Etna advocates worry that closed meetings make it easy to pave over the turpentine stills.
By JUSTIN GEORGE
Published May 16, 2004
SUGARMILL WOODS - There are broken pots, shards of whiteware and purple glass at Etna. Yellow haws form entrances to what remains of the early 1900s-era camp, while canopy oaks try to hide soil burns left from the rosin of turpentine stills.
Teddi Bierly and Bobby Roscow want to protect this historical spot from a possible Suncoast Parkway extension that, they fear, could bury it for good. Their fear is based on their interpretation of a copy of a handwritten sheet of poster paper that was discussed during a closed meeting of state and federal officials in February.
Outwardly, the page, which is part of a blank flip-book typically used during business meetings to jot down discussion notes, doesn't seem to mean much. But to Bierly and Roscow, it crystallizes their entire argument on why the state should not shut the public out of meetings where federal, state and local officials discuss the possible parkway extension through Citrus. That extension could go through the remains of the camp town Etna, located about a half mile north of County Road 480, east of Sugarmill Woods.
"It's the key to understanding all this area," Roscow said.
The Suncoast Parkway stretches from Tampa north to U.S. 98 near the Hernando-Citrus county line. State officials are discussing bringing that parkway through Citrus. The County Commission and many business owners support the extension; vocal environmentalists and "not in my back yard" residents are fiercely against it.
State transportation officials have not committed to building the $200-million highway, which could require up to $160-million in federal dollars. However, they would like to narrow down one good route for the parkway and then decide whether to build.
Two groups meet to discuss this: The Suncoast Parkway Advisory Group, or SPAG, includes state and county officials as well as residents. The meetings, held periodically, are open to the public.
The Environmental Resource and Regulatory Agency Group, or ERRAG, includes local, state and federal officials from 10 agencies. The public is barred from these meetings under the premise that the group does not make any decisions.
But Roscow, a Connecticut architect who owns property in Citrus, where he grew up, and Bierly, who lives in Sugarmill Woods, filed a lawsuit in Leon County Circuit Court against the Florida Department of Transportation, asking a judge to open the meetings to the public.
They argue that decisions are being made. The only public records from the meetings are short summaries and work session notes, which are posted on the state's Suncoast Parkway Project 2 Web site.
Roscow and Bierly said those records are filtered versions of what really take place in the ERRAG meetings.
Proof of that, they said, came recently. As part of the evidence disclosure in their lawsuit, Bierly and Roscoe's attorney obtained flip chart sheets used in the Feb. 25 and 26 closed meetings.
In thick marker, the sheet shows that officials were talking about several proposed routes and the effect they could have on homes, the environment and historical properties.
On the sheet, one of the routes - one of three favored by state officials - "will destroy turpentine camp," notes state.
Then, those words are crossed out. "May involve" was then written underneath.
This alarmed Roscow and Bierly for several reasons. Bierly's husband, a member of SPAG, and others have asked state officials for months about the proposed parkway's impact on the turpentine campsite, Bierly said.
The campsite, discovered in 1993, was where trees were tapped and turpentine was made possibly as far back as 1898 for all types of uses - maybe even to line boats used in the Spanish American War, speculated Bierly's husband, Jim.
But parkway officials and a transportation consultant, Teddi Bierly said, have downplayed Etna's existence and the impact a parkway route could have on it.
In comparison with the handwritten note, which shows "destroying" the campsite may have been discussed by officials, work session notes from the closed meeting - available to the public - say: "may involve turpentine camp."
It makes no reference to "will destroy," as the flip book sheet does.
"So what we are getting are doctored minutes," Roscow said.
Giving this alleged "spinning" more punch, the pair said, is the federal government's recent decision not to give state conservation areas known as Annuteliga Hammock near Sugarmill Woods - where Etna is located - and the Lecanto Sandhills a special designation. That designation, based on environmental and historic significance of land, among other things, would require the state to strongly and thoroughly prove that there was no other option but to build on those lands - if they decided to.
That conclusion was made after state transportation officials persuaded the Federal Highway Administration not to designate those areas as worthy of extra protection. State officials contend that FDOT and the state Department of Environmental Protection jointly agreed that the parkway might go through the area years ago.
A report lobbying the federal government to that effect did not include any mention of Etna, said Bierly and Roscow, who have reviewed it. They think Etna might have made the federal government change its mind by law.
Carl Gibilaro, Suncoast Parkway 2 project manager for the Turnpike Enterprise, strongly disagreed with Bierly and Roscow's points.
He said the state Bureau of Historic Preservation can decide to protect Etna from the parkway. The federal ruling "doesn't automatically give us the green light to go right through there," he said.
He said Etna is being discussed in ERRAG closed meetings - a sign of importance - to make sure all officials are aware of it as they discuss possible parkway routes and impacts.
He said the public isn't being misled and is adamant that no decisions are being made in the closed meetings, which he said created "more questions than answers" during these early stages.
"I don't remember the word "destroy' being used," Gibilaro said of the Feb. 25 and 26 ERRAG meetings. "Right now, everything is so preliminary. There is nothing definitive right now."
Except in Roscow and Bierly's minds. Their lawsuit is still pending. Both sides have asked a Tallahassee judge for summary judgment. The next hearing is schedule for Friday. "This is a real example of how we're being lied to, let alone, how we're not being allowed to attend the meetings," Roscow said.
