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Everglades' old guard girds for county park fight
By Thomas Francis
Published: July 26, 2007
Clint Bridges wrestles 13-foot alligators. He also builds airboats and drives them deep into the flat, featureless expanse of the Florida Everglades without ever getting lost.
But to make a living through these talents, Bridges needs about 30 acres of marshy wilderness. He could count on that for the past quarter-century, thanks to the family business: running Everglades Holiday Park. For Bridges, the Broward County park, at the desolate western end of Stirling Road, is the only home he knows.
On a recent Tuesday afternoon, an international cast of wide-eyed tourists queues to pay the $21 price of an airboat ride. From Bridges' corner office inside the park's main building, he has a view of a parking lot and campground that are both nearly full. "This place, my family built it up to what it is today," he says.
But the Bridges don't own the land. They lease it from the state, which leases it from the county, which has never expressed an interest in managing the land. Until now.
The county plans to take control of Everglades Holiday Park after the Bridges' lease runs out, in 2012. Already, county representatives have held public meetings touting a park makeover that might include hot-air balloon rides and cable cars, boardwalks and equestrian trails.
Read more at http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2007-07 ... wamp-theme
Everglades' old guard girds for county park fight
By Thomas Francis
Published: July 26, 2007
Clint Bridges wrestles 13-foot alligators. He also builds airboats and drives them deep into the flat, featureless expanse of the Florida Everglades without ever getting lost.
But to make a living through these talents, Bridges needs about 30 acres of marshy wilderness. He could count on that for the past quarter-century, thanks to the family business: running Everglades Holiday Park. For Bridges, the Broward County park, at the desolate western end of Stirling Road, is the only home he knows.
On a recent Tuesday afternoon, an international cast of wide-eyed tourists queues to pay the $21 price of an airboat ride. From Bridges' corner office inside the park's main building, he has a view of a parking lot and campground that are both nearly full. "This place, my family built it up to what it is today," he says.
But the Bridges don't own the land. They lease it from the state, which leases it from the county, which has never expressed an interest in managing the land. Until now.
The county plans to take control of Everglades Holiday Park after the Bridges' lease runs out, in 2012. Already, county representatives have held public meetings touting a park makeover that might include hot-air balloon rides and cable cars, boardwalks and equestrian trails.
Read more at http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2007-07 ... wamp-theme
It would not surprise me to find out some gov't official who stands to make a personal profit out of the deal. Follow the money.