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Charred cross greets bank manager at work

By THERESA BLACKWELL
Published September 17, 2006

Sept. 19, 1978

PALM HARBOR - The charred remains of a 4-foot-high cross wrapped in cloth stood in a circle of blackened grass when Palm State Bank Vice President Robert Prentice arrived at work Monday morning.

Prentice, manager of the branch at U.S. Alt. 19 and Virginia Avenue, said he went inside and made the regular morning coffee. Then he called the bank's main office on U.S. 19. and told the security guard who answered the phone, "When the top honchos come in, tell 'em I got a little ol' cross in the yard."

Frank A. Weaner, president and board chairman of the bank, called the sheriff's office. He considered the cross-burning incident a "serious threat."

Weaner believes that the Ku Klux Klan is behind the burning. Since he began speaking out against their setting up a headquarters about a mile from the bank's main office at 1000 U.S. 19, he has received several threats from the klan, he said.

One note read, "The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are watching you" and "You could receive a visit from the klan."

Weaner also said some of the threats singled him out with derisive anti-Semitic barbs. He described the group as a "neo-Nazi movement clad in KKK robes."

But sheriff's spokesman Merrill Stebbins said the department has no evidence to point the finger at anyone yet.

Jim Gregory, a state klan officer, adamantly denied that the klan was responsible for the burning. "That went out 100 years ago," he said. "But we're getting blamed for it, and we're getting tired of it. It's something anybody - high school kids, klan-haters - could have done."

Sept. 20, 1974

Shell Oil to drill 45 miles off Clearwater

CLEARWATER - Shell Oil Co. will begin drilling for oil next month in the Gulf of Mexico about 50 miles west of the Suncoast, hoping its luck will be better than arch-rival Exxon's was off the Florida Panhandle. Exactly where Shell will drill won't be announced until a press briefing at 1:30 p.m. Monday at the Airport Hotel at Tampa International Airport. But a likely spot would be about 45 miles west of Clearwater Beach in a 9-square-mile tract that Shell leased from the federal government last year for $9.4 million. Exxon paid a record $212 million for a tract south of Fort Walton Beach, but its first drilling attempt this summer turned up a dry hole.

Sept. 16, 1980

Death blow seen in Crystal Beach fight

CLEARWATER - Efforts to stop development on Crystal Beach appear to have been dealt a death blow with the state's decision to cut the property from this year's list of endangered lands to be purchased.

Crystal Beach, a 145-acre, gulf shore tract north of Dunedin, was among 42 parcels selected earlier by the State Conservation and Recreation Lands Selection Committee for possible state purchase.

But last week it was cut from consideration for purchase this year. With hope of imminent state purchase gone, it appears that the developers, Crystal Beach Conservation and Development Associates, will be allowed to build 110 single-family homes and townhouses on 70 acres of uplands. They have offered to donate about half of the tract to the county to protect the wetlands.

"I think the state's not purchasing it is its death blow," said County Commissioner Charles Rainey. "That's the last place we could have possibly gone," referring to the state.

Carol Harding, president of Save Crystal Beach, said, "It's a big disappointment. It's a shame that development has to take over again."

Dan Crabb, a state land-management specialist, said Monday that the committee's decision not to purchase the beach tract was the result of a feeling that the tract was "more of a local project" with little state or regional impact.

"I think the committee didn't feel that you could use state money for what will probably end up as a community park," he said. "There are other funds available for that."

Pinellas History is compiled by Times staff writer Theresa Blackwell. You can reach her at tblackwell@sptimes.com or 727 445-4170.

[Last modified September 17, 2006, 06:54:27]