"Great Northwest" (More...)

'Progress is a comfortable disease'
Leave coastal US 319/98 alone. Widening, moving or tinkering with a scenic roadway by the St. Joe Co., or anyone else, will damage the last view of the gulf. It appears, from the illustration in the Tallahassee Democrat, that it will be unnecessary to move the highway for St. Joe to build SummerCamp.   
People speeding along the four-lane road will see luxurious homes that few citizens can afford. As the poet e.e. cummings wrote, "Progress is a comfortable disease."
...ANN M. CONN; Letter to Tallahassee Democrat, 7/1/02

Will we ever learn from our mistakes:
Rapid Growth Stifling State Wetland Areas
TAMPA - For weeks the clouds have hung like angry fists on the horizon - dark, brooding clumps of gray lined with the silver promise of quenching the long drought. ... ``In the urban world around us, we are developing in a way that changes permeable soils into impermeable barriers,'' said Richard Garrity of the county Environmental Protection Commission.
Every ribbon of road and slab of concrete alters the hydrology that has replenished Florida's aquifer for eons.
The development-driven destruction of wetlands - especially the forested wetlands the Bay Area has lost to subdivisions and pavement in recent decades - is critical to our water supply. 6/30/02

Toxin found in sediment
Dioxin has been found in St. Marks River sediment, raising new questions about the extent of contamination and the possible threat to human health. 6/29/02

Airport workshop debates question of need -- Panama City - "Bottom line, I don’t think we need a new airport," said Panama City Beach resident Pete Rougier. "This is a rush to judgment that will enhance only one major company." 6/28/02

Moving road draws mixed reviews
For the third time this year, The St. Joe Co. drew a big crowd in Franklin County, this time for its proposal to move the coastal highway. 6/26/02

Road project stopped for now
Leon County has halted temporarily a road project through the Apalachicola National Forest because of concerns about it possibly harming wildlife. 6/26/02

Transformation of Florida company means vast changes to Panhandle coast
PORT ST. JOE — For decades, a 40-mile stretch of snowy-white beaches and unspoiled bays on Florida's panhandle has stayed out of the limelight, protected from development because its owner, St. Joe Paper, was interested mostly in cutting trees. But now the company, Florida's largest private landowner and developer, is transforming the region by embarking on a construction boom that would be the most extensive in Florida since Disney came to Orlando.6/23/02

The real Florida
"Most books about Florida are about ecology or theme parks. I wanted to focus on the people and small towns," Warner said in his book, "Vanishing Florida: A Personal Guide to Sights Rarely Seen." 6/23/02

What Jeb and George are doing to Florida  -The Bush Fraternity is clearly hoping this happy story (Chevron can't hurt the porpoises now!) will harvest green votes. But what about the cement plant on the Ichetucknee, the one that was supposed to be clean as a limestone spring and as unobtrusive as a water lily? It has gotten bigger and filthier while your back was turned. What about the legislative raids on Preservation 2000, the fund set up to buy unspoiled lands for parks and wilderness areas? Republican oligarchs pirated $75-million from P2000 in 2001, then swore piously that it was just this once, a fiscal emergency, and they'd never ever do it again. At least until this year when they tried to loot $100-million from the P2000 Debt Service Reserve Fund and the Florida Forever Trust....   6/17/02

Mayfield: Coastal development will lead to hurricane disaster
MIAMI — The United States could be hit with a major hurricane disaster — potentially causing more than $80 billion in damages — because of increased development on the coasts, warned Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center. Mayfield — who has watched the development of Florida's coasts during his 30 years at the hurricane center in Miami — said Thursday that local officials will continue encourage development because it enlarges the tax base.6/14/02

Judge rules closed Panhandle paper mill owes $2 million
PORT ST. JOE — A judge has ruled Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. owes nearly $2.7 million to Gulf County in 2000 property taxes for a defunct paper mill that once was this Florida Panhandle city's biggest employer. Circuit Judge Glenn Hess on Wednesday ruled for County Property Appraiser Kelsey Colbert, who had valued the mill's equipment, machinery and other taxable personal property at nearly $111 million.6/14/02

Dredging helps shippers, hurts river, taxpayers
Judging by its greatly diminished economic benefits and the environmental harm it inflicts, dredging of the Apalachicola River should have gone the way of the whaling industry.6/14/02

Refinery cleanup under way
Even as they started cleaning up the St. Marks Refinery hazardous waste site on Monday, state environmental officials said they are frustrated by the company's unwillingness to allow more petroleum storage tanks to be removed. 6/11/02

State objects to St. Joe development
State officials are objecting to a proposed development of new homes in Franklin County that is part of the beginning of an expected transformation of this sleepy part of the Panhandle coast. The development is being sought by The St. Joe Co., the largest landholder in this part of the state.6/10/02

Shrimpers net fewer profits -- Sometimes William Helton works 15 hours before he returns to the docks and unloads hundreds of pounds of shrimp.- But lately, he goes home with little to show for toiling in the Gulf of Mexico.-- Helton, 60, of Pensacola has seen the price of shrimp drop while business costs rise during his 43 years as a shrimper. This year, he said, prices are particularly low. Some days he makes less than $2 per hour.
He is not alone. Shrimpers in Northwest Florida, Alabama and Louisiana are seeing less net from their daily haul. 6/10/02

State objects to St. Joe project
The Florida Department of Community Affairs has issued a blistering series of objections to The St. Joe Co.'s proposed SummerCamp development in eastern Franklin County 6/9/02

St. Joe drops plan for development near Tyndall
PANAMA CITY — St. Joe Co. officials dropped plans for a 400-acre housing development after spending an hour denying it would help make nearby Tyndall Air Force Base a candidate for closure. Chris Corr, the Jacksonville-based company's vice president for public affairs, withdrew the plan for single-family homes Tuesday during a meeting with Bay County commissioners "out of respect for Tyndall."5/23/02

The Trojan Horse Everglades bill - a critical piece in the St Joe plan: