The Palm Beach Post du lieu suivant : West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 110

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 1994 The Palm Beach Post SECTION MSL oca: MARTINST. LUCIE Martin wonders if it has too many government vehicles Martin landfill expansion OK'd particular uses for particular departments," he said. In St. Lucie County, there are 320 vehicles for a county work force of slightly less than 800 employees and 130 vehicles for 700 constitutional office workers. Constitutional offices include the property appraiser, tax collector and supervisor of elections.

In Palm Beach County, there are 1,071 vehicles for the county's 4,700 workers. Also, 35 people, including 14 commissioners and their aides, get auto allowances. Palm Beach County has limited workers on taking cars home at night, Administrator Bob Weisman said. By MARC FREEMAN Palm Beach Post Staff Writer STUART Concern that too many Martin County employees are using government-owned vehicles led commissioners Tuesday to request an analysis of its automotive fleet. The review will determine if the 215 county-owned vehicles are necessary for a county workforce of 630 employees.

Commissioner Janet Gettig complained that the county was keeping Detroit in business. "I think we have too many automobiles," she said. "What are we needing all these vehicles for? It seems an analysis is overdue." Gettig said the county has a "very ambitious program for automobile acquisition." The review was ordered after the commissioners voted on a measure to buy new vehicles at a bargain price through a state program. The purchase was routine, because the vehicle costs were covered in this year's budget. So, wondered Bob Pontek, director of county utilities, why all the fuss? "If you want to ask the question (about vehicle use) ask it during the budget review," he said.

The utilities department has 25 vehicles for 76 workers. Pontek said his fleet is at an appropriate level, and that "you have to be a little careful of crunching the numbers like that." Peter Cheney, acting county administrator, said a vehicle analysis could find that Martin needs more cars than it has now because "the fleet is old." "I can't make a judgment that 215 is the right number without looking at "We're afraid to raise a family where the landfill expansion will occur," said John Cherviny, who has owned 4 acres in Stuart West since 1989. "We don't want the area thought of as a dumping ground." Shirley Cherviny, John's aunt who lives on 5 acres at Stuart West, said, "There shouldn't be anything adverse to residential and there is. We're still suffering from all the hazards of the landfill." A 600-foot buffer zone separates the dump from its closest proximity to the residential area. The landfill rests on a Please see LANDFILL2B By MARC FREEMAN Palm Beach Post Staff Writer STUART Stuart West homeowners failed Tuesday to halt the expansion of their most unwelcome neighbor Martin County's landfill.

County commissioners voted to expand the county dump near State Road 714 in Palm City, saying a proposal to ship garbage to an out-of-county landfill was too expensive. Stuart West residents called the expansion a sellout of their safety. But officials insisted that the quality of life would not suffer in the community where home values average about $300,000. Staff Writer Alan Snel contributed to this report. Owner settles station lawsuit 1 I fr safe-" "4 Photo by GARY KANADJIAN By ELIOT KLEINBERG Palm Beach Post Staff Writer WEST PALM BEACH -4 South Florida broadcasting entre? preneur Elvin Feltner has settled a lawsuit with a Dutch bank that had loaned him $20 million to buy Fort Pierce station WTVX-TV; Channel 34, and its Jacksonville sister station, WNFT-TV Channel 47, both now in federal bankruptcy protection.

The agreement, worked out hours before trial was to begin Monday morning in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, is a step toward a deal that may allow Feltner to keep the stations. Internationale Nederlanden Bank had sued Feltner individual ly, claiming he personally had guaranteed the loan. Feltner had argued he had guaranteed only $750,000. In the agreement, Feltner will pay the $750,000 by the end of April. In a separate agreement reached with the bank on Monday in federal bankruptcy court, Kryp- i ton International parent fir- mof the stations, would obtain at 1 least $24 million in new financing from a bank, then pay $14 million to INB by the end of July.

In January, Krypton said it had eight 1 investors willing to refinance the -J INB debt. Under a plan Krypton is as- sembling, it would then offer to pay $8 million to television pro-! gram syndicators who had claimed the Krypton stations hadn't paid some $12 million for shows broad-' cast on the stations. Their suits led to the bankruptcy filing. Kryp-; Please see TELEVISION2B Ride And Reel JENSEN BEACH Diann Jenkins catches the sunrise way. The Jensen Beach resident said she rides her on her days off.

She said she often reels in sheeps-; Tuesday while fishing off the Jensen Beach Cause- tricycle over to fish the spot a couple of times a week head, red snapper and jack using shrimp as bait. Serendipitous' simple for Martin's top senior speller 2B Fair schedule sounded off the rough ones. One by one, the players dropped out. Finally, it was Bull and Bolton. Boiano warned Bull to "please listen to all the syllables" before she uttered "septuagenarian." He spelled it correctly, and the crowd showed its appreciation.

Last year, the spelling contest ended quickly when the tough words were used early, said Stuart's Philip Couchon, 62, who competed both last year and this year. "We died quickly," recalled Couchon. By ALAN SNEL Palm Beach Post Staff Writer STUART Geoffrey Bull correctly spelled "serendipitous" to win the distinction of Martin County's top senior speller Tuesday. But the crowd went wild OK, what really happened was about a dozen people politely clapped when Bull nailed his previous word "septuagenarian." That's a person in his 70s. Bull, 58, of Hobe Sound, defeated septuagenarian John Bolton of Stuart and seven cruise.

Bolton took home a box of golf balls for second place. The retired doctor misspelled, "repetitious." "I forgot the I was dumb, careless. I'm in too big a hurry," Bolton, 70, lamented after more than 130 people watched the contest under the big tent. Announcing the words was Stuart Middle School teacher Peggy Boiano. The language arts teacher served up several rounds of easy words: pasture, forum, jellyfish.

Then, after about 20 minutes, Boiano other contenders to claim first place in the 12th annual Wise 01' Spelling Bee at the Martin County Fair. "I was nervous for him. But he's a great speller," said Bull's wife, Sue, who teaches speech at J.D. Parker Elementary School in Stuart. Geoffrey Bull, a physical therapist at Salerno Bay Manor nursing home, won a home-office telephone and a two-hour Robbery suspect drives teen victim to hospital Seabranch preserves piece of Florida's past By TERESA LANE Palm Beach Post Staff Writer FORT PIERCE After 15-year-old Casey Bradley was shot in the chest during a robbery attempt Sunday, the man who drove You can't see water at Sea-branch.

The trail, a wide sandy path made by all-terrain vehicles that once used the 919-acre tract, doesn't lead to the Intracoastal Waterway yet. few scrubs left on the southeast coast," J.B. said. Closer to the water is the baygall area, a fern forest in knee-deep peaty muck with a tight canopy of loblolly, sweet bay and slash pine trees. A mangrove area lies closest to the Intracoastal.

7 I. the getaway car scooped the teen up off the street and drove him to a hospital, police said. The gunman fled on foot, according to Fort Pierce Pnlirft renorts. One day, perhaps a boardwalk will stretch across the baygall and mangrove areas to the water. For now, hikers without hip boots stay in the scrub.

The land is home to the gopher tortoise, the Eastern indigo snake, the Florida scrub jay, the bobcat and the sandhill crane, but none was hanging out where we could J.B. Miller, a biologist at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, gives a tour of the Seabranch property. For now, exploring this saved-foreyer Florida wilderness is a hot, sweaty hike through scrubby flatwoods. And it'll stay that way for awhile. J.B.

Miller, district biologist with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and Mary Far ah of the Hobe Sound Nature Center led 20peo- pie through Seabranch Tuesday morning, with a side trio later to Peck armed robbery. Two men in a car confronted Bradley at North 23rd Street and I Avenue and the passenger de- manded money from him, police; said. Witnesses told police the' car's passenger shot Bradley when the youth told him he had no I money. Lee, 22, drove Bradley to the 1 emergency entrance of Lawn-' wood, where he yelled for doctors and nurses to come and help. Lee drove away, but later called Bradley's aunt and mother, telling them he didn't know his friend planned to rob or shoot anyone, family members say.

But police detectives Diane McGlon and Tony Hurtado said that while Lee may not have expected his partner to shoot, they believe the two intended to rob someone Sunday night. Lee also has been charged with two other robberies since Feb. 12. Police are looking for Larry Carson, 23, of 1508 Edgewood Terrace. Witnesses have identified him from photo lineups as the gunman, police said.

Lee called police and told them where he was right after he called the victim's mother, McGlon said. "I thank God for him or my son would have died," Rolle said. "But he was in the car and he deserves the same thing as the other guy St Lucie Imet X' rssT Atlantic Pocket SSS Sally Swartz warned. "Yech." The Seabranch property is ripe for a fire, and J.B. had his hands full explaining to nonnatives why he's eager to start burning this expensive piece of real estate.

Fires are a part of the ecosystem here. A low ground fire clears underbrush of exotics without killing most native trees and makes the area ready for new growth. Sand pines killed by fire reseed the ground around them, but without fire just die of old age. Controlled burns may be a part of managing Seabranch soon, J.B. said.

But the land is years away from the very limited use of it the public will have. "A little boy Bradley rode his bicycle over to my house to tell me what happened," said Bradley's mother, Carolyn Rolle. "I almost went berserk. They didn't have to shoot him just because he didn't have any money." Bradley, who lives in Fort Pierce but is a freshman at Port St. Lucie High School, remained in serious condition Tuesday in the intensive-care unit of Lawnwood Regional Medical Center.

He slips in and out of consciousness and cannot speak, but he recognizes his parents, Rolle said. Lamuel Preston Lee, who police say drove Bradley to the hospital, was in the St. Lucie County Jail charged with attempted first-degree murder and attempted STAFF GRAPHIC see them. J.B. did find an ant lion, a larval stage of a mayfly-like insect.

As a curious little boy growing up in South Florida, J.B. remembers feeding ants to these critters. Despite its pinky-fingernail size, the ant lion eats ants all in one bite, sucking out the insides and spitting out the ant's skeleton. Hmmm. Guess you have to be a curious little boy to appreciate that.

A Florida scrub lizard showed up, sparking a debate between Mary and J.B. about whether the like Park. The side trip showed what we'll one day see at Seabranch. Florida paid $14 million and Martin County kicked in $5 million for the Seabranch preserve in 1991. The trail is accessible to the pUbiic south of Cove Road on State Road A1A by turning east at the VFW sign just before you cross the railroad tracks.

It's open daily from 8 a.m. to sunset. Seabranch includes the sand pine scrub area thatls "one of the lizards reproduce by laying eggs. J.B. pointed out a love vine that covers and chokes whatever it wraps itself over.

We saw prickly pear cactus and learned the ripe fruits taste good, unlike the berries of the saw palmetto. "Never try to eat them," J.B. Please see SEABRANCH5B.