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Recent email back and forth with an old mainland friend, left in photo,
whose email address I lost when my other email account went on the blink; he sent me a happy birthday on Linkedin, to which I responded and gave him my keysmyhome@hotmail.com address. He took the photo at where I used to live on Little Torch Key, I called it Walden - a wooded, overgrown acre across a county dirt road from a state wildlife refuge.
He wrote:
Sloan:
Best email address for me is this one. mark ______@ _____.com
Note that I am in discussion with a steel plant in Montevideo, Uruguay and best connection there is once again through Miami;) Will let you know when this comes together, hopefully soon after you invade the KW Mayors office… Am supposed to go to Turkey early November, and while I am game, not sure my family is on-board with it…
Best,
Mark
I replied:
Hi, Mark - sounds like you are having an interesting foreign adventure life, I understand your family’s coolness for you going to Turkey, given the present climate there and nearby - do you believe you are bullet and bomb-proof?
I invaded the mayor’s office here many years ago, spring of 2001, actually. Some people down here hail and address me as “Mayor”. I suppose, in a way, I am the mayor, in the shadow cabinet sense. Or in the head lunatic sense.
Keep me posted on your travel plans in this direction.
Sloan
Mark wrote:
Not bullet or bomb proof, just figure chances are slim I would get caught up in any BS.
I told someone I may be heading to Turkey in November and she put the 2 highlighted words together (beheading) to discourage me;)
I replied:
And just naturally, you are ignoring all the people God put in front of you to try to persuade to keep your head and stay out of that region.
Mark wrote:
If Western Turkey gets “hot” I will not make the trip.
I replied:
Just my dumb-ass opinion:
Americans should stay out of the Middle East altogether. Lots of people over there of the Mulsim persuasion simply do not like Americans (understatement), and view it as their sacred duty to God, to kill as many Americans as possible.
Mark wrote:
Sloan:
I appreciate the concern, but fellow steel business travelers tell me Turkey is probably more safe than many/most large cities in America. That may not be saying a lot, but I do trust my agents and those who have gone before me and this trip will not be to Syrian border cities, which definitely may be more risky. I’m highly aware of the middle eastern situation, but refuse to be held captive by fear. Am I a risk taker? Depends whose definition of risk you use I guess but I don’t characterize myself as a risk taker… Hope to see you soon, maybe on my way to Uruguay before the end of 2014’…
Peace,
Mark
I replied:
I myself would have no fear of traveling to Turkey, other than the stress of traveling anywhere via airplane, which I prefer to avoid. I don’t have a wife and children who still depend on me - that’s where I’m coming from for you. Safe travels, look forward to seeing you again, with your head attached to your neck.
This spicy tidbit was on www.bigpinekey.com’s popular Coconut Telegraph blog yesterday:
[Ebola Is Airborne] CDC changes its rules! Don’t remain within 3 feet of a infected person for prolonged periods without respiratory protection or come into bodily contact. Since you don’t know who’s infected, you better assume anyone is. Link
And, I wonder, what if someone infected with Ebola sneezes in, say, an airplane, a restaurant, a public bathroom, a church, a office, a school, a hospital?
Ebola is reported today in the Citizen (www.keysnews.com), my tender thoughts in italics:
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Ebola: Prepare, don’t panic
BY MANDY MILES Citizen Staff
mmiles@keysnews.com
With thousands of visitors from hundreds of countries arriving daily by air, land and sea, health and transportation officials in the Florida Keys and throughout the state are reviewing “pandemic protocols” without pushing the Ebola panic button.
The virus that has killed at least 3,800 people in West Africa is not airborne, and can only be transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids — blood, sweat, semen, vomit, feces, urine, saliva — of an infected person who is already showing symptoms.
How about by sneezing, or by coughing?
Five U.S. airports will soon begin enhanced screening of passengers arriving from West Africa. Screenings will include taking the temperatures of passengers who exhibit flu-like symptoms.
This is bizarre. Passengers can be infected, but not yet exhibit flu-like symptoms, like the fellow from Liberia, who made it all the way to Dallas, Texas, before he exhibited symptoms. He told the Dallas hospital, where he went for help, that he had come from Liberia, and the hospital let him leave the hospital. Later, he came back to that hospital, was admitted, put into quarantine, and then he died. It was reported that, in Liberia, the fellow had had phsyical contact with someone who had Ebola. A friend of mine wrote that she believed the fellow knew he was infected and he came to America to get treated.
“Although the odds of an infected airline passenger arriving in Key West are extremely small, we have reviewed our protocols for a pandemic of infectious disease,” county Airports Director Peter Horton said Friday, referring to the set of procedures developed five or six years ago in response to avian flu concerns.
So far, there has been no need to implement those protocols, Horton said.
“But if we do receive notice from an airline about a suspected infected passenger on an arriving flight, then in an abundance of caution, we would bring that plane in and isolate it with the passengers still on board. We would have already contacted the county health department and emergency management teams, who would then take over the situation with the plane, passengers and the potentially infected person,” Horton said.
As of Friday, Horton had been in touch with Bob Eadie, administrator of the county health department, Monroe County Fire Rescue Chief Jim Callahan, and county emergency management personnel.
I’d like to know how U.S. and Key West airport procedures would have stopped the Liberian fellow from reaching and then leaving our airport, and heading to his hotel on Duval Street, and wandering up and down that street’s very busy pedestrian sidewalks, and going into various of that street’s bars and restaurants, if the Liberian fellow had been inclined in that direction. Yikes! Could Muslim suicide terrorists, by copy-catting the Liberian man, attack just about any city or country on this planet?
Federal and state officials are concerned about mass migration into the United States if Ebola arrives in the Caribbean and Central America.
“If it breaks out, it’s literally, “Katie, bar the door,” Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly said earlier this week at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.
He pointed out that Coast Guard officials in Miami have intercepted 950 Haitians trying to reach the U.S. so far this year.
Kelly predicted an eruption of infected people fleeing their homes in Haiti to seek treatment in the United States.
Statewide, the Florida Department of Health has established Incident Management Teams at the county level to coordinate responses, prepare care protocols and educate the public in the event an Ebola case is diagnosed in Florida.
No such diagnoses have been made in the Sunshine State.
A patient in Miami was tested Sunday for Ebola with negative results. A second round of testing on Friday confirmed the negative result, according to officials from the Florida Joint Information Center for Disaster Response in a prepared statement issued Friday.
The Broward County Department of Health briefed transportation officials at the Fort Lauderdale airport and Port Everglades cruise ship terminals on Ebola preparedness efforts.
Though Key West welcomes hundreds of cruise ships each year, no trips originate here, meaning enhanced passenger screenings would not be implemented for passengers disembarking to spend a few hours in the Southernmost City.
Imagine the Liberian fellow flying, instead, to Miami, boarding a cruise ship headed for Key West. He starts showing Ebola symptoms on board, but keeps it to himself. He disembarks in Key West, does the Duval Street infection thing, then takes a cab to the hospital on Stock Island. Besides Key West and the entire Florida Keys being quarantined, probably too late, there is a cruise ship out there full of now Ebola-infected passengers and crew, which cannot be allowed into any port. So, what do they do with that cruise ship and its thousands of passengers? Sink it? For I see no way to treat that many people on board the ship, and there is no U.S. hospital known to me, which can receive and treat that many people at one time.
There is cause for concern in the future, but not immediate panic over the spread of Ebola via international travel aboard passenger ships and freighters, said Jim Walker, a Miami-based maritime lawyer who specializes in cruise ship crime and passenger safety.
He writes an online publication called cruiselawnews.com and on Thursday addressed, “Ebola on the High Seas: Should Cruise Passengers Worry About Becoming Infected?”
Walker says chances of infection for U.S. travelers are slim at this time, but he is concerned about the future, given the Centers for Disease Control prediction that as many as 1.4 million people could be infected with Ebola by January 2015. Experts predict the virus will appear in Europe within the month.
But for now, “Cruise lines are prudently avoiding ports in West Africa,” Walker wrote. “Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Seabourn Cruise Line, Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Fred Olsen are dropping West African ports in Ghana, Gambia and Senegal.”
In answer to concerns about foreign crew working aboard cruise ships, Walker wrote, “To my knowledge there are no cruise lines that routinely hire from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea. In fact, I have never met or even heard of crew members from these countries.
“For the next many months, cruise lines will consider West Africa to be a no-man’s land,” he concluded. “Cruise ships will continue sailing wide of West Africa until the coast is clear. Hopefully, the virus will not spread to Europe and find its way onto cruise ships.”
In the meantime, health officials are focused on preparedness and prevention rather than panic.
mmiles@keysnews.com
The Associated Press contributed to this report. For information, go to cruiselawnews.com.
The Ballast Key fun continued yesterday,
in reader comments yesterday, under this Key West the Newspaper’s (www.theblue paper.com)’s article, with a special appearance from Jim Hendrick:
Issue #83 – Friday, October 10, 2014 [back issues] [cartoons]
* FEATURED STORY *
David Wolkowsky: “God Wasn’t On Duty One Day.”
Last Tuesday the County Commission found itself once again debating development of offshore islands. Local attorney Barton Smith read into the record, a letter from his client David Wolkowsky, who argued that his island, “Ballast Key,” was a man made island and should escape the restrictions imposed on natural islands [for example they are limited to one house per ten acres]. “I envision the creation on the island of a small campus to be operated by the University’s [of Miami] Rosenstiel School.”
Mr. Wolkowsky was not present. The Commission praised his intention to donate the island for scientific research and the usual debate went on about whether all offshore islands should come under the same zoning.
Then something totally unexpected happened: […full article]
COMMENTS ON “DAVID WOLKOWSKY: “GOD WASN’T ON DUTY ONE DAY.””
Sloan Bashinsky
keysmyhome@hotmail.com
Apparently attorney Smith lied to the County Commission and perhaps to Mr Wolkowsky as maybe Mr Hendricks did also. Unless Mr Wolkowsky is lying, then both of these guys should face sanctions or lose their law liscenses for trying to pull this fast one on us all. Of course Hendricks has no liscense anymore , but maybe we could maroon him on Wisteria “naked and afraid ” for a couple weeks as punishment. Bad boy…
Bad boys. Apparently attorney Smith lied to the County Commission and perhaps to Mr Wolkowsky as maybe Mr Hendricks did also. Unless Mr Wolkowsky is lying, then both of these guys should face sanctions or lose their law licenses for trying to pull this fast one on us all. Of course Hendricks has no license anymore , but maybe we could maroon him on Wisteria “naked and afraid ” for a couple weeks as punishment – and no swimming over to his friends at Sunset Key.
Holy mackerel! How many smell tests does this fishy tale not pass? I don’t know if I can count them all. Barton Smith must be thrilled. David Wolkowsky, bless his old heart, seems to know more than he was willing to tell Naja and Arnaud. Jim Hendrick should get a good citizen award for something, but right now I’m having a bit of difficulty wondering how it should be worded to commemorate the huge service he has provided to his community. I’m glad to see Sylvia Murphy has her radar turned on full blast; just knowing Jim Hendrick is involved in something turns my radar on full blast.
As if something was in the wind, independently of what Naja and Arnaud were cooking up, I wrote a bit about all of this yesterday, October 9, at http://www.goodmorningkeywest.com. I made some mention of Jim Hendrick’s and David Wolkowsky’s relationship, and of Jim Hendrick’s and the Bernsetins and Walshes’ relationship re Wisteria Island, and of Wolkowsky having some history with the Bernsteins and my wondering if he maybe took a piece of the action in the Bernsteins’ dogged attempts to develop Wisteria, in exchange for Wolkowsky maybe cooperating with their, through Jim Hendrick, attempt to use Ballast Key as a vehicle to gain them the zoning and comprehensive plan changes they want, so they can develop Wisteria Island -assuming they win the federal lawsuit, which will decide who owns Wisteria Island, the Feds, or the Bernsteins.
We have Naja Girard to thank for digging up the title history, which caused the US Department of the Interior to believe the U.S., not the Bernsteins, own Wisteria Island. Naja finally had a bit of help from some angels, who told me to tell her to keep digging into that title history. I think David Wolkowsky might wish to reconsider. It looks to me God was there that day, and other days. Otherwise, this fishy tale might have headed an entirely different direction. The Devil’s direction. I suppose the ruckus ain’t over yet, but this blue paper article is one dang good ass-kicking start.
Is there no end to the corruption this city and county finds itself in on a weekly basis? Once again, Jim Hendrick, truly a brilliant mind in the land planning business, finds his name in the news. And as is so often the case with Mr. Hendrick, finds himself on the wrong side what’s right and wrong. I sincerely hope Mr. Barton Smith is NOT a Hendrick protege’. It does sound, however, a remedial class in “Who is my client?” would be in order.
How many times does Mr. Bernstein need to be told he cannot move his (current) plans for Wisteria Island forward? And now he has his lackeys misrepresent an issue (perpetrating a fraud?) to Mr. Wolkowsky. They all should go to jail just for that.
Barton Smith once rented office space in Hugh Morgan’s law firm on Whitehead Street, which was where Jim Hendrick also had his law office, before he was disbarred. Jim kept his consulting firm – Critical Concern, Inc. – in Morgan’s law office for a while after the disbarment, then I think Jim moved his office to his home.
The name of Jim’s consulting firm plays on the Florida Keys once being designated an area of critical concern by the Florida Legislature, due to massive over-development, and septic tanks and cess pits proliferation, and resulting ground and ocean pollution.
Jim, and his wife, Donna Bosold, also represent the Peary Court developer.
I got to know Jim pretty well after he was convicted in federal court. I published a number of reports about that at http://www.goodmorningkeywest.com. The most recent report on Jim, and some of his clients and/or confederates, is yesterday’s (October 9) “The Prince of Darkness Triangle: Key West, Ballast Key, Wisteria Island” post athttp://www.goodmorningkeywest.com.
It is my impression that their area of critical concern is how much money they can make.
The Keys should add more jail space. It looks at though some lawyers and ex lawyers are begging to go to jail . Mr Wolkowsky could make this happen.
Lawyers have a disease called “You can’t touch me” .
It is only cured by disbarment and some serious cases require jail-time , hopefully in isolation.
Your article very effectively creates the false impression that I burst into David Wolkowsky’s home one day and scared him into signing a letter containing misstatements. You chose not to report, or to garble, most of the information that I provided to Arnaud in our half-hour interview, so at the risk of spoiling a good story, please allow me to state those facts here.
One morning several months ago, my longtime (30+ years) friend David Wolkowsky called me to say that he had decided to donate Ballast Key for use an a marine research facility. David had already been talking with potential donees, including my alma mater, the University of Miami. At David’s request, I met with representatives of The Nature Conservancy, the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary and US Fish & Wildlife to discuss David’s plans and to invite them to Ballast Key for a tour and further discussions. They accepted the invitation, so we all met at Ballast Key, where David conducted a guided tour, served lunch, and we discussed use of the island as a research center and as a base for conservation officers. Although there was much interest expressed, the wheels of government agencies turn slowly, so David decided to resume discussions with the University.
As David’s land use advisor, I expressed my concern that UM’s use of Ballast Key could be thwarted by Comp Plan amendments proposed for “Offshore Islands”. Because Ballast Key has three major buildings (two residences and a utility building), it exceeds the maximum density for “Offshore Islands”. Today, if one of the two single-family homes were destroyed by fire or hurricane, it could be rebuilt, “as long as there is no increase in intensity of use” [Code §114-2 (6)(a)]. But converting a single-family home to a dormitory or research laboratory would be an “increase in intensity of use”. And if Ballast Key were zoned OS (Offshore Island) the University of Miami couldn’t use those buildings as research facilities or dormitories because such uses are prohibited in the OS District, which allows only single-family homes, temporary camping for the personal use of the owner, and beekeeping. So, if David donated Ballast Key to UM, and UM converted the existing buildings for use as marine research facilities and dormitories, that use would be disallowed under the proposed Comp Plan amendments, and the dormitory/research facility buildings couldn’t be rebuilt if destroyed by fire or hurricane. After David and I discussed this problem, he authorized me to draft a letter for him, explaining that problem and requesting County staff to revise the proposed Amendment to allow use of Ballast Key as an educational center for oceanographic and marine research. David read the letter and authorized me as his agent to present it to the County Commission. Your article misquotes me as saying that when David signed the letter, he was confused because he had just been to the dentist; what I actually said is that David told me (following his interview by Arnaud and Naja) that when you interviewed him he had just returned from the dentist and was somewhat confused by questions from two strangers concerning a letter he had signed a week previously.
David told you in the interview that Ballast Key (as its name implies) was formed by ballast stones from a sailing ship hundreds of years ago. In modern times, the island has been developed with three buildings, a dock, gazebos and related improvements. Therefore it is accurate to say, as his letter does, that Ballast Key is one of a few islands in the Keys “created or substantially altered by man”, and that Ballast Key doesn’t belong in the same category as “pristine wildlife habitats”. You can quibble with use of the phrase “man-made” (a phrase that you chose, David doesn’t use, and isn’t mentioned in his letter) in describing how Ballast Key was formed, but an inhabited island initially created by ballast stones and later improved with several structures is not a naturally-created undisturbed island like its neighbor, Woman Key.
Your monophobic obsession with Wisteria Island causes you to misportray David’s reasonable request as part of a sinister plot to develop Wisteria. The only similarities between the two islands are that they’re not connected to US 1 and that people have been living on them for decades. Unlike Wisteria, Ballast Key is located in a Wildlife Preserve and is predominantly vegetated by native trees. David is not asking to build any additional houses on Ballast Key; he only asks that he not be prevented from donating his island to a nonprofit institution for research and education. As I told Arnaud (but you chose not to report), his objective might be met simply by amending the Offshore Island policies to allow use for institutional and educational purposes, uses that Wisteria’s owners neither want nor requested. The BOCC wisely directed staff to revise the proposed Amendments to create policies recognizing the differences among “offshore islands”. One size does not fit all. It would be arbitrary and unreasonable to put Ballast Key in the same regulatory box as Woman Key and the hundreds of other undisturbed islands for which the OS policies are designed.
Finally, you should retract your false implication that Bart Smith’s presentation of David’s letter at the Oct. 7 BOCC meeting was unauthorized. I informed Arnaud (but you chose not to report), that as David’s authorized agent I asked Bart to present the letter on David’s behalf because I would be out of State and unable to attend the meeting. Bart agreed to do so as a favor to me, and because he (like me) is a UM alumnus. He doesn’t deserve to have his kindness repaid by being slimed with implications of impropriety.
Jim Hendrick
Monroe County Code provisions:
§114-2 (6)(a) allows “The rebuilding or restoration of a single-family home damaged or destroyed by fire, calamity, or natural disaster so long as the rebuilding or restoration takes place within the footprint of the destroyed or damaged structure and as long as there is no increase in density or intensity of use;
§102-56 (e) Change in use. A nonconforming use shall not be changed to any other use unless the new use conforms to the provisions of the land use district in which it is located.
Allowable uses in OS District include single family residences (one house per 10 acres), Camping “for the personal use of the owner of the property on a temporary basis”, and beekeeping.
Another example that a leopard can’t change his spots, facts be damned. But nice try at playing the altruism card.
Talk about being “monophonic about Wisteria Island” and loose with the facts….
“Unlike Wisteria, Ballast Key is located in a Wildlife Preserve and is predominantly vegetated by native trees.” Tell that to renowned naturalist Roger Hammer who a couple years ago found 76 native plant species on Wisteria Island — an incredible diversity of native plant life.
Mr. Hendrick, did you listen to Ed Davidson’s statements at the October 7 Commission meeting about the University of Miami’s lease of Pigeon Key several decades ago? I guess not — apparently it was not your alma mater’s finest hour.
I would say I am shocked, but sadly I am not surprised at all at how very low developers and their representatives will stoop to gain increased development rights. But what concerns me greatly here is what may have been attempted against one of our senior citizens. Mr. Wolkowsky, bless your soul – we’ve got your back. This needs to be investigated! One just should not be able to get away with deceiving and misleading an elderly person in this way for their own personal gain. And a few words to others: Bart Smith, many of us had come to respect you over the years with some of the cases you have worked on – but are you following in the shoes of Jim Hendrick? You know that did not turn out well in the end of his legal career! And to Jim. I got to know you as we worked together to try to do something for the people and community out at the the still non-existant waterfront park. Personally I liked you. I think you have a unique sense of humor. I think you are brilliant. Why don’t you come over to our side and work for the betterment of the community instead of its degradation – it is much more fun than working for the dark side.
I want to have hope for mankind but there are some people out there who make me worry. Thank God for people like Naja and Arnaud who dig up and spread the truth. This is not over.
Island Girl, I appreciate your kind comments about my ability and sense of humor, and understand your concern about “What may have been attempted against Mr. Wolkowsky”. Please read my response to the article, watch the video, and re-evaluate who might be considered to have taken advantage of him.
And I believe that helping create a marine research center IS working for the betterment of the community.
Mr Hendrick’s reply reads a lot like he is straying into a lawyer’s perspective. It implies that he is some kind of representative entity for Mr Kolwalsky. So let me see, If you are a land adviser in Florida you can have your clients sign papers just as though you were a lawyer . How much does it cost for a law degree? Wow, what a waste. Become a land adviser.
Poor David Wolkowsky! Having worked for him for a very short time a couple years ago I can tell you he is too sharp to be taken advantage of. He may be 96 in his body, but not in his mind. Over the years he has been partly responsible for the over development of Key West. Mr. Wolkowsky does nothing without benefit to himself and friends.
I just now sent this email to Naja Girard:
Naja -
Attached is an aerial photo of Ballast Key.
I believe a bit more than ship’s ballast made this island. I thought I heard Wolkowsky say in the video that a sailing ship struck the island a long time ago, and sunk.
Jerry Weinstock, M.D., Psychiatry, who seems about Wolkowsky’s age, and who has since the 1950s been an avid Keys nature love, especially fishing, snorkeling and diving, emailed earlier today:
“Ballast key is definitely NOT man made—that wilderness area established by President T Roosevelt in the early part of the 20 th century. Sloan have a precious day!! Jerry”
#KeyWestIslandGirl: As always, your analysis is on point. But surely you know that working on the light side is much less remunerative than on the dark side.
Cui bono? To whose benefit? Follow the money and you’ll know.
Beware of Jim Hendrick bearing letters of misinformation and falsehoods. Look to the last election in the City of Marathon where Hendrick admitted to sending out a false letter signed by a “Scott Miller”. Marathon has figured Jim Hendrick out because in that last election Jim’s friend, Pete Worthington was exposed and soundly defeated. I have known Jim Hendrick since the mid 1970?s when he first moved to the Keys and took a job as an Assistant State Attorney under Jeff Gautier. Jeff had the distinction of being removed from office by the Governor for losing and mishandling most every drug case that came before his office. Jim Hendrick then moved to Key West into the arms of Hugh Morgan, who interestingly enough is representing Ralph Lucignano in his case with the City of Marathon and the Overseas Liquor trial. It’s too bad that the Dennis Zecca case didn’t go to trial because Jim Hendrick’s name would have popped up all over the place! Beware of Jim Hendrick on any level!
Once upon a time, I was playing chess with Jim Hendrick at his office, when it was still in Hugh Morgan’s law offices. We played there maybe twice a week. One of those times, someone Jim knew, whom I did not know, walked into Jim’s office and they started talking. By and by, the fellow asked Jim if he ever gave any thought to trying to get his law license reinstated? Jim said he didn’t think he would try to do that, since he was doing everything he did when he had practiced law, but go to court.
I think to get a law license reinstated entails going through considerable scrutiny by the Florida Bar Association and/or the Florida Supreme Court. Probably lots of people who know the applicant for reinstatment are interviewed as to the applicant’s character and life since the disbarment. I say this as someone who once practiced law in Alabama, who knew lawyers who got disbarred, and lawyers who were disbarred and later tried to be reinstated.
From the next to last paragraph of the letter Jim Hendrick wrote for David Wolkowsky to sign:
“… Ballast Key was created by man rather than by natural processes such as coral accretion or mangrove growth.”
Yesterday morning over breakfast at Harpoon Harry’s, Tom Milone said he had read the August 9 “The Prince of Darkness Triangle: Key West, Ballast Key, Wisteria Island” post athttp://www.goodmorningkeywest.com, and he agreed with my wondering if what this really is about is trying to get Monroe County’s permission to develop Wisteria Island into something like nearby Sunset Key, which the Walshes own? The Walshes and the Bernsteins, who claim to own Wisteria Island, partnered to try to develop Wisteria Island.
Tom also agreed with my wondering if David Wolkowsky had been given a piece of the Wisteria Island action, in exchange for his trying to get the Monroe County’s zoning and comprehensive changed for Ballast Key?
Tom said, if Wolkowsky wants to give Ballast Key away, for a nature preserve, he can give it to Monroe County or the State of Florida, with that stipulation, that it remain a nature preserve in perpetuity. I said, maybe Wolkowsky could not get a federal income tax deduction if he gave Ballast Key to the county or the state.
I said I’d heard Wolkowsky would reserve a life estate for himself, if he did give Ballast Key away. Tom said Wolkowsky had reserved a life estate in a roof-top apartment of an office building across from the La Concha Hotel, when he sold that office building. I said I’d heard the same thing.
As Key West Shoes, whom I know pretty well, commented under this blue paper article:
“#KeyWestIslandGirl: As always, your analysis is on point. But surely you know that working on the light side is much less remunerative than on the dark side.
“Cui bono? To whose benefit? Follow the money and you’ll know.”
I didn’t save the email I sent to Key West Island Girl yesterday, whom I also know pretty well. It went something like:
“Just after Jim Hendrick was convicted in federal court back in late 2006, or maybe it was early 2007, the angels gave me Jim to try to convert. Maybe you will do better. I found he was unflappable. He viewed everything as a game, including being prosecuted, tried, convicted and spending some time in a federal facility, before the trial judge put him on probation. I don’t know how Jim did it; I couldn’t do it.”