Sunday, July 25, 2010

City made right move on Wisteria Island

The Key West City Commission absolutely did the right thing Tuesday night in denying approval for a huge development on Wisteria Island.

The proposal was a wolf in sheep's clothing from the start, offering to "clean up the garbage and drugs" from the island and install a mooring field to "clean up the water" -- all for an itty-bitty zoning change to build Sunset Key The Second.

Glossed over or ignored by the owners, architect and attorneys was the 21 acres of wildlife habitat, including endangered species and rare plant life that would be wiped out forever. Also ignored was the strong sentiment by Key Westers that more offshore development with more unfulfilled promises is not the best path of the future.

I own waterfront property in Key West. Trash ranging from plastic bags, planks, gas tanks, life jackets, fish carcasses, pieces of boats, etc., washes up every time the wind blows. With help from neighbors, I recycle what I can, and process the rest so it can be hauled away to the dump.

The owners of Wisteria have the same problem, but chose to ignore it over the past 20 years. They talk about the accumulated marine debris as though it was nuclear waste, and asked for a million-dollar zoning change as a reward for finally cleaning it up. Baloney.

There was no real benefit for Key West, state planners were strongly opposed, and our commission made the right move. Bravo.

George Halloran

Key West

Despite ads, I didn't see my 'fair share'

This week, after presenting everything BP wanted for the month of June to their claims office in Marathon, and waiting three weeks for a payment, I received a check for 12 percent of what I presented. Speaking with the claims officer, he said top management ignored my well-documented claim and based their payment on 1/12th of my revenue for 2009.

Talk about smoke and mirrors. Small boat charter captains in the Keys make 80 percent of their yearly income in the first six months of any given year. This year was not a typical year, with January, February, March and April being blown out by very high winds and extremely cold conditions. These conditions forced my anglers to book May, June and July -- and most did. Then the worst happened with the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. My loyal customers/anglers were afraid of spending their hard-earned cash on nonrefundable airline/lodging bookings and then not being able to come to the Keys with their families or friends with no end in sight of the spill.

The bad part is my -- and many other charter boat operators -- season is about over. We will never know how many anglers took fishing in Florida off the table.

How will we stay in business?

The lodging and charter boat industries slashed their prices rock bottom just to stay afloat until next season. We are ineligible for unemployment. Is this the end of my 25-year career, because BP so blatantly ignored many safety issues with the well?

BP is advertising how they will pay their fair share of damages and "make it right."

I suggest not wasting your time with BP claims offices and go straight to your attorney's offices. I was willing to play ball with BP, but they are not willing to pay their "fair share."

I'm looking for an aggressive spill attorney. I've wasted enough time with BP.

Sam Nelson

Marathon

Tax hikes a certainty for most homeowners

The likelihood of most county property owners paying higher taxes this year is a certainty. Even if the various taxing bodies do not increase their millage rates, which is highly unlikely, most of us will still pay more.

Why? Most of us own property with a homestead exemption. That property is subject to a 3 percent annual increase in assessed value, as we are all well below fair market assessments.

Those who own property without a homestead exemption -- "snowbirds" -- will see their tax bills decline along with their assessments. Property with homestead exemptions will have to make up the shortfall.

Larry Murray

Big Pine Key