Posted on 01/13/2006 8:38:09 PM PST by NormsRevenge
NAPLES, Fla. - A homesteader leaving his Everglades land after years of fighting the state's claim on it is moving to a bigger, nicer house, but he mourns what he's lost.
"I will never see the turkeys run up and down the road again," said Jesse Hardy, 70. "I will never see my deer feed in my yard again. ... I will never be able to freely do what I wanted to do."
Hardy's land was the last of 19,000 parcels purchased by the state over the past two decades to help return the Everglades to its natural state. Most owners happily sold, having bought in a 1960s land scam.
Hardy rejected repeated offers, however, saying he wanted to hang onto a dying rural lifestyle and pass it on to the 9-year-old boy he has raised on the land with the boy's mother.
A judge approved a settlement last year, and Hardy accepted a $4.95 million check in July. The deadline for him to leave the property was Thursday.
Hardy paid $60,000 in 1976 for the land about 40 miles east of Naples. He built a small, clapboard house on his 160 acres, dug a well and used propane instead of electricity.
With the settlement money, Hardy bought a new house and was moving his belongings into it this week, but he says it really isn't home for him. "It don't fit me, it don't fit me at all," he said.
Construction crews are scheduled to start filling in canals and tearing apart roads on Hardy's Everglades land later this year. Once restored, his parcel and the surrounding area will connect with a state forest and wildlife reserves.
The $8.4 billion Everglades project seeks to restore the slow-moving river that once stretched uninterrupted from a chain of lakes near Orlando south to Florida Bay.
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On the Net:
http://www.evergladesplan.org
Jesse Hardy gestures in front of his home in the middle of the Everglades, June 17, 2004. Hardy finally packed up to move, acknowledging he'll have to leave some of his belongings behind on land the state claimed for an environmental restoration project. Hardy, 70, a disabled former Navy Seal, reluctantly reached a settlement and got a check for $4.95 million last summer for the secluded property on which he's lived for three decades. (AP Photo/J.Pat Carter)
$4.95 million will buy a lot of land here in Texas full of more deer and turkeys than he ever saw in Florida.
I wonder if they are going to screw him for Capital gains .
No kidding... and for that money, he could move the little clapboard house onto it if he wanted...
That said, I sympathize with loving a place.
Read this as: "I can't shoot free meat out of season off my front porch anymore."
It's hard to feel too badly for the man and his family. 5 million.
I don't know who got screwed worst. This guy who bought into a land scam in the 1970's or the U.S.Government (us!) spending 4.95 mil for 160 acres of swampland!
What a guy. We need more like him.
This sounds like gold-digging, but I have read a lot about this guy. He really seemed to want to stay on the land and give it to his child. He could have taken millions for it a couple of years ago but chose to fight the state. He lost. At least he bled the bastards for almost 5 million. Emminent domain at its worst.
"I wonder if they are going to screw him for Capital gains."
Probably.
I've wondered if the idiotic ruling by the Supreme Court had anything to do with his changing his mind. I read of his agreement to see within days of the ruling. Anyone know?
Hard to take this guy seriously. He won't see turkeys on that particular road. But for $5 million he can buy swampland with turkeys someplace. Heck, that's enough for 300,000 Butterballs.
He's quite lucky the State didn't force an emminent domain action on him. With the recent ruling by the SCOTUS they probably wouldn't have had too much legal barrier to do so.
But what is $60k in 60's dollars worth today adjusted for inflation? Maybe half a million? So his actual capital gains wouldn't be quite that much. Also, since this is a state sponsored program there could have been a provision protecting him from those taxes.
According to this site $60,000 in 1976 would be worth $206,000 today.
There are some things I wouldn't sell for 5 million too. A tract of land that I warm up to, learn to live on, and end up loving is amongst those things. A tract of land that gives a 9-year-old grandson joy is among them as well, especially if you plan on passing it on to him once you expire.
Perhaps it is easy for me to day this because I have no aspirations of becoming a millionaire... who knows. I'd much rather carry on tradition than an inheritance.
APf
Ditto Alaska; Moose, Bears, Wolves, Bald Eagles, stupid chickens, et al.
But I understand him, home is HOME.
and he could be a Red Wings fan..
He bought the place in '76? I thought it said it was earlier than that.
From the article: "Hardy paid $60,000 in 1976 for the land about 40 miles east of Naples."
He was the last one to buy a parcel there in the scam that began in the 60's.
Norms Revenge, your initial post on this thread, brought back to mind one of my favorite jokes, which I have posted a couple of times to freepers before on threads with this similar topic, but it's one of my favorite jokes, and I tell it proudly whenever I am in the vicinity of one or more "tree- huggers". I hope you like it:
A scruffy, unshaven, underfed , backwoods looking individual is standing at the defense table with his public defender in a Florida court of of law, waiting for the judge to enter to begin the trial
for which he is charged and pleading guilty with killing a Florida panther.
Seated in the front row of the courtroom are his equally shabbily dressed and undernourished wife, and their four small children. All talking suddenly stops and everyone rises as the bailiff announces to the courtroom the arrival of the judge who is to preside over the trial. The judge tells the courtroom to be seated as he sits and begins the trial by reading the charges of the defendant to the now totally quiet court.
The judge begins;" Sir you are in this court of law today charged with the criminal offense of killing a Florida panther, which is a felony in this great state. I have carefully reviewed your past criminal history, of which you have none, and have also found out that the small monthly checks that you do receive for being physically handicaped, and no longer able to to be gainfully employed, is barely enough to sustain you and your family in the simple backwoods lifestyle that you have by nessesity have had to endure for the past decade.
"Since this is your first ever offense, I am not going to give you any jail time for this crime, but I am going to fine you for it, and small monthly payments will be taken out of your monthly check, untill the fine is totally paid.
Now before I send you to the clerk to finish your paperwork concerning this, is there anything you would like to say to this court?"
The frail man rises to his feet and replies "Yes I do your Honor. I did not kill this animal for fun or sport, I killed this animal to survive. The meat from this animal sustained my wife and family for over two weeks, and after the hide was sufficienly tanned, it was made in to small articles of clothing for my wife and four children. I did not waste this animal your Honor"
With hardly a dry eye in the courtroom, the scruffy gentleman returns to his seat. The judge replies " I believe you, but my verdict still stands. This trial is adjoured, and you can follow the bailiff to the clerks office to finish the legal paperwork, but before you do, would you please approach the bench?"
The defendant nods in the affirmative, and makes his way to the judge's bench. The judge pushes his courtroom microphone
out of sounds reach, leans over his bench, and softly but inquisitively inquires;" I'd like to ask you one question before you depart. What in the world does a Florida Panther taste like?"
The shabbily dressed gentleman raises his right hand to his scruffy beard and begins to rub it in deep thought as he ponders the judge's question, and then after a few seconds, gives the judge his reply.
"Well your Honor, that's kind of difficult question to answer you see, because it's kind of a toss-up between a bald eagle and a manatee........."
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