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A pair of activists target the Parkway

By ANDREW SKERRITT
Published April 30, 2006

Theirs is a partnership of conviction: Teddi Bierly and Bobby Roscow.

Both are dead set against the extension of the Suncoast Parkway into Citrus County. She lives in Sugar Mill Woods, not far from where the new toll road could be built. He owns farmland in his native Inverness but lives in Connecticut.

The two have formed a combination to poke a finger in the eyes of the state Department of Transportation and the Florida Turnpike Authority.

Their lawsuit challenging the secrecy of meetings by agencies planning the Suncoast Parkway extension has put the studies and planning for the toll road on hold.

"This is the most critical thing that has happened since 1994," said Janet Masaoy of Citizens Opposed to the Suncoast Tollway, describing the lawsuit. COST has been fighting the road for almost 12 years - long before Teddi and Bobby joined the struggle. "We are indebted to them," she says.

Teddi and Bobby clearly would like the temporary halt of the project to become permanent.

Time and its companion, money, are their allies. It took well over a decade for the first phase of the Suncoast Parkway to be completed.

The proposed 30-mile extension was initially going to cost $200-million. That has tripled. Construction inflation will only expand those numbers. DOT still has 10 alternative routes for the extension. The studies and plans are far from complete.

Will anyone pay nearly a billion dollars for another toll road that folks in the cities still consider the middle of nowhere? Is the extension really necessary? Those questions will be heard more loudly as the bottom line expands and will be increasingly difficult for state bureaucrats to justify.

It wasn't always that way. After the 42-mile Suncoast Parkway opened in 2001, allowing folks in Hernando, Pasco and Citrus to drive to Tampa International in less than an hour, the only question in most people's mind, was when, not if, the toll road would be extended.

But Teddi and Bobby never accepted the conventional wisdom.

She's a retired microbiologist and relative newbie to Citrus County. She and her husband Jim moved to Citrus from Pinellas in 1999. Conservation is big in their lives. Soon after he got to Citrus he started a local chapter of the Florida Native Plants Society. When she heard about the toll road, she joined COST. To her, the toll road is the worst that could happen to Citrus County. It will bring trouble - people, houses and cars.

"It's going to destroy a lot of land - the serenity of the place where you live and the good quality air, the peace and tranquility, the springs, the beauty of all the birds," she said quietly.

Teddi is fighting for her way of life while fighting for her life. Around the time she filed the lawsuit, she was diagnosed with cancer of the uterus. That hasn't stopped her from driving to Tallahassee to testify in hearings for the lawsuit. She drives to H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa for chemotherapy.

"She's done this at a significant personal sacrifice," said Ross Burnaman, the attorney handling the lawsuit.

Bobby, meanwhile, came to this fight later. An architect and former cattle farmer, he's been interested in what preservationists call "connectivity," creating corridors to connect large tracts of land to save endangered species.

He learned about the Suncoast Parkway too late to fight the first phase. Through his interest in stopping the project he found Teddi. They're kindred spirits at a distance. In his hometown of Hamden, Conn., developers can't wait for him to get off the planning and zoning board. His language is passionate, his words flavored with pepper. He's going after the DOT and the turnpike authority, what he calls the "road paving-development-industrial complex."

"We're not stopping with the Suncoast Parkway. That's small potatoes," he said from his home.

He's the noisy partner; Teddi is the quiet, dignified voice. Both are equally eloquent in calling for a halt to the Suncoast Parkway's northward push. Florida has a history of bulldozing such voices in the name of progress. Forgive my hypocrisy when I tell you how much I hope they succeed, even as I enjoy speeding south at 70 miles an hour.

Andrew Skerritt can be reached at 813 909-4602 or toll free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 4602. His e-mail address is askerritt@sptimes.com

[Last modified April 30, 2006, 00:58:16]