Grant program will help expand local recreation opportunities

TALLAHASSEE, FL – Under the leadership of Governor Charlie Crist and the Florida Legislature, the 2008-2009 budget includes $24 million to expand and improve local parks statewide. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program (FRDAP) will fund 212 projects in 54 counties to develop and enhance community parks, providing outdoor recreation opportunities and improving public access to Florida’s natural resources.

“Outdoor recreation areas and facilities are a vital part of Florida’s economy, drawing both Floridians and visitors to experience the state’s natural resources,” said DEP Secretary Michael W. Sole. “With the support of Governor Crist and the Florida Legislature, FRDAP funding allows Florida cities and counties to develop and enhance local parks while uniting their communities through recreational opportunities.”

Projects include:

Town of Bascom, Community Park – $135,611

Through the Rural Economic Development Initiative, this small community with a population of 111 and an operating budget of $53,000 can enjoy a park without having to match the grant funding provided. The grant will allow the Town to develop a children’s playground and restroom within the only existing park in the community. The property is four-acres and houses the 1929 Bascom school house, which the Town hopes to renovate as a community center for family reunions and community events through historical funding opportunities.

Taylor County, Steinhatchee Park – $135,611

This County Park is located in the Town of Steinhatchee, directly on the Steinhatchee River with close access to the Gulf of Mexico. This project will provide a new public fishing pier and restroom and will renovate the only public playground and picnic facilities in the area. A Florida Heritage Historical Marker is located at this site for its early Steinhatchee history. In addition, the Florida Department of Community Affairs recently awarded the Town with a Waterfronts Florida designation, which provides resources to assist coastal local governments with planning efforts.

City of Hampton, Bobbie Shepard Park – $135,611

Bobbie Shepard Park is the City of Hampton’s largest park located on the Lake Butler-Palatka Trail, and soon to be a designated trailhead along the route. The grant funding will help develop camping, picnic facilities, bike trail, playground, parking as well as enhancements to the existing restrooms and security lighting.

St. Johns County, Nease Beachfront Park – $135,611

Located between the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean, this site will provide users direct access to the Atlantic Ocean through a raised dune walkover and allow users to view the Intracoastal Waterway from a boardwalk through salt marsh to a scenic overlook pavilion. The project site also contains the historic Allen Nease House. The area falls into the St. Johns County Blueways and Greenways Master Plan as well as the East Coast Greenway, an urban trail that runs from Calais, Maine to Key West, Florida. FRDAP funding will also be used to build picnic facilities, a trail throughout the park and parking.

Palm Beach County, Lake Ida Park – $135,611

The park is located on the western shore of Lake Ida, a 120-acre freshwater lake that is part of Palm Beach County’s Chain of Lakes. The Lake provides fishing and recreational boating and is used by personal watercrafts, water skiers, wake boarders and fishers in both Palm Beach and Broward Counties. The improvements will include a new ADA-accessible playground, picnic pavilion, bike trail, canoe/kayak launch, parking and landscaping. An existing group pavilion, picnic pavilion, parking lot and landscaping will also be renovated.

“Reserving space and funds for recreation is essential to the healthy growth of Florida’s communities and citizens,” said DEP’s Florida Division of Recreation and Parks Director Mike Bullock. “The FRDAP program continues to facilitate city and county park growth and enhancement, strengthening families and the protection of Florida’s natural resources.”

Administered by DEP, the Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program (FRDAP) is a competitive grant program, providing funds to local communities for public outdoor recreation. Over the last decade, Florida has invested more than $250 million to improve local park facilities through this grant program, funding more than 2,000 projects statewide. Enhancements to local parks include improvements and renovations to playground and picnic facilities such as pavilions, tables and benches, ball fields, tennis and basketball courts, concession areas, lighting, fencing, restroom and shower facilities, parking areas, trails, grounds and landscaping, beach docks, piers and boardwalks.

For a list of funded projects and information about applying for a FRDAP grant, visit www.dep.state.fl.us/parks/OIRS/default.htm .

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Steve Waters | Outdoors Writer – June 1, 2008

The issue of Everglades Holiday Park becoming a Broward County park doesn’t have to be an issue at all.

Not if the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission doesn’t want it to be.

Everglades Holiday Park is a popular spot for anglers, motorcyclists, duck hunters and tourists, who come by the busload to ride airboats and see alligators. Old Florida at its best, the park is open all the time and there is no fee to get in or use its boat ramps.

The 45-acre property is owned by Broward County, which leases it to the FWC. The FWC sublets it to a concessionaire, who gives the FWC a percentage of its annual profits. The concessionaire’s lease runs until 2012.

The county wants the property back from the FWC so it can turn Holiday Park into a county park that is “up to Broward County standards,” according to county parks and recreation director Bob Harbin.

What Harbin didn’t say was the county also wants to cash in on the lucrative airboat tours. In 2006 the FWC got $400,000 from Holiday Park for basically doing nothing but being a middleman. The county got zip.

I’ve been told that the way the county’s lease with the FWC is written, as long as the FWC has someone to sublet Holiday Park to, the lease stays in effect. So in 2012, if the FWC wants to sublet the park to the same concessionaire or a different one, there’s nothing Broward County can do about it.

The FWC has been curiously silent about the matter. You’d think an agency that constantly moans about being strapped for cash wouldn’t want to give up a significant chunk of free money.

Meanwhile, the county forges ahead. Its latest master plan for Holiday Park was unveiled Wednesday at a public forum in Davie.

The plan featured 100 parking spaces for tow vehicles and boat trailers and another parking lot that could accommodate 400 vehicles or 200 vehicles and trailers. All that parking means no more camping, which upset several of the 50 or so people who attended the forum. The plan also provides swamp buggy access and bank fishing areas.

The biggest question at the forum was if a county Holiday Park would remain open 24/7. Harbin insisted it would, but ultimately admitted that the county commission would have the final say. He said the plan would probably go before the commission in August.

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Michael Mayo | News Columnist

9:37 PM EDT, May 28, 2008

Everglades Holiday Park is a funky place, and I mean that as a compliment.

There’s alligator wrestling and airboat rides for tourists, unrestricted 24 /7 boat ramps for local anglers and hunters, a general store and a bait shop that seem closer to Mayberry than Weston.

That’s the way it should be. At the western end of Griffin Road past U.S. 27, it’s old-time Florida, the Everglades in all its unspoiled and swampy glory.

Broward County originally wanted nothing to do with the place. After being given the land by a farmer in the 1960s, the county leased the land to the state. The state has sublet the park to various concessionaires. Since 1982, the Bridges family of Fort Lauderdale has run it. Their lease expires in 2012.

This is one case where privatization seems to work. The public gets free access to bass fishing, frog and duck hunting, and tourists pay the freight with $21 airboat rides. The Bridges turn a profit and give an annual cut to the state. The state’s share ranges from $100,000 to $400,000, according to Chuck Collins, the south regional director for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

There’s just one problem.

It’s the county’s land, but Broward doesn’t get a cent.

I suppose another way of looking at it is the county doesn’t have to spend a cent, either.

“If they have a problem with not getting a cut, I told them we’d work with them,” Clint Bridges said Wednesday. “If they just gave us a lease extension, I’d pay for all the improvements they want. They wouldn’t have to get their hands wet or do a damn thing, other than go to the mailbox and pick up their check.”

But Broward has something more involved in mind.

The county has explored getting the park back from the state. It has hired consultants and held public workshops. There’s talk of expensive refurbishments, new boat ramps and docks. There’s also talk of a $10 million Everglades museum and replica 1880′s village, seeded by developer Ron Bergeron and run by a nonprofit organization.

“A public-private venture,” Bergeron said Wednesday. “Obviously we’d need a certain amount of participation from the county.”

I hear talk like this, and I get a little clammy.

Especially when you consider the planning firm working on this is URS Corp., the same people who’ve done such a bang-up job with the airport expansion.

Especially when you consider Bergeron sits on the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which might have to approve the county takeover.

“I probably would recuse myself [from voting],” Bergeron said.

Especially when you consider the county is dealing with $100 million in budget cuts and may close other parks one day a week.

Is this really the time to get ambitious?

“That’s why everybody’s been screaming, ‘It ain’t broke, so don’t fix it,’” said Paul Schmitz, of Pembroke Pines, a frequent duck hunter. “It’s just an unencumbered, ideal place for hunting and fishing. It sounds like they want to turn this from a money-maker into a money loser.”

On Wednesday, the county unveiled the revamp plan at a public forum. Among the recommendations: getting rid of on-site camping, doubling the parking from 150 to 300 spots, and building the museum to educate locals and visitors about the Everglades’ history.

“We want to make it a showplace,” Bob Harbin, the county’s director of parks and recreation, told me earlier in the day. “The theme would be the same, but the facilities need to be brought up from 1930. What we’d build would still have a rustic appearance.”

Harbin said the park would remain open round-the-clock, the No. 1 priority for local hunters and anglers who came to workshops.

“We’re skeptical about that,” said Rick Persson, a bass fisherman and vice-president of the South Florida Anglers for Everglades Restoration. He cited a park in Loxahatchee run by Palm Beach County that now closes at dusk. “We’d like to see improvements, but if it’s going to lead to people getting shut out of the park, then what’s the point?”

Michael Mayo’s column runs Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Read him online weekdays at Sun-Sentinel.com/mayoblog. Reach him at mmayo@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4508.

The Broward County Parks and Recreation Division has a public participation forum on the future of Everglades Holiday Park from 7-9 p.m.

May 28 at the Long Key Natural Area, 3501 SW 130th Ave., Davie, Florida.

Among the issues is Broward County’s desire to make Everglades Holiday Park a county park. Call Sheryl Dickey @ 954-467-6822 or e-mail sdickey@dickeyinc.com for additional information.

If you are a Outdoorsmen and consider yourself an Angler, Hunter, Airboater or a South Florida resident and would like to voice your concerns on how this project concerns conservation issue please participate in this meeting.

See you all there,
Todd