The Naples Daily News from Naples, Florida • Page 61

Urbanization Taking Central State Acreage County Citrus In Dramatic Growth Period By STEVE ALLDREDGE County Reporter Collier County has gained more than 10,000 acres in citrus production in the last 10 years with the trend toward more orange, grapefruit and avocado production expected to continue for the next decade, according to a recently released survey by the University of Florida. Most of this gain was at the expense of the counties in the center of the state that are rapidly losing acreage because of an upsurge urbanization. County Horticulturalist Jim Bellizo said the figures compiled by the county agriculture department confirm this trend. LOT OF groves in the central part of the state are turning into condominiums and Bellizio said. central part of the state is becoming urbanized and growers have to look for other areas to raise Bellizio said most of the growth in the citrus acreage is in the Immokalee area.

people are going into citrus production because they find it a good crop stable and he said. are thousands of acres in the county that are now available for Bellizio also said Collier County offers growers an ideal climate for growing citrus. The southwest corner of Florida is free from the relatively cold weather and damaging freezes that often strike the northern and central areas of the state. This allows citrus growers in the county to have additional new growth on the citrus trees each year. CAN get four to five flushes of new growth down here whereas in the central part of the state they usually have only Bellizio said.

means the growers can produce more citrus in a Collier County and De Soto Counties made the greatest gains in citrus acreage on west coast during the last 10 years, but only Collier citrus acreage is predicted to significantly increase in the coming decade. On east coast, although Indian river, St. Lucie, Martin and Palm Beach Counties showed a significant increase in citrus acreage in the last 10 years, only Indian River is expected to increase acreage in the next decade. Because of increased urbanization, Palm Beach County is expected to show a distinct loss in citrus acreage in the next decade. The University of recent conference, Growth in an Urban also warned that massive, unrestrained urban growth could eventually limit citrus production throughout the state.

Citrus production reached a peak in 1969 when almost one million acres were in production. Due to severe freezes in the northern part of the state, and increased urbanization, the acreage declined to about 872,000 acres last year, only slightly more than it was in 1965. Regional Scene Section NAPLES DAILY NEWS Feb. 25, 1975 Bathers Face Bonita Beach DANIA, Fla. (AP) A bomb explosion blew a large hole in an office of television station WKID, causing no injuries but knocking the station temporarily off the air, authorities said today.

The Monday night explosion interrupted a Spanish- language movie when it hit a rear office and knocked out electrical power, according to Dania police. No damage estimate was available. Before dawn Monday, another explosion near downtown Miami caused no injuries but did an estimated $5,000 in damage to a building that housed a production office leased by the UHF station. Police would not say whether they believed the two bombings were connected. Bomb experts from the FBI and Dade County were investigating the incident.

Power Firm Has Plan for Poor ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) A government-funded energy stamp program to help low-income and fixed-income families pay monthly electric bills has been proposed by Florida Power Corp. The company, in letters to state and federal legislators, suggested that families now benefiting from governmental food stamp or aid to dependent children programs could receive, without cost, up to 600 kilowatt hours of electricity each month. Florida Power spokesman Brock Lucas said federal and state subsidies could be used to implement the program.

'Florida Fox' Sues for Divorce Proposed Bonita Beach park site fenced off by owners. Barricades By STEVE ALLDREDGE Countv Reporter BONITA BEACH Frequent visitors to the Bonita Beach access on the Lee-Collier County line were surprised last week when they found their favorite stretch of beach front property fenced off and posted with signs. Lee County Parks and Recreation officials said the rope and pole barricades, that blocks off the 500 foot parcel of beach front land between the two accesses, was put there by the landowners. owners of the property put them said Larry Gnagey, Lee County Parks and Recreation director. really know why they did it, but I suppose it was to keep the cars off of the Gnagey said that although the land was private property, and was property posted with no treaspassing signs, this prevented people from using the beach.

was down there on Saturday and it was he said. "It in any wav restricted the use of the Meanwhile, spokesmen for the Little Hickory Bay Corporation, which owns the land, said the corporation was planning to build a condominium on the east side of the Bonita Beach Road and had decided to improve the unsightly conditions at the beach front property. Lee County owns a 50-foot piece of land at the Colliei County line and another 50-foot beach access 500 feet north on Bonita Beach Road. The county is now negotiating for the chase of this 500 feet for a regional park. The property was initially appraised at about $500,000, but, at the request of the owners, the land was reappraised.

Gnagey said the reappraisal has been completed and will be presented to the owners later this week. Lee County parks officials had hoped to acquire the land for a beach park, possibly to connect with a Collier County park planned for the south side of the county line. Vehicles have been spilling over into the private property for years, but until now the owners have made no objection and Bomtans began to consider the land their own. The construction of the barriers took many Bonita residents by surprise. TRAP BUILDERS SHOP Boards and floats are stacked around this Everglades City crab trap Lee PR Official Defends Duties By THELMA BRUCE Bonita Bureau Harve Bradley, former newscaster and now administrative assistant to the Board of Lee County Commissioners spoke Monday at the Lee County Republican Club to explain his duties.

He focused on the reason he was hired by the commission in answer to recent queries about his appointment to the post. He touched on the magnitude of county government, explaining that it is a multi-million dollar business that employs 700 persons to serve the 155,000 residents of lee County. ITS MY job to see that they (the taxpayers) get their he said. Bradley explained that his job was not simply one of being a public relations man, but was more that of being in the position of out the view points of citizens, department heads, advisory committees and the news media and putting forward a straight, unbiased input to the kind job is not new. It exists in many counties Sarasota, Pinellas and he said.

He said the commissioners have to cope with unbelievable amount of paper from taxpayers, ecologists, environmentalists and others. OF the commissioners work all day and many hours he said. It is his job, he said, to help them give their best performance for Lee County to them give responsible government to each Bradley cited as examples the new Animal Control Law that he said be effective where the old law was He added, will cost $1,000 less than a program that The new law, he said, would require that every dog in Lee County have a license tag. He also pointed to the ordinance that requires each mobile home in Lee County to have a license tag. will net Lee County $120,000 on an annual basis and that is enough to pay my salary for the next 10 he said.

IN ADDITION to tracking down complaints, he said, are some of the loop-holes we are trying to Another part of hs job is to assist commissioners in exploring, fiscal and sound guidelines for roads and bridges funds, Bradley explained. In other business before the club James Sweeney, Lee County Commissioner, reported on the Lee County Comprehensive Plan Simple Stone Crab Traps Used To Harvest Claws Florida Bomb Knocks TV Station off Air ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) Jack Clouser, the who eluded police for more than 10 years, has sued to divorce the woman he left behind when he fled the state in 1964. Clouser, 41, who is serving a five-year jail term after surrendering and pleading guilty to one conspiracy count, claimed Monday that his marriage to Marling June Clouser was A former Orlando police detective, Clouser escaped from a state hosp'fal in 1964 while awaiting trial on charges stemming from two armed robberies and a burglary in 1961. He gained his nickname and nationwide attention by sending taunting letters to police and the FBI, daring them to capture him.

Clouser said he surrendered because he was of Survey Reveals Cheating at UF GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) Most students and faculty at the University of Florida say cheating common at the oldest university, a survey of 205 students and 100 faculty members shows. The Gainesville Sun said it selected participants in the survey at random from a university directory and questioned them by telephone. Sixty-nine per cent of the students and 43 per cent of the faculty surveyed said that cheating on tests is common. Twenty-one per cent of the faculty was either undecided or unresponsive to the question The results could be as much as 10 per cent in error, warned UF professor James Terhune, who teaches a course in polling techniques.

The poll was published Sunday, a month after disclosure that a widespread cheating investigation was touching nearly every undergraduate course in the UF College of Business Administration One student was suspended in that probe, and 15 others received failing grades and penalty hours to be taken prior to graduation. The investigation was halted by a circuit court injunction pending a decision on whether the hearings are subject to the government in the sunshine law. By STEVE ALLDREDGE County Reporter EVERGLADES CITY For want of a nail a great many nails, actually annual catch of over four million pounds of stone crabs would never reach the dinner table. However, in Naples, Everglades City and Chokoloskee, weather-beaten men stand in the sun amid piles of wood and pieces of plastic PVC pipe to hammer together the thousands of wooden crab traps needed to keep the multi-million-dollar crabbing industry growing. Hundreds of the square wooden traps are constructed at the same time and usually by only one or two workmen.

The hinged top has a six-inch shop. Thousands of traps are needed each year to carry on the growing stone crab claw industry. plastic pipe sticking up through the middle. It is through this pipe the unwary stone crab travels to get at the bait inside. This bait usually is fish heads dropped into another plastic pipe inside the trap litE SECRET, of the trap, of course, is that although the crab has easy access to the bait mside, the way out is not as easy.

When 500 to 600 traps are completed and ready for the water, the workmen call a cement truck to deliver a load of concrete. The concrete is dumped into the traps and used to weight them down. Yellow plastic floats are attached to the trap so the crabber knows where to look for them after they are dumped into the Gulf. concrete keeps the trap in said Larry Cureton, a long time crab trap builder the trap doesn't have enough weight in the bottom, a good strong tide will carry it away. The concrete also balances it when you drop it in the water, making sure it lands with the top up Traps are usually placed in relatively shallow water, from feet, but many crabbers go as deep as 110-120 feet.

From then on the proverbial or luck takes over. AVERAGE boat can take 1,200 to 1,500 pounds of stone crabs a week at $1 SO a Cureton said, the problem is the luck may be real good one day and not so good the Part of the luck is the matter of whether or not the crabs or the equivalent of in the fisherman's jargon. they crawling, you going to catch Cureton said good nor- or a strong will make them crawl but you even go by that all of the time. What will do you good one year might not do good the Every three to six days the crabber checks the traps in a small crab boat, easily recognized by the small power winch in the stern of the boat. These winchs that handle from one-quarter to three-quarter inch lines, are called armed by the crabbers.

Because the claw is removed at sea, and the crab freed, it regenerates another claw by the next season. Stone crabbing is also a steadily growing industry in Collier County. BUILDING 1RAPS Everglades City crab fisherman Larry Cureton puts the finishing touches on one of (he hundreds of traps he has built. The completed traps are weighted with concrete, baited and tossed into the sea to catch stone crabs..