A crowd including former city leaders hoists a flag at Causeway Park, open after fits and starts.
By ANDREW MEACHAM
Published August 11, 2004
MADEIRA BEACH - Causeway Park, the 2-acre swatch of waterfront land on the northwest end of the Tom Stuart Causeway, is officially born today. The 6:30 p.m. dedication ceremony culminates a 13-year odyssey marked by stalled deals and timely cash infusions from the government.
One resident decided to put the cherry on top - a U.S. flag.
Al Ledbetter owned an air conditioning company in Tampa. Now retired, he and wife Jean have lived in Madeira Beach for seven years. As he glanced out his car window at landscaping crews finishing the park, Ledbetter said he thought something was missing.
With the city's blessing, Ledbetter paid for a flagpole put near the south end of the park. On Saturday morning, he added an 8- by 12-foot flag.
A dozen or so guests unfolded the flag, careful not to let it touch the ground. The group included former Commissioners Roger Koske, Doreen Moore and Jan Sturgis; recently resigned Mayor Tom DeCesare; former City Manager Jim Madden; and former Board of Adjustment members Joe Jorgensen and Dennis Reynolds. The crowd pledged allegiance to the new flag, then burst into applause.
In recent months, city boards have been touched by members resigning or in some cases being removed. But Ledbetter, 70, denied he was making a political statement with the makeup of the informal flag ceremony.
"We wanted the people who were responsible for the park being put into place helping to put that flag up," Ledbetter said.
The city first conceived of turning the land into a park in 1991 but struggled to come to terms with the property owner. A $1.9-million state grant in 2000 finally made the land purchase possible. A grant of $450,000 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency in compensation for a 1993 oil spill and $150,000 from the Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program helped create the park, which offers a fishing pier and a new seawall.
