Health officials try to close inn

Bayport Inn owners are headed to court to fight claims that it discharges polluted wastewater.

By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 8, 2000

The Hernando County Health Department will ask a judge Tuesday to close the Bayport Inn until it gets an approved wastewater system.

Three days later, the county Development Department plans to send inspectors to the waterfront restaurant and hotel to determine whether recent renovations there meet the building code. In a letter to co-owner Bruce Hammond, Development Director Grant Tolbert suggested several violations exist.

Hammond continued to deny he had done anything wrong but seemed resigned to the fact that rough times lie ahead for his business.

"At least I'll get my day in court," Hammond said, referring further questions to his attorney and partner Thomas Hersem.

Hersem said he had not seen the complaint and could not comment about it. He did offer his opinion about the ongoing investigations into the inn's sewage situation, though.

"If anybody is real honest about this thing, the whole area -- not just the Bayport Inn, but the whole area from where the sewer ends to where God starts the Gulf -- needs a sewer system," Hersem said. "If they really are interested in solving the problem instead of putting the Bayport out of business, the county needs to install a sewer."

In most instances, businesses agree immediately to fix any sanitation problems discovered, said Albert Gray, the Health Department's environmental manager. He lamented that the department has to go through the more lengthy court procedure to get the Bayport Inn to comply with an order to clean up its waste.

The state Department of Business and Professional Regulation can close a restaurant unilaterally, he said. But it has shown no inclination to do so with the Bayport Inn despite Health Department findings of "sludge, grease, food particles and extremely high counts of fecal coliform bacteria," which indicates the presence of human waste, coming out of a pipe leading from the inn to a neighboring salt marsh.

"We're doing what we can," Gray said.

In its complaint to the court, the Health Department contended that a judge's order is the only way to shut the Bayport Inn until it gets rid of the sanitary nuisance created by its lack of an acceptable wastewater system. Attached is a 1996 memo from the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services that states the inn's sewage treatment and disposal system never has been permitted.

"Without the entry of this injunction, the residents of Hernando County, in addition to the flora and fauna along the waters in a saltwater marsh estuary of the State of Florida, will continue to suffer immediate and irreparable harm from exposure to untreated or improperly treated human and kitchen wastewater caused by improperly maintained septic tanks," the department contends in its complaint.

Circuit Judge Curtis Neal will hear the case. Initially, the judge's aide told a Health Department legal assistant that Neal had no time available until September. After some back and forth, they settled on 4:15 p.m. Tuesday.

Tolbert, meanwhile, has informed Hammond that his team plans to visit the Bayport Inn on Friday unless they can agree to a different time.

"A recent inspection of the property noted a newly remodeled kitchen, expanded restroom facilities, changes to the mechanical systems and electrical wiring not installed per code, as well as other possible code violations," Tolbert wrote.

In recent years, the inn has applied for 10 building permits that the county has denied because of "outstanding citations" that already existed. County development and code enforcement officials contend the inn's owners did the work anyway.

Hammond has argued that the county wrongly rejected the permit applications and said he is fighting the county over the issue.

"If they notify us of a problem with code, we will try to bring it to code," Hersem said. "We want to comply. We want to be good citizens."

Hammond also responded to accusations that Peter Montero, a senior inspector with the Division of Hotels and Restaurants, gave him special treatment. The Department of Business and Professional Regulation pulled Montero off his regular route Thursday while it looks into his business relationship with Hammond.

According to Hammond, Montero had a plumbing license that was about to expire and he wanted to form a corporation to keep the license active. Montero was going through a divorce and asked Hammond to be the corporation's president because he needed an additional officer.

"We never did one bit of work," Hammond said. "He didn't gain anything from it."

And neither did the Bayport Inn, he and Hersem said.

"The only things I've heard about the county or the state is that everybody seems to give us a harder time, not an easier time," Hersem said.

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