The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 85

fyryy yryyyrry yTryy rr ryyr7rr rry r1 rr ryrinrfvr'yf'Yy yyii FLORIDA 5B WEATHER 3B DEATHS 4B COMICS 6B SECTION MONDAY MAY 101993 filiami Herald BRO Doughnut maker may get dough from Metro JOAN FLElSCflUAN TALK OF OUR TOWN a headache with which the new commission will have to deal the best pastry maker in the said Hardemon who denies intimidating anyone qualified for the loan I understand why they give me the The commissioners who voted for the loan said they were just trying to help a struggling businessman stepping into a vacuum left by private banks and Hispanic-owned banks have redlined the black said Metro Commission Chairman Arthur Teele premature to rush to judgment on any of these men and say they By DEXTER RUINS Herald Staff Writer All A1 Hardemon wants to do he says is bake doughnuts Hardemon has been trying for months to get a large loan from Metro-Dade to set up a pastry shop County administrators have turned him down four times saying a bad risk Banks back him Several Metro administrators have accused him and his associates of making physical threats And Hardemon account for $37000 in public money Nevertheless Metro is on the verge of lending Hardemon an additional 1 13000 In one of its final acts before the April election the outgoing Metro Commission removed one of the last conditions that stood between Hardemon and the money NOT ROLLING IN DOUGH YET: Al Hardemon has been trying to get a business development loan for a couple of years PLEASESEE LOANS 2B are hanging on by the skin of their teeth TOM KIRBY Dada County Farm Bureau 11000 lbs of cocaine seized on freighter By DONNA GEHRKE Herald Staff Writer The US Coast Guard opened a mysterious container on a freighter intercepted 2lh weeks ago in the Pacific Ocean and seized an estimated 11000 pounds of cocaine Sunday making it the second-largest maritime drug bust in history A squad of Coast Guardsmen guided the 225-foot Sea Chariot to Miami Beach through the Panama Canal after boarding it about 300 miles south of Panama The ship had sailed from Esmeraldas Ecuador two days before and was bound for Manzanillo Mexico according to its crew Sunday the Coast Guardsmen got their first chance to look inside the cargo container They found 231 bales of cocaine wrapped in hot pink orange lime and white plastic They seen a load that large since 1989 when the federal agents found a record 12201 pounds on the vessel Zedom Sea The drugs were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration which will weigh in the bales for the final tally One law enforcement source said the shipment came from Cali cartel which has had several large loads intercepted in South Florida since the late 1980s The most recent big seizures involved more than 6000 pounds of cocaine in concrete fence posts in Miami and a multi-ton shipment concealed in broccoli that came through Port Everglades The load aboard the Sea Chariot padded the staggering amount of cocaine already seized this year So far Coast Guard seizures are running one-third higher than last 55000 pounds Federal agents estimate the street value of the cocaine at $10000 per pound or roughly $110 million The Sea captain PETER ANDREW BOSCH Miami Herald Staff CLINGING TO HOPE: Harold Brannan walks around what is left of his nursery at 14460 SW 260th St eight months after Andrew Tide is one for the books not billboards Imagine this billboard greeting tourists on LeJeune Road near Miami International Airport: That was the game plan of Hyperion the New York company that is publishing crime writer Edna novel by that title due out in February Hyperion wanted the billboard to reach the 25000 people expected to attend the American Booksellers annual convention in Miami Beach over Memorial Day weekend The sign would say new novel by Edna and give booth number at the convention center no way going to run says Bill Barkell president of Ackerley Communications of Florida of us who reside here have to live with the reputation of the city That reputation goes beyond Buchanan a Pulitzer Prizewinning former Miami Herald crime reporter is miffed Says Buchanan: Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express and the Orient Express people raise Barkell says exploitative: got to be sensitive The traffic going by there is like 90000 cars a Hyperion has revised the ad to say: and Edna A deadly bon Homestead City Manager Alex Muxo quietly married longtime girlfriend Bonnie Coyle in France The ceremony took place in the tiny village of Vivey near Dijon Says Muxo: church even have a name it was so Fort Lauderdale lawyer Larry Kuvin who with wife Laurrelle accompanied Muxo and Coyle on the seven-day trip performed the nuptials Muxo handed his video camera to two French women they taped was our Muxo 38 met Coyle 38 at a business function three years ago He says they got engaged in August 1991 and he wanted to marry her sooner but Hurricane Andrew wrecked those plans along with his city Crime watch Two of latest crime victims: car dealer Ed Williamson and former assistant Miami police chief Walter Martinez Both were held up in separate incidents last week by the same driveway robbers Hooded gunmen nabbed Williamson 48 outside his home off Old Cutler Road They got his gold wedding band a Williamson Cadillac ring his Rolex gold money clip and wallet Martinez 48 a street-smart ex-cop who retired in July 1991 after 22 years was accosted as he picked up his son at his home Tlie robbers got his gold chain wallet and watch thought it was a Rolex It was just a They rejected a cheap watch his wife Clara wore but robbed his ex-wife Marivel of an $8000 diamond ring from her new husband Three teenage suspects are in jail Trooper Ruben Gonzalez stopped them on Old Cutler Road after hearing a description of the getaway car The trio had rings and one had on chain Says Martinez who now sells insurance: lucky I have my Tidbit Closed: Key East a popular Lincoln Road eatery But despair Granny the downtown health food restaurant is opening another location there The owners who hope to open in mid-June have hired a crew to spread the word on South Beach but look for leggy models on Rollerblades Instead be little old ladies in Granny T-shirts who for $5 an hour will tell you to your as they pass out fliers If you have a tip for the column call Joan at 376-3440 Farmers waiting for promised federal aid industry for South Dade Farmers believe in helping themselves But when dealing with something of this magnitude everybody agrees they need Although South tomato and vegetable farmers already are harvesting the last crops of a season many people doubted would happen others in the agriculture industry still struggle to get started are hanging on by the skin of their says Tom Kirby executive director of the Dade County Farm Bureau have taken insurance money that was from their homes and plowed it back into their businesses with full faith that the federal government was going to come through for them the economic base of the community and we need help And By FRAN BRENNAN Herald Staff Writer Nursery owner Harold Brannan knows a lot of numbers 50000 As in the dollar value of plants he hopes to sell in 1993 And 300000 the amount of his payroll But the most painful number Harold Brannan can think of is 258 the number of days he has been waiting for some kind of help from the federal government the same old says Brannan whose 3 1-acre nursery took a $4 million hit from Hurricane Andrew the same thing they did in Los Angeles All those promises and nothing ever comes Something finally came through Friday when the US Office of Management and Budget announced it would release $31 million to help South Florida farmers finish paying for hurricane debris cleanup and irrigation system repairs And it will be at least another three weeks before farmers see any of the money For growers like Brannan who have worked months with no income the help may be too little too late struggling all but shut he says normally have 35 to 38 employees Now down to 17 If we get refinanced in the next 60 days we probably will lay off most of Homestead City Manager Alex Muxo says the problems farmers are having hurt the rebuilding efforts of the entire community which has all but lost its other big employer Homestead Air Force Base it hurts the whole he says a $1 billion industry for Dade County And probably an $850 million PLEASESEE FARMERS 83 PLEASESEE COCAINE 3B Hanging vehicles in air stifles would-be thieves Moving on the dial Top Spanish-language radio host to leave WQBA for WCMQ post coming out of the pockets of you and me the said DOT spokesman David Fierro a contractor has to buy a new generator then we all end up paying for Fierro said the state keep statistics on how often crime occurs at construction sites in part because it happens so often gotten to the point where if we have an incidence of theft or vandalism at a site we look at each other and wonder going Fierro said Similar problems happened at Metromover and Metrorail construction projects said Aurelio Rodriguez Metro-Dade assistant director for construction think pretty In 1992 DOT ended up spend- Ever wonder why you sometimes see tools generators or even small vehicles dangling from cranes at unoccupied construction sites? because contractors want to find the stuff where they left it when they return to work Construction sites are far from immune to crime got a saying out said Stu Smith the program manager for the Interstate 95 expansion project got to hang it from a skyhook to save The scope of construction site theft is unclear but the consequences are certain: Garcia Fuste has been involved in intense job negotiations with both stations At 10 pm Saturday he told the management of La Cubanisima (1140 AM) of his imminent departure sometime in the next few weeks No date has been set for his startup at WCMQ was alive before Fuste and will be alive after said Herb Levin general manager of WQBA decision says a lot about what is important to people As the commercial says important is the Garcia salary with WCMQ was not disclosed But he said he was offered more than what he was making at WQBA For WCMQ the news was wel- By CYNTHIA CORZO Herald Staff Writer One of top-rated radio hosts is moving to a new spot on the dial Tomas Garcia Fuste news director and vice president of programming for WQBA-La Cubanisima for 12 years is leaving for the same job at WCMQ (1210 AM) Garcia morning program was the No 1 Spanish-language talk show in 1992 according to the Arbitron ratings The call-in program has become an information clearinghouse in the Cuban exile community particularly to help rafters locate family in Miami going to do the same thing here as at WQBA: work and serve the said Garcia Fuste 62 During the last two weeks Tm going to do the same thing here as at WQBA: work and serve the people TOMAS GARCIA FUSTE WQBA news director PLEASESEE GARCIA FUSTE 83 PLEASESEE TRAFRC 48.