Hernando Today
House Balks At Weeki Wachee Funding
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Published: April 22, 2008
WEEKI WACHEE - The state House of Representatives has balked at a funding request by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to operate and maintain Weeki Wachee Springs as a state park.
However, a DEP spokeswoman said Tuesday that the department still expects to honor its side of a bargain struck earlier this year with the Weeki Wachee Springs LLC to fold the attraction into the state park system on Nov. 1.
"At this time, DEP does not anticipate potential budget reductions to eliminate our ability to incorporate Weeki Wachee Springs into the state park system," DEP spokeswoman Amy Graham said in e-mail response to Hernando Today late Tuesday. "We still expect to meet the terms of the agreement."
When asked whether that meant the department is confident the money will be included in the 2008-09 budget or that it has a contingency fund to use in place of that funding, Graham replied: "Once we are aware of the final budget we will further analyze the situation. Until then, we continue to anticipate the incorporation of Weeki Wachee Springs into the state park system."
Despite that sentiment, attraction management is still a little "uneasy," said Weeki Wachee Springs spokesman John Athanason.
"Pretty much the entire agreement was based on the state funding the attraction," Athanason said.
Officials never imagined that the Legislature wouldn't fund the DEP's request for some $2 million to run the park next year, said Dale Adams, a Tallahassee lobbyist for the attraction.
The Senate approved its version of the budget without a specific dollar amount for the park, Adams said. Instead, DEP can come back later with a budget amendment based on a business plan to run the attraction.
The House version included no such provision.
"No one ever expected that, oh my gosh, the money might not be available," Adams said. "This has certainly been quite a surprise."
The Legislature's Budget Conference Committee is meeting this week to hash out the differences between the two chambers' respective versions of the budget. The hope, Adams said, is that the House will come around and guarantee the funding.
Adams said he met last month with Rep. Rob Schenck but hasn't yet spoken to the Spring Hill Republican since the House approved its version of the budget without the funding.
Adams said he got the impression during the meeting with Schenck that "this is not one of his priority issues."
Schenck said Monday that he has been "working hard" to lobby for the funding during the past couple of days.
"At this point I'm cautiously optimistic," he said.
Robyn Anderson, the attraction's general manager, signed the deal in January to have Weeki Wachee Springs LLC sell its assets to the DEP for $10. DEP agreed to keep Anderson on as an assistant manager. Several other attraction staffers will also stay on, and DEP officials agreed to make its best effort to offer full-time jobs to as many of the attraction's employees as possible.
Once the transfer happens, it will end a four-year legal battle between the attraction and its landlord, the Southwest Florida Water Management District, which owns the land on which the park sits. Each side contended the other breached the terms of the attraction's lease.
Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.
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Reader Comments
Posted by ( DunesGolfer ) on April 23, 2008 at 11:34 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Would be awful to lose this attraction.
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