Sunday, October 18, 2009

The inaugural ceremony at Old City Hall on Wednesday at noon was an event of vicinal pageantry and glamor.

The newly installed repeating commissioner, Jimmy Weekley, declared: "I can't wait to get started." The new commissioner, Billy Wardlow, when power-squeezed in a hug by Commissioner Mark Rossi complete with slap on the back of the neck, mugged appropriately. To endow us with our most colossal accolade yet, Commissioner Clayton Lopez called Key West "the greatest community on Earth." And Mayor Craig Cates gave his first mayoral address (see Quote for the Week at the end of this column).

Yet the full-house event had fallen on a "bittersweet day," Weekley told Soundings. A minute of silence was held for Ron Herron, a friend and an employee of the city and a neighbor for years. Ron was 60 when he died last weekend in a drowning accident in which he lay down his life for his friend, than which there is no greater love.

Also departed is Grace Key Willis, 52, daughter of Key West Commissioner Albert Lee Key and a person in her prime, a parent, neighbor, school principle who has left us the generosity of a lifetime as her legacy.

• • • • •

Lynne Vantriglia is leaving Key West after 32 years.

Founder of Art Behind Bars, the rehabilitative experience that improves the lives of everyone involved and is now in its 16th year, Lynne is relocating to her family's neck of the woods, somewhere in New York or Rhode Island.

"I'll be back to visit," she told Soundings last week. She has tutored 1,150 classes at the Monroe County Detention Center and brought art to 8,200 inmates, a tangible alternative to the zero efforts otherwise offered.

But "it was more fun with Ernie," Lynne confessed last week -- her husband Ernie died one year ago today. "Without him it's become more work and less fun."

Staying on in Key West is Lynne and Ernie's son, the dashing Damian, who is to marry the sensational Leah Jabour in April.

Art Behind Bars and Art After Bars are, and will remain, very much alive. The two programs ranked 37 out of 605 nonprofits recently awarded grants by the Division of Cultural Affairs. Now Lynne can afford to pay personnel who "are prepared to go into jail," she reports. She'll stay in the Keys until December and will be recruiting.

And she'll be back, she adds, as circumstances dictate. The Studios of Key West, in an exercise of curious potential, will be offering art classes provided by former inmates.

• • • • •

Here's the good news.

In Tampa last week -- you heard it here first --Michael Sole, secretary of the state's Dept. of Environmental Protection, announced the winners of the Serve to Preserve: Green Schools Awards.

This governor's award carries a $1,500 cash prize for each of the winners and more than 125 applications were received from Pasco, Monroe, Brevard and Broward counties.

The Class Award has gone to -- guess who? -- Joshua Clearman, science teacher at Key West High.

Clearman and his class have created an alternative energy center to help students adopt emerging green technology. The class produced biodiesel on a small scale and used a car donated by a member of the community as a test model for the fuel.

"These awards spotlight the tremendous efforts of students, teachers and schools," said Vincent M. Dolan, president and chief executive officer of Progress Energy Florida. "We are investing in the minds that will help shape our energy future."

• • • • •

Scientists say that 350 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere is the safe limit for humanity. We have already passed that limit.

From 4 to 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center, 33 East Quay Rd. a mini-film festival features a couple of fascinating flicks to fix a problem or two.

"PowerShift," narrated by Cameron Diaz, is a glimpse of how climate change affects the lives of people from an astronaut to villagers in the Amazon. "Heat" shows how the world's largest corporations and governments are responding to environmental changes on four continents and in 12 countries.

These movies are just minutes away from the Goombay and free to all.

• • • • •

After 40 years, the War on Drugs is set to become the longest continuous war in history.

Declared in 1971 and promptly deflected from its mission by political and espionage concerns, the Drug Enforcement Agency's War on Drugs essentially came under the command of its mother-agency's chief of intelligence, George Belk, a hard-drinking, bible-thumping New York City district supervisor and a participant in the CIA's MKULTRA program of domestic spying.

Belk once had the nerve to ask a good question about the so-called enemy in this endless war: "Don't we ever think of giving these people a chance to surrender?"

• • • • •

At last, the late Joe Wilt gets an appropriate send-off.

By the time Wilt retired from Key West High School as choir director just a few years ago, he had transformed the choir into a high-energy company of singers and dancers that aimed for the stars year after year.

Joe's remains have stayed in his native Virginia, but on Wednesday last week his colleagues, friends and families in Key West were moved to celebrate his spirit here in a memorial concert for Joe held at the high school auditorium.

For a while, Wilt was once a driver for the Conch train. But it was as dedicated and devoted choir director at the high school that Joe brought New York's Broadway to Flagler Avenue and introduced young hearts to the Great American Songbook.

The concert last week was long anticipated and a big draw.

• • • • •

Sunrise Rotary of the Conch Republic seeks organizations to join forces for the second annual Keys Bees costumed Spelling Bee to benefit Literacy Volunteers of America in Monroe County.

Target date is early 2010, preferably January or February. Those interested in co-sponsoring should contact Janie Rodriguez at 304-4106 (e-mail wiemeri@sprintmail.com) or Mary Casanova at 304-0578 (e-mail marycasanova@earth link.net).

• • • • •

First Words Uttered by Key West Mayor Craig Cates from the Mayoral Seat:

"Let's feel how comfortable this is."

• • • • •

Quote for the Week:

"We can have progress and growth without compromising our way of life."

-- Mayor Craig Cates,

Inaugural address,

Wednesday, Oct. 14