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Neighbors celebrate as the fence blocking their lakeside view is removed, but dig in for a battle ahead.
By ROBERT FARLEY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 26, 2002
EAST LAKE -- For the first time in more than two weeks, Alice Beehner can look off her back porch and see an alligator swimming in the lake behind her home.
The 6-foot pink fence that blocked her and her neighbors' view is gone.
Early Saturday, workers armed with sledgehammers knocked down the most visible symbol of land speculator Don Connolly's attempts to wring large sums of money from properties he purchased for relatively little at delinquent tax sales.
"What a difference," Mrs. Beehner said, looking out across the 4-acre lake. "Look at how beautiful it is. It is perfectly serene."
Connolly said he decided to take down the fence as a "good faith" gesture after meeting Friday with state Sen. Jim Sebesta, R-St. Petersburg.
Sebesta said he met with Connolly and his wife, Marcia, at a Cracker Barrel restaurant on Interstate 4 in Plant City. He said he wanted to broker a "reasonable" deal between Connolly and the Tarpon Woods homeowners who live around the lake.
"Mr. Connolly was receptive to that idea," Sebesta said.
He said Connolly offered to take down the fence.
"I decided to take the first step," Connolly said Saturday. "We decided the strongest statement we could make would be to take the fence down."
Sebesta said Connolly and his wife told him the media attention has been very unpleasant for their tightknit family.
"That factor was no doubt weighing on him," Sebesta said.
The Beehners and their neighbors shared a champagne toast when informed of the decision Friday night, but some of the residents say it is too early to celebrate.
"I don't think there's any sincerity on Mr. Connolly's part," said Peter Cieslinski, 44. "I think it was just a way for him to take the heat off all the controversy the fence has generated."
"The mugger has stopped beating us, is all," said another neighbor, Len Freborg. "But the mugger is still standing there."
Many residents were just happy to enjoy the restored view on Saturday.
"We've got our breeze back," said Freborg's wife, Florence, as she gathered up several small slivers of the pink-painted boards to save as souvenirs.
The controversy over the fence exploded when residents who thought they owned the lake behind their $300,000 homes learned that Connolly had purchased it for $848 at a delinquent tax sale in November.
He offered to sell the land back for $30,000 per homeowner. The residents refused. Someone took a few of the survey posts marking the property boundaries and threw them into the lake.
That's when Connolly built the fence.
Sebesta said he told Connolly his asking price of $30,000 per homeowner was "prohibitive." Connolly responded that he was "more than willing to negotiate a fair price, whatever that is," Sebesta said.
Negotiating a deal with Connolly at any price is still a tough sell for some residents.
"However it ends up, he's not going to get a nickel out of me," Freborg vowed.
"Negotiate over something that should have been mine in the first place? No way," Cieslinski said.
Some residents said they want to see how things turn out with the county's efforts first.
Pinellas County administrator Steve Spratt said Saturday that contrary to neighborhood rumor, the county has not initiated condemnation of the property through eminent domain, though that remains a possibility. The county also might consider buying the property and then deeding it to the homeowners, who would then have to maintain it, Spratt said.
Prior to Connolly's purchase, the residents did maintain the lake and its banks. Saturday morning, Michael Beehner said he planned to mow the uneven grass on the other side of the fence line.
Connolly's workers left the fence posts in the ground, promising to return Tuesday to remove them. But Beehner, eager to get back an unobstructed view of the lake, made what he called his own "goodwill gesture" by pulling out the posts behind his home and stacking them next to a pile of fence wood.
As for resolving the property disputes involving Connolly's other land purchases -- including the submerged land behind 61 homeowners near South Pasadena -- Sebesta said that will have to come later.
"I want to concentrate on Tarpon Woods first," Sebesta said. "We'll see how that develops and then perhaps we'll get to the others."
Claiming a "partial victory," Mrs. Beehner said the story of the fence has provided one valuable lesson for everyone: "Pay attention to your abutting property. And pay attention to who owns it."
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