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ATV'ers won't get Christmas wish
(Note: The "benevolent" South Florida Water
"Control" District wants readers to think it is the good
guy, but astute readers, alert to Language Deception, will see another
agenda.)
December 22, 2005
By Kenneth Costello
Collier Citizen
53 Twelfth Street North
Naples, Florida 34104
239-213-6077
Fax: 239-213-6076
To submit a Letter to the Editor: news@colliercitizen.com
All they want for Christmas is a section of
land, but some Collier all-terrain vehicle (ATV) users say they’ve
been left with a lump of coal.
During a special meeting of county and state officials, December
15, the county agreed to extend the South Florida Water Management
District’s (SFWMD) timeframe to provide 640-acres of land for
recreational vehicle use if the District agrees to be party to a
lawsuit tied to the agreement.
In 2003, recreational vehicle enthusiasts lost the use of Bad Luck
Prairie in the Southern [Golden Gates] Estates [SGGE] to the
Everglades Restoration project, spearheaded by SFWMD.
Public outcry from the loss led Collier County commissioners to cut
a deal in a memorandum of understanding (MOU).
The agreement required the county to turn over its road easements
in the Southern [Golden Gates] Estates and the District would
give the county 640 acres of land for ATV use by October 1, 2005.
That date has come and gone, and county officials say the District
is in breach of its agreement.
Pam Mac’Kie, a former Collier County commissioner now with the
SFWMD, says the District has made good on the deal, providing two
parcels of land near Lake Trafford in Immokalee, adding up to slightly
less than 640 acres.
Thanks, but no thanks says Estates resident Brian McMahon, a member
of the Southwest Florida Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Advisory Committee.
He says the proposed site is unacceptable because it is
contaminated with arsenic.
"Would you feel safe or want your children there? I think
not," McMahon says.
"I don’t think the South Florida Water Management District
has any real intention of providing what they promised -- 640 acres
acceptable to the residents of Collier County."
McMahon said he never believed the SFWMD would actually make good
on its promise. He wants the county to negotiate a buy-out for the
proposed site.
"The 600-acre tract at current property value is worth at
least $20 million," he maintains. "The deadline has passed;
the county should either demand resolution now, or nullify the
agreement."
Clarence Tears, director of the Big Cypress Basin, the local arm of
SFWMD, admits the land may have been
contaminated when the lake was dredged, but says the
problem can be addressed with encapsulation or other decontamination
measures.
But contamination is only one issue holding up the land transfer.
SGGE property owners Vince Doerr and Bernard Nobel have filed a
lawsuit against Collier County, claiming they were not compensated for
loss of access when the county turned the road easements over to the
state. The suit contends the During the December 15 meeting, state and county officials argued
responsibility.
Assistant county attorney Jacqueline Hubbard maintained that access
to properties in the Southern Estates is now a state problem and the
county wants to be held harmless or have the state be a party to the
suit.
SFWMD attorney Robert Panse denied
the state should join in or indemnify Collier County, stating the
Nobel/Doerr suit is defensible and without merit.
The county is using the District’s failure to fulfill its MOU as
a bargaining chip to force the state to share in any damages resulting
from the suit.
During the meeting, MacKie maintained the 640 acres was tendered,
but Hubbard countered that a substantial portion of that land must be
suitable for recreational use. She said the extent of contamination to
the land was unknown and the land might not be suitable.
County Manager Jim Mudd said he did not want an adversarial
relationship with the state and urged SFWMD officials to work with the
county to resolve the problem.
He proposed the state spend the next 60 days trying to acquire the
Doerr and Nobel properties, and the county would agree to a
year-by-year extension of the MOU -- if the District can
guarantee the land is free of contaminates.
If the state is not able to purchase the properties and the suit is
not resolved, county officials say they will be responsible for no
more than one-third of any damages. The other two thirds will be shared on an as yet to be determined
basis between SFWMD and the Board of Trustees for the Internal
Improvement Trust Fund, which manages state lands. Unhappy with the resolution, McMahon says the District is
abandoning its promise and the county is looking the other way.
"The deadline has passed -- by two months. I think Mr.
Mudd has no interest in this issue, has no intention of pursuing
it," he said. "The county gave away millions of dollars in
right of ways, and received nothing in return."
Copyright 2005, Collier Citizen.
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