DAYTONA BEACH -- Two Daytona Beach cemeteries that have become infamous for misplaced burials and thefts from cadavers have agreed to relinquish control.

Circuit Judge David A. Monaco ruled Thursday that a court-appointed manager will take control of Bellevue and Cedar Hill Memory Gardens. Attorney David Barrett announced that the cemeteries will be put up for sale.

Both moves would keep owner Willard Timmer from having anything to do with the cemeteries in the future.

The actions in Daytona Beach do not affect the operations of Timmer's Dunedin facility, Abbey Parklawn Funeral Home. That funeral home, operated by Timmer's daughter, Jeannie Walsh, has Pinellas County's contract to bury or cremate poor people and unclaimed bodies.

Disease, not poison, now suspected in bird deaths

APOPKA -- Disease rather than pesticide poisoning may have caused more than 1,000 bird deaths at Lake Apopka, environmental experts now say.

Dead birds found at Lake Apopka showed signs of Newcastle disease, a viral illness which can cause paralysis, blindness, seizures, tremors and death.

The latest conclusion comes from a draft report written for the St. Johns River Water Management District, which is supervising a lake cleanup being done by Exponent, a Bellevue, Wash.-based environmental consulting firm.

Pelican and cormorant deaths two winters ago were initially blamed on poisoning from pesticides used on huge farms carved out of Lake Apopka marsh decades ago.

Last year, federal prosecutors began to investigate the bird kill, seeking records about chemicals used by farmers. Most restoration work at Lake Apopka stopped during the investigation, including work on 14,000 acres bought for $100-million.

Birds began dying soon after former farms were flooded and reverted to wetlands. The fields were then drained out of fear pesticides were killing birds.

There are several reasons why the consulting firm concluded the birds were not poisoned. First, other kinds of water birds flocked to Lake Apopka for the winter before the pelicans and cormorants arrived but very few of them died.

Also, fish are very sensitive to the pesticides found in the tissue of dead birds, yet there were no large fish kills.

Fog, dense smoke lead to two traffic accidents

ORLANDO -- Fog and dense smoke from three nearby muck fires caused two major accidents on Orlando roadways Friday, including a 16-car pileup.

The 16-car accident on State Road 417 between the Beeline Expressway and Narcoosee Road began when a vehicle plowed into a patrol car driven by an Osceola County sheriff's deputy.

The deputy and another person were taken to the hospital. None of the injuries were life-threatening. The road was closed for two hours.

In a separate accident, heavy smoke caused a six-car pileup on State Road 50 at State Road 520. Four people were taken to the hospital for treatment of minor injuries.

Legislators seek end to dredging of Apalachicola

TALLAHASSEE -- A four-decades-old practice of sucking sand from the Apalachicola River and piling it along the banks may end this fall, halting most of what little barge traffic is left on the waterway between the Gulf of Mexico and upriver towns.

If Florida and Georgia members of Congress have their way, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will stop dredging a barge channel in the north Florida river, addressing complaints that the practice is an environmental disaster that chokes off marine life.

U.S. Sen. Bob Graham and U.S. Rep. Alan Boyd, both Florida Democrats, said Friday they will work with Republican Sen. Connie Mack of Florida and Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia to stop the corps' dredging on the river.

For 42 years the Army corps has cleared a 9-foot channel to allow barges to ply the Apalachicola, moving fertilizer, aviation fuel and other products from the Gulf of Mexico upriver.

At Lake Seminole, on the Florida-Georgia border, the Apalachicola connects to the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers, giving cities such as Columbus and Bainbridge in Georgia a route to the Gulf.

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk