of their work.

High Springs Public Works Director LaVerne Hodge said that her department is in charge of the maintenance and removal of hazardous trees, as well as granting permits for residents who want to remove a tree.

But the department has done more removal of trees than planting of trees, she said. And she already has plans this year for the removal of about 30 city trees that are either dead, fallen, rotting, hollow, diseased or otherwise dangerous.

Replacement trees are in the plan, she said, but perhaps not as many as the number of trees that will be removed.

Joanne Tremblay, vice chair of the board, said that one of the Tree Board’s first priorities should be completing an inventory of city trees and working on public awareness on why trees are so important to the city.

Once that inventory is taken, the board can implement a tree planting program, beginning with the “gateways” or entrances to the city, for enhancing tree growth.

Burden, the third member of the board, said that trees are vital to the city because of the positive environment that they create.

Cities with a healthy tree population are more likely to attract more visitors and new residents and businesses, she said, while also keeping down heating and air conditioning costs for the current residents.

Tree Board members also said they were interested in creating more tree-oriented events for the city.

Both statewide and national Arbor Days should be celebrated with events such as tree contests and walking tours, they said, that could be coordinated through the High Springs Farmer's Market.

Weller said that she hopes her work with the Tree Board will help make the city more attractive and bring more people to the area.

As a former resident of South Florida, she said, she doesn’t want to see the High Springs area become as barren as that of her former home.

“This city needs to pay attention to its environment,” she said. “There needs to be a tree canopy.”

Burden said that the city had always tried to maintain its canopy but didn’t always go about that process in the best way.

After a devastating hurricane struck the area in the 1930s, she said, the city had planted fast growing Laurel Oak trees, the same kind that fell on her mother and are known to commonly rot out, to replace all those that had been destroyed in the storm.

But now those trees are reaching the end of their life-cycles, she said, and the city is left with many dangerous trees that should be replaced.

“I love trees, just like my mother did,” she said, adding that her work with the tree board was, in a way, a tribute to her mother. “I just don’t want to see that happen to anyone else.”

Cypress Creek Mall Hearing Set For March

By KEVIN WIATROWSKI The Tampa Tribune

Published: Nov 2, 2006

WESLEY CHAPEL - Bob and Shirley Jones will get their chance in March to challenge plans to build the Cypress Creek Town Center in their back yard.

The state Department of Administrative Hearings has set March 6 to open six days of arguments challenging the Southwest Florida Water Management District's review of the regional mall complex. The hearing will be at Swiftmud's Tampa office.

Cleveland-based Richard E. Jacobs Group plans to build the town center on 510 acres straddling State Road 56 west of Interstate 75. Plans call for a 1.3-million-square-foot "Main Street"-style mall, 1.5 million square feet of retail space, 420,000 square feet of offices and 700 hotel rooms.

Jacobs spokesman Bill Fullington on Wednesday said repeated legal challenges have pushed the planned opening into 2008.

"This is the third attempt to use the legal system to block this project," Fullington said. "We're confident we'll prevail."

If built, Cypress Creek Town Center would include the second-largest mall in the Tampa area, just behind University Mall. Jacobs plans to draw shoppers from most of Pasco County and from University Mall and Westfield Citrus Park mall in Hillsborough County.

Jacobs' property lies on the north bank of Cypress Creek, an Outstanding Florida Water and a contributor - via the Hillsborough River - to Tampa's drinking water.

Jacobs expects to fill 67.5 acres of wetlands for its project. That proposal remains under review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees wetlands linked to surface waters.

Environmentalists argue the mall will ruin the creek. Mall officials say they'll take extensive precautions to prevent that.

Swiftmud appeared ready in September to approve the mall's development permit. The permit was put on hold after the Joneses, whose land backs up to the mall site across the creek, filed their last-minute challenge.

The Joneses are the only residents of Cypress Creek Road to challenge the mall. Several of their neighbors have drafted plans to develop their land should the mall clear its hurdles.

A previous 6th Circuit Court suit and appeal failed when judges ruled the Joneses lacked standing to challenge the county's rezoning of the mall site.

In the pending challenge, the Joneses say Jacobs didn't do enough to reduce its environmental effects.

"The goal would be to have the water management district apply their rules to have the applicant minimize its impacts," said Marcy LaHart, one of two attorneys representing the couple.

The Joneses' lead attorney, Ralf Brookes, has highlighted Jacobs' refusal to condense acres of asphalt into a parking garage. Jacobs Vice President Tom Schmitz has said a garage isn't financially feasible.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.

An Earth-Friendly Fuel

By JO-ANN JOHNSTON The Tampa Tribune

Published: Nov 2, 2006

The bulldozers and road graders rumbling through the Withlacoochee State Forest are a little more Earth-friendly these days.

The heavy equipment is running on biodiesel fuel, an alternative to the traditional diesel, fuel made solely from petroleum sources.

Biodiesel is blended from plant sources - soybean, corn or other harvestable resources - along with traditional diesel. Its use reduces the need for fossil fuels, and it burns more cleanly than regular diesel, so it doesn't pollute the air as much.

Those advantages are prompting government agencies across the country to try the new fuel blends, including the state road crews who build and maintain roads in the Withlacoochee State Forest.

The test started in October and will go for several months, said Melvin Reese Jr., maintenance administrator for the Withlacoochee Forestry Center.

About 300 off-road vehicles, regularly used on more than 1,000 miles of forest roads, are involved in the test.

"There's no difference that we've noticed so far," Reese said recently, while overseeing a road crew working in a pine forest outside Brooksville.

The equipment starts and runs as smoothly as with diesel, and the biodiesel matches the traditional fuel in cost and fuel efficiency, he said.

Reese stores the biodiesel in separate tanks from the regular diesel, to make sure he can track biodiesel fuel use accurately.

Long-term, he wants to see whether the fuel filters on the vehicles using biodiesel need to be changed more often or other maintenance adjustments are required. To Reese, those are the major questions about using the alternative fuel source. Other matters are secondary.

Oil From Soybeans

"It's 80 percent regular diesel and 20 percent biodiesel," Reese said. "As far as whether it's peanut oil, vegetable oil or old McDonald's oil, we don't know."

Actually, we do know.

"It is soy," said Aaron Evanson, general manager of Ward Oil Company in Tampa, which supplies biodiesel to the state Division of Forestry.

Soybeans are one of the more popular "feedstocks," though many other plant products can be harvested for use in fuel.

Ward Oil has been promoting the use of biodiesel in the Southeast for seven years, Evanson said.

Though biodiesel remains a tiny percent of overall sales, Evanson supports the idea.

New Market For Farmers

In addition to biodiesel being a cleaner fuel for the environment, broader use would create a new market for American farm products, he said.

That idea has won the backing of Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson.

Bronson has been promoting a "Farm to Fuel" program in Florida for months, trying to match fuel refinery companies with potential feedstock producers, including timber owners, sugar cane producers and citrus growers.

The state Division of Forestry also falls under Bronson's agency, giving him the authority to order this long-term biodiesel test in the Withlacoochee State Forest, which includes land in Pasco, Hernando, Citrus, Lake and Sumter counties.

The test also is happening in the Blackwater State Forest District, which spans several counties in the Florida Panhandle.

Reese and his counterparts in Blackwater are collecting data on how their equipment performs while running on biodiesel.

"I'd say within three to six months we should know about its reliability," Reese said.

Reporter Jo-Ann Johnston can be reached at (352) 521-3062 or jfjohnston@tampatrib.com.

A natural classroom

By MARYAN PELLAND
Published November 2, 2006

The Springs Coast Environmental Education Center, west of Weeki Wachee Park on State Road 50, can be thought of as a school unto its own.

That would make Mark Weaver the instructor, principal and guidance counselor, not to mention a park ranger and conservationist.

The center opened in the second half of the 2004-05 school year to enhance school curriculum, particularly for fourth-graders. The brianchild of West Hernando principal Joe Clifford, the idea became a pet project for educators, community members and some parents. They hashed out a plan to give Hernando County schoolchildren a new way to commune with nature.

Pun fully intended, Weaver believes the center is a wild success.

"The best thing about teaching here is we rarely, if ever, see a child who isn't totally excited," he said. "Every teacher's dream."

The most difficult thing? Maintaining focus for what seems like 20 "baby birds" clamoring for information.

Picture it. A tall adult surrounded by not-so-tall pupils, some of whom have never been to the outback before.

Every one of them chirps a dozen questions, sometimes simultaneously.

Weaver laughs aloud, envisioning it, but his calm and his almost unlimited knowledge of outdoor science win the day. He's good at maintaining order.

"I usually tell them I do this every single day, and if they're patient, I'll probably answer their questions as I go," Weaver said. "That does the trick for while."

A Brooksville native, Weaver went through the Hernando County school system and graduated from Hernando High.

The Weeki Wachee River is nothing new to him; he grew up with it. Weaver's degree, from Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia, is in physical education with a biology minor. It's a combination that works well in his job.

He taught science and physical education in Polk County for six years. For nine years, he taught at Central High School - physical science, biology and marine science.

Weaver jumped in on the earliest planning for the environmental center. He thinks every community needs a safe place for children to experience the outdoors.

"In today's world, lots of things prevent kids from being able to run off in the woods. We get inundated by information about West Nile virus, animals in the wild," Weaver said.

His goal is to dispel myths about nature, to instill a sense of inclusion and to help kids develop a lifelong interest in preservation. It's evidently working.

Though fourth-graders are the primary focus because age and curriculum make them an excellent audience, every age group has been welcomed to the four classrooms and conference room at the center. This month, high school seniors came out. Some went kayaking; others explored the Bayport coastline.

There's hardly a school day from now until May that isn't booked with classes. Students begin their day with a discussion about expectations and rules. With nets, clipboards and collection containers, they hit the trails to explore and identify plants, animals and animal tracks.

They set plaster of paris molds of tracks they find, which they'll take back to their school at the end of the day.

They dip nets into the river, collecting macroscopic (tiny, but visible to the human eye) animals to study later. They learn about algae on the river, then explore life in the water and on the shore.

They're apt to see animals they have never seen before. Maybe a pelican fishing. Perhaps a strolling stork. On a great day, a manatee comes near.

Then it's back to the picnic grove for lunch and conversation about the morning. In the afternoon, students study their collected species under real microscopes.

"That's a big hit. Again, most of these kids have never used a real microscope and they're blown away," Weaver said.

At day's end, students, teachers and parent chaperones peruse a collection of life-size animals and plant specimens. One group goes eye-to-eye with a 4-foot tall shorebird. Another carefully inspects a bobcat. In a week or two, they'll be able to practically shake hands with a Florida bear.

The animals are real. They have their feathers, fur, claws and tails, all preserved by a professional taxidermy expert. All met their demise because of human interventions like car accidents.

The schoolhouse in the woods was funded and built by the Southwest Florida Water Management District. It's staffed and maintained by Hernando County School Board. Last year, about 3,400 students visited. This year, every fourth-grade class in district will come out. Once upon a time, Weaver's expectation was that the program would sprout, blossom slowly, then catch on.

In reality, Weaver and his assistant are busy five days a week, from 7 a.m. until late in the afternoon.

He loves his job, though.

"I miss the connections you make with students in a regular classroom," Weaver said. "But I wouldn't trade the excitement on all those faces or knowing I might be teaching them something to carry through life."

Test the waters

All regional authority members should consider 'exclusive' status

New Buyers Shocked By Tax Bills

By KAREN BRANCH-BRIOSO
The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - After Marine Col. Mike Greer moved from Boston to work at U.S. Central Command, he and his Colombian-born wife took to Tampa’s climate – and decided to make the move permanent.

They paid $105,000 in 2004 for a vacant lot on a river that runs into Mobbly Bay.

Their 2005 tax bill, on a $102,596 assessed value, was $2,338.

This year, with their dream home near completion but not yet on the tax roll, they got a nightmare of a proposed tax bill: $8,000, for the land that the property appraiser’s office says is now worth $360,000.

“It’s just wacky, actually,” Greer said. “In Massachusetts, the property taxes are not so high. But here, it’s a huge thing. Before I made the decision (to build), I didn’t quite know that.”

Recent buyers in Florida’s housing market are learning hard lessons, come tax time.

The year after a home qualifies for a homestead exemption, it is shielded from the double- or triple-digit assessment hikes that have been the norm in the sellers’ market of the past few years. That shield comes courtesy of a Save Our Homes cap that limits such increases to a maximum 3 percent a year.

But before that kicks in, the reassessments that take place when property is sold can yield astounding changes in taxable value.

For Jamie Tingen, the surprise came with this year’s tax bill. A Florida resident for a half-century, she traded up from a two-bedroom to a three-bedroom townhouse on the same street.

Her tax bill more than tripled.

“I have a granddaughter and I wanted to have a place for her to stay when she visits,” Tingen said. “I moved right down the street, just a few buildings. At my old place, I think (the property tax bill) was $500. I just got the (new) bill, and it’s $1,800.”

Just last year, Tingen, as a longtime owner of a homesteaded property, was on the enviable side of the street of Florida’s property tax system. Her smaller townhouse, which she bought in 1980, had an assessed value last year of $45,305 – held down for the past decade by the Save Our Homes cap.

Its market value was far more. She sold it for $137,000. The tax bill for the new owners leaped to $2,200 from the $500 Tingen paid last year.

She says such disparities are unfair: “Everybody seems to be in the same boat, and nobody seems to be doing anything about it.”

The issue, however, is the focal point of a number of groups studying Florida’s tax system.

Gov. Jeb Bush created a Property Tax Reform Committee this summer and charged its members with offering solutions for the uneven tax burden that resulted from the Save Our Homes cap and the heated real estate market of recent years.

The committee will offer suggestions to the Legislature, the Department of Revenue and a Florida Tax and Budget Reform Commission – which will be established next year.

There are efforts afoot to ease the tax burden of longtime Florida property owners. An ongoing petition drive for a constitutional amendment would allow homeowners to transfer part of their Save Our Homes cap to another home if they want to move as Tingen did.

But newcomers are also begging for relief.

Aldegonda Caris and her husband, Glenn Smith, moved from Long Island, N.Y., to Tampa last year after Smith accepted a job as an assistant professor at USF’s College of Education. They heard the cost of living in Florida was lower. Then they bought a house.

“We have a smaller house and pay more taxes,” said Caris, who said their property taxes on a larger home in New York stayed at about $5,500 a year. “The taxes increased gradually, while in Florida, every time the house is sold, it goes up significantly.”

Between last year and this year, the tax bill on their Tampa Palms home nearly doubled to $6,300.

Caris was shocked to see neighbors in a similar home pay $2,500.

“We get the same benefits. Why would we need to pay so much more?” Caris said. “I don’t see what the goal for Florida is. Why do they give a higher burden to newcomers? Maybe they want to chase them away. I definitely think they should do something about it.”

So does John Sarver.

The civilian strategic planner at U.S. Central Command moved to Brandon late last year from Colorado Springs. That recent arrival earned him the not-so-enviable position on the block as the man with the highest property tax bill.

He’ll pay almost $9,000 this year in property taxes. That’s more than he paid for both property taxes and state income taxes in Colorado. Most of his neighbors pay a third or half of that, even though their homes are about the same size as his – or larger.

“I look across the street,” said Sarver, who bought his home for $475,000 at the height of the market late last year. “I know my neighbors have enjoyed all this equity they’ve gained from ’03 to ’05, but I feel like I subsidize their property.”

Greer’s worry is he’ll never be able to enjoy the home he is building.

He and his wife, Martha, are challenging the 250 percent increase in their assessment with the county Value Adjustment Board. In a small conference room Monday, they faced off with two employees from the property appraiser’s office before a special magistrate.

“The sales and listings would support the assessment you have,” said Becky Lopresto, an appraisal manager with the land department who cited a vacant lot down the street priced at $380,000.

Greer said the prices only went up recently after property assessments soared: “I shopped that woman’s lot when I bought mine – and I couldn’t afford it because it was $175,000.”

He also noted that, unlike the other lots, half of his lot can’t be developed because it is wetlands covered in mangroves. Lawrence Langowski, team leader from the Land Department, said he may be able to lower the assessment based on that.

Greer hopes that happens.

“You make reasonable assumptions: The house is going to be about $650,000, the land about $105,000,” Greer said. “Now with this assessment, you’re talking $360,000 and $650,000. It’s going to be a nice house. But it’s not a million-dollar house.”

If the tax rate stays the same by the time his home is built, a million-dollar assessment would cost Mike and Martha Greer almost $22,000 a year in property taxes.

Said Greer: “I’m in a situation where, if the assessment stays as it is, I may not be able to afford the house.”

Reporter Karen Branch-Brioso can be reached at (813) 259-7815

Lehman Bros. Sues Over Pasco Condos

By SHANNON BEHNKEN The Tampa Tribune

Published: Nov 2, 2006

TAMPA - A New York lender fears it is on the hook for millions of dollars in loans that now total more than the New Port Richey properties are worth.

Lehman Bros. Holdings, the global financial services corporation, filed suit in Tampa on Tuesday against a group of investors, title companies, a mortgage company and an appraisal company involved in potential mortgage fraud at a Pasco County condominium complex.

Sunset Bay Club has three-story triplexes that each have five bedrooms and a shared kitchen. The bedrooms, according to the lawsuit, are leased primarily to senior citizens.

Fifteen defendants used overvalued appraisals in a "scheme to defraud" the bank, according to the lawsuit. The 13 properties each were appraised for $733,000. The lawsuit says the triplexes are worth "barely one-third" of that value.

Companies named in the lawsuit are Equitable Title of Florida, based in Orlando; LandAmerica Financial Group, based in Richmond, Va., and its subsidiaries, LandAmerica Gulf Atlantic Title and Lawyers Title Insurance Corp.; Interlachen Residential Mortgage Co., based in Winter Park; and Passarelli & Potts Appraisal Service in Winter Park.

Individuals named in the lawsuit live in California and Minnesota.

A spokeswoman for LandAmerica Financial Group said she could not comment on pending litigation. Representatives at other companies involved did not return phone calls. Lehman Bros. declined to comment.

Lenders across the country are investigating mortgages that may be worth more than the market value of the properties. Some have filed lawsuits. Countrywide Home Loans, the nation's largest mortgage lender, sued various defendants for mortgage fraud on properties in Indiana in June. The lawsuit, first reported last month, involved investor buyers in Martinsville, Va., who discovered they were on the hook for mortgages in their names.

Countrywide would not release details of those transactions, but published reports estimated that the loans amounted to $80 million, which could make it one of the largest mortgage fraud cases in the United States.

Mortgage experts say lenders are bracing to discover such loans this year as the real estate market cools further. Part of the problem, they say, is that lenders usually don't spot problem mortgages until buyers start missing payments.

"These guys are very clever," said Don Effertz, a vice president with Interthinx of Agoura Hills, Calif., which develops software to help lenders detect fraud. "This is a righteous scam because it's so hard for lenders to catch it."

Lenders are discovering overvalued loans now for two reasons, said Doug Pollock, a mortgage investigator in Sanford. For one thing, fraudulent loans were easily overlooked during the past five years' real estate boom. Second, industry professionals may be tempted to participate in fraudulent deals to attract business, Pollock said.

Lehman's suit comes on the heels of investigations byfour state agencies and at least two lenders into 36 inflated home sales in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.

The sales, uncovered last month in a Tampa Tribune investigative report, involved the same listing real estate agent, the same title company, an appraiser and inflated home prices.

Lehman Bros. Bank was the lender on one of those St. Petersburg properties, which sold for $252,000 in June.

Countrywide was the lender on at least two of the properties and started an internal investigation into those mortgages last week.

Reporter Shannon Behnken can be reached at (813) 259-7804.

Tearing the tower down would cost at least $65,000, according to city finance director and interim city administrator Lori Houghton.

Rather than spend that money to destroy a structurally sound tower, Hayes has advocated keeping it, both as a base for communications antennas for the city's police and fire departments and as a landmark for people coming to Tavares.

"We possibly may have some value in keeping it," Houghton said. "It's a beacon to residents or visitors around the area."

Both Police Chief Stoney Lubbins and Fire Chief Richard Keith said they would prefer to put their antennas on the tower, rather than renting space, as they do now.

City leaders directed staff to come back with more information on keeping the tower up.

Because the tower will no longer be functional, the city can paint whatever it wants on the tower. Hayes said new paints may stay for up to 10 years, lowering maintenance costs.

Director of Community Development Susan Jackson said a mural might work on the tower, and said she would bring the issue before the Community Redevelopment Agency Advisory Committee, which leads comment on the downtown area.

Bob Grenier, a local preservationist who is running for city council, said the tower might look good as a lasting testament in the city.

"It's already turning into a historical landmark," he said. "They have things that can make the tower stand long after we are gone."

Citrus Times letter to the editor 

Ugly growth transmogrifies sweet paradise that lured us

Why are we here? Why did we move to Citrus County? For me the answer is easy. I like to hike in the state forest, I love to swim in the springs, fish in the gulf. What a paradise this was when we moved here in 1993.

I did not move here for the money. I certainly could do much better financially in other places. I did not move here for the opportunities for my children. I knew they would grow up and go out on their own. We all have our reasons for living here. I just don't understand some people's reasons.

It seems some people moved here and now want supercenters, superhighways and industrial parks. I don't get it. Why would you want to change paradise into something so ugly? Did you know that housing is much cheaper in Tampa? You can build a new house in Tampa cheaper than you can here. You could be closer to the airport, sporting venues, concert venues, shopping, theater and job opportunities. If these things are important to you, maybe you should consider moving.

It's obvious to me that our local politicians don't care to represent the majority of the citizens here. One county commissioner is a building contractor. Where do you think his loyalties lie?

Our politicians agreed to lower the amount of how much to raise our taxes. Our taxes still went sky high. My taxes tripled on a lot I own. Is that fair? The 6-cent gas tax is in effect. Is that fair? Let's have an accounting. How many millions of gallons of gas are sold in Citrus County? Multiply that by .06 and see how much that brings. Add to that all of the other taxes that were supposed to go to the roads. Where is it? Where did it all go to? Does the road money go only to the rich people's area? Or is it supposed to go throughout the county. My road is still sand.

The impact fee is $6,000, and there were 750 to 1,000 homes built here recently. Where did the money go? This is a small county; where did it go?

Did anybody else's homeowners insurance triple like mine did? Why did our elected officials let that happen? The insurance companies that cried poverty after the storms were only complaining because their profits were down. They still made profits. The same with the gas companies. They made billions of dollars in profits. That's billions with a "b."

Why aren't we the citizens being represented? Whatever happened to "we the people... ?" Everyone repeat after me baaa-baaa. That's right, we are all just sheep and the politicians know it.

It will take a lot more than me to change things, but I'm tired of it. I'm tired of the same old thing, the same old excuses, and the same old pass the buck. I really believe in my heart that what we need is another Boston tea party.

James Corr, Lecanto

[Last modified November 1, 2006, 06:15:34]

Developer files Hickory Hill blueprint

That document, called a development order, will be unveiled during a public hearing Jan. 17. County commissioners will consider the order and either approve it, deny it or approve it with conditions.

Deciding they wanted to help the county in the process, attorneys with the law firm representing Hickory Hill have fired off a draft development order that includes much of the “boilerplate” language that will eventually go into that document.

Sebring Sierra, vice president of operations for Sierra Properties LLC of Tampa, said the move is not meant to cause friction between his company and the developer.

Just the opposite, he said.

It’s been more than 10 years since the county has gone through one of these large projects and planners may be a bit rusty when it comes to drafting a development order, Sierra said.

“This is just a starting point,” he said. “I hope it’s going to save the county some time and some money.”

County Planning Director Ron Pianta said he and his staff will review the developer’s draft order but emphasized that the final product would be the county’s.

“We’ll take a look at it and take it into consideration,” Pianta said.

Pianta said the writing of the final document is still in the early stages.

The draft development order, basically a rewrite of an earlier document submitted to the Withlacoochee Regional Planning Council, shows that Hickory Hill will be a private golf course community with 1,750 homes, 50,000 square feet of commercial space and 63 holes of golf.

The project will be built in two phases, with the first phase comprising 800 single-family homes and 36 holes of golf. The majority of the project consists of phase one, which would be built from 2006-2012.

Phase two would have 950 homes, 50,000 square feet of commercial space and 27 holes of golf. Phase two will tentatively be built from 2013-2017.

People will be able to get into Hickory Hill from several locations off Lockhart Road, but there will be no direct access to Hickory Hill Road. Baseball Pond Road borders the western portion of the property and Lockhart Road is the eastern border. The project will also access Church Road to the south.

Other highlights of the draft order

• If development of Hickory Hill has not started in three years of the effective date of the order, county commissioners can decide whether the delay is a “substantial deviation” from the project timetable.

• The developer will create a transition zone from urban to rural along portions of the north, west and south boundaries of the project.

• A minimum of 1,110 acres will be dedicated to open, undeveloped land.

• A clubhouse or recreation center will be built sturdy enough to allow residents to use it as a hurricane evacuation shelter.

Also at that pivotal Jan. 17 meeting, commissioners will vote whether to adopt the comprehensive plan amendment that Hickory Hill would need to get off the ground.

If they approve that move, the matter for a second time goes to the Florida Department of Community Affairs for a compliance review.

However, commissioners could also vote not to adopt the comprehensive plan amendment at that hearing which would essentially kill the project. No sending off to the state for review. No development order. Nothing.

Reporter Michael D. Bates can be contacted at 352-544-5290.

By DIANE CHUN

Sun staff writer

So Charlie Crist and his empty chair (and ridiculous "father and son" actors) have Jim Davis on the run in the race for governor: Davis is now agreeing with Crist that Florida's property taxes are too high.

And thanks to ham-handed stage-managing by county commissioners, some Leon County voters are having second thoughts about the proposed half-percent sales-tax increase for low-income health care.

But every election, it's the same thing: a whole bunch of candidates and voters insisting that taxes have to be reduced. Enough already. Taxes are money collected from all to spend on all. We couldn't get by without them. And those who would make reducing or eliminating them the centerpiece of their political stance are shortsighted.

Everyone understands that taxes pay for police and firefighters and hospitals and roads. But taxes also pay for Veterans Day parades and funerals for the indigent. They pay for sidewalks and stormwater ponds in your neighborhood. They pay for art in the town square and for a boys' choir to go to Washington. They pay to restore the old building you loved as a child and the cemetery where your uncle is buried.

The people who want to reduce taxes are usually the first to complain when government won't spend money on something important to them. Everybody wants government services, but so many don't want to pay the taxes that fund them.

The biggest misnomer by tax complainers is that someone is trying to take "my money." There is no "my money." It's a colloquialism, a figure of speech.

You didn't create the state government that pays you. You didn't create the factory that employs you. You didn't create the trees for lumber, the chemicals for plastics or the computers for accounting. You didn't create the need for people to buy food, live in houses, get electric services, drive trucks or write for a newspaper. Every job and every dollar anyone earns is a product of all of us living together in society. Without society, we'd all still be naked and grubbing for bugs.

To keep society operating, everyone has to pay a share. And as our society gets bigger and more services are created, we often have to pay more than we did in the past.

Yes, there has to be a balance: Too much taxation inhibits private enterprise, which is the engine of economic growth. Yes, politicians should not be given a free hand to raise taxes every time they wish. Yes, honorable people can disagree about the amount and fairness of different taxes.

But by all measures, U.S. citizens rank among the least-taxed of civilized nations - and for that we get the most civilized nation on earth.

So enough with the constant cry to reduce taxes. It's an easy emotion. But it's not responsible.

Landbuy: $1 billion a year or bust

Lofty goal set to help preserve Florida for generations to come

Tortoise protection to toughen

Volusia, state working to prevent live burials

DAYTONA BEACH -- Gopher tortoises face a gruesome death when they're in the way of new construction.

olusia County officials want to join in the effort to stop those deaths.

"The problem is, the most desirable land for development is land the gopher tortoise is likely to inhabit," said Stephen Kintner, Volusia County environmental management director.

Lucky tortoises get relocated, but bulldozers bury unlucky animals to die in the underground burrows where they live -- with permission from the state.

"We've heard scientists tell us it might take three to six months for a gopher tortoise to die after its been entombed in its burrow," Kintner said.

County Council members on Thursday will consider working with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on a plan to protect gopher tortoises from being buried alive.

"This is a no-brainer for the Council," said Volusia County Chairman Frank Bruno, who expects unanimous approval.

Other counties have taken or are considering similar actions. Flagler County adopted a resolution in August asking the state to severely limit so-called incidental take permits that allow developers to bury and kill tortoises.

"I call them incidental kill permits," said Betty O'Laughlin, chairwoman of the Environmental Council of Volusia-Flagler Counties. "You're covering up live animals."

Florida has issued 2,477 incidental take permits statewide, 47 in Flagler and 69 in Volusia. Money from the permits is earmarked to buy land to relocate tortoises in hopes the species will prosper.

"What's distasteful to people is that the gopher tortoises on a site have to die," said Joy Hill, spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "We don't like doing that, either."

But she acknowledges that despite the policy, not enough land -- 10,000 acres so far -- has been purchased. And the gopher tortoise population has declined up to 80 percent over the past century, Hill said.

Gopher tortoises can live more than 100 years. They dig burrows up to 40 feet long and 10 feet deep, which also provide shelter for more than 360 species of animals, including indigo snakes, gopher frogs, skunks, quail and armadillos.

State officials are working on a plan to emphasize relocation and limit incidental take permits. The plan should be ready by June, when tortoises will be upgraded from a species of special concern to a threatened species. Developers are joining the effort.

In Flagler, Harbor Village Marina developers in August withdrew their incidental take permit and announced plans to relocate about 40 tortoises.

Holly Hill developer Parker Mynchenberg bought an incidental take permit for the Plantation Oaks project near Ormond Beach, but contacted the state about relocation after the state lifted a ban against moving tortoises that test positive for a respiratory disease, a fish and wildlife official said.

"Builders and developers have paid a lot of money for gopher tortoise relocation," said Sue Darden, executive director of the Volusia Home Builders Association. "Our developers don't want them killed, either."

Staff Writer Lauren Sonis contributed to this report.

john.bozzo@news-jrnl.com

Scientists Seek Cause of Fish Kill