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Hernando Today

Weeki Wachee Springs Would Still Run Like A Business

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By TONY MARRERO

Hernando Today

Published: April 29, 2008

WEEKI WACHEE - It would be called Weeki Wachee Springs State Park, but it will have to keep running like a business.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which runs the state park system, will be able to submit an amendment request for the 2008-09 budget to secure the money to run Weeki Wachee Springs, according to language in the state's budget conference report finalized this week.
DEP would get funding equal to the revenue that the park is expected to bring in next year, and the budget amendment must be "accompanied by a detailed business plan for operation of the attraction" and include an itemized list of revenue and the costs to operate and maintain the 60-year-old landmark, the report language states.
There's no guarantee the Legislature would approve the budget amendment, and unless there is a special session, the amendment would have to wait until the 2009 session, said Joe Mason, the Brooksville attorney representing Weeki Wachee Springs.
If that happened, Weeki Wachee Springs could "turn over the keys to the park" but would still run it until the Legislature approved the funding, Mason said.
Still, Tuesday's news was welcomed after a scare last week when the House neglected to include any provision at all for the attraction, said Dale Adams, a Tallahassee lobbyist for Weeki Wachee Springs.
"It's fantastic to hear," Adams said.
Adams said the language is an encouraging sign that 15 of the attraction's full-time employees will get to stay as park employees and receive benefits, a goal that Weeki Wachee Springs manager Robyn Anderson set all along once the decision was made to donate the park.
DEP officials have said they plan to make a good faith effort to achieve that goal.
"This provision will enable the Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Recreation and Parks to operate Weeki Wachee Springs as a state park," said DEP spokeswoman Amy Graham in an e-mail. "Weeki Wachee is a rich piece of Florida's heritage and will be an important addition to Florida's State park system. We look forward to working with Weeki Wachee and all stakeholders on this venture."
Weeki Wachee Springs makes plenty of money to operate in the black, attraction spokesman John Athanason said Tuesday.
While the attraction grossed some $3 million last year, it cleared about $80,000, Athanason said.
"It doesn't sound like a lot of money but considering that four years ago the park faced $1 million in neglect, it might as well be $8 million," Athanason said.
As well, Athanason said, the state won't have to pay property taxes or the annual $258,000 lease payment to the Southwest Florida Water Management District, which owns the land on which the park sits.
A four-year legal dispute over that lease prompted Anderson to invite DEP for a visit last summer to vet the possibility of donating the park to the state for $10.
If the donation happens as planned on Nov. 1, the lawsuits filed by both sides claiming breach of the lease terms will be dropped.
The provisional language is "a good step forward" toward finalizing the nuts and bolts of the transfer, said Greg Giordano, spokesman for Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, who worked along with Rep. Rob Schenck, a Spring Hill Republican, to help ensure the attraction got a spot in the budget report.
Giordano said the language could allow DEP to contract with a private firm to run the park.
That won't be necessary if DEP keeps its end of the bargain to keep the current employees, Mason said. Graham said DEP had no plans to hire a firm and expects to follow through with the original agreement.

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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