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Published Wednesday, August 15, 2001
CARL HIAASEN
Make this boondoggle a bridge to nowhere
A few years ago, some big shots decided that
there ought to be a toll bridge from Port St. Lucie to Hutchinson Island and its
popular beaches.
No bridge was needed there, but it would
handsomely affect real-estate prospects. Politicians cheered. Environmentally, the bridge couldn't have been
more recklessly routed, crossing two unique and delicate habitats -- Herman's
Bay on the Indian River Lagoon and the grassy marsh known as the Savannahs. Aesthetically, the span would have been an
eyesore. As a traffic shortcut, it was laughably expensive -- and Hutchinson
Island already was accessible by other roads.
Homeowner groups came out strongly against the
proposed ``Walton Road Bridge.''
Members stood up at meetings, gave press
interviews and wrote letters to newspapers.
Then something stunning happened. Figg Bridge
Engineers, Inc., which was designing the bridge, filed a libel suit against four
of the loudest critics, all representatives of homeowner associations.
One defendant was a lifelong Floridian named
Roger Sharp, a Vietnam vet. ``They scared the hell out of me, but I've been
scared before,'' he said. ``This time it just made me mad.''
Another defendant was Charles Grande. ``None of
us said anything that wasn't already in the newspapers, and Figg Engineering
decided to sue us. People were dumbfounded,'' he recalled.
Figg said that Sharp, Grande and the others had
defamed the company by saying it was a ``target'' of an investigation into
another infamous Florida folly.
That was the Garcon Point Bridge, a boondoggle
arranged by an oily hustler named Bo Johnson, then state Speaker of the House.
He was later trucked off to prison on unrelated tax charges.
Financed with $95 million in bonds, the Garcon
Point Bridge went up in record time across Pensacola Bay. The object was to
trigger shoreline development and enrich land speculators.
The bridge builders, Odebrecht-Metric, shaved
costs by routinely dumping tons of wet waste cement and broken pilings into the
water -- a flagrant crime.
The firm that was supposed to oversee the job:
Figg Bridge Engineers.
Whether or not Figg technically was a
``target,'' investigators definitely scrutinized its conduct at Garcon Point.
Several workers said that Figg inspectors witnessed instances of illegal
concrete dumping, and did nothing.
According to The St. Petersburg Times, one Figg
inspector admitted he saw the dumping but was told by a supervisor not to worry
about it.
Figg denied any wrongdoing and never was
charged. Odebrecht-Metric pleaded guilty to federal pollution charges and agreed
to cough up more than $4 million in fines.
Critics of the St. Lucie bridge believed that
they were well within their rights to point out Figg's connection to the Garcon
Point fiasco.
Their attorney, Robert Rivas, said the company's
libel suit was a ``classic example'' of a ``SLAPP''-- a Strategic Lawsuit
Against Public Participation, meant to silence or intimidate grass-roots
opposition.
And it seemed to work, at least for a time.
Attendance at open meetings, once
standing-room-only, dipped dramatically. Fewer people signed their names to
angry letters-to-the-editor. Sharp said five officers of the Indian River Drive
Freeholders Association resigned in fear of being sued.
But Figg also might have outsmarted itself, for
the lawsuit has kept its involvement at Garcon Point in the news. A trial would
be a public-relations nightmare.
Today the Garcon Point Bridge is broke, its
anemic toll revenues unable to cover debt payments. Gov. Bush recently vetoed a
$1.4 million state loan, basically saying that taxpayers shouldn't have to bail
out bonehead schemes.
The governor's action was a chilly message to
bridge boosters in St. Lucie. Their plan was to use $20 million in DOT funds,
and raise another $30 million with a bond issue just like the one that flopped
at Garcon Point.
State Sen. Ken Pruitt, the political godfather
of the Walton Road Bridge, now says he's found better ways to spend $20 million.
On Thursday, the St. Lucie Expressway and Bridge
Authority is expected to decide whether it will bail out. If the bridge is killed -- as it should be --
much of the credit belongs to those being sued by Figg Engineers: Charles
Grande, Roger Sharp, Edward McKay and Kevin Stinnette.
They never caved in, and they never shut up
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