THEATER KEY LARGO Conch Republic Days Festival begins Sunday with dessert Key Largo hosts fun and games In L’Attitudes April 22-29 By L’Attitudes Staff How many Conch fritters can you eat in one sitting? And, if your cheeks puff up, is that from too many frit- ters or from trying to force a sound out of a conch shell? Visitors and locals attend- Key Largo blows the conch shell horn for a week of Short Attention Span poster ing this year’s Key Largo Conch Republic Days festi- val will get the chance to try both, during a week-long celebration of Keys lifestyles Short Attention Span and a send up of a long ago secessionist movement. festivities, and Red Barn tackles Short Attention First, the fritters. opens at Red Barn On Monday, April 21, gourmands can descend on This is a revival of the the Key Largo Conch Comic sketches stage show with updated House, mile marker 100.2, material and the discipline ocean, and compete for and short plays needed to compress stories bragging rights in the Conch into a series of tiny plays. Span Theatre. Stories Fritter Eating Contest. steal the show “What do you get when This Key Largo landmark By L’Attitudes Staff you take a company of restaurant was featured last actors, directors and pro- year on the Food Channel’s ducers and mix in fresh, “Man v. Food” program. Comedy Central and new 10-minute plays?” And, yes, conch fritters were comedians like Jon Stewart, Well, producers provide the challenge on TV. Mark Allen, Sue Murphy the ready answer: “You get Conch shell veterans will Howard Kolbenheyer, the Big Kahuna, reads official proclamation of secession at last and others created the Short the Short Attention Span Attention Span Theater. get the opportunity to blow year’s Conch Republic ceremonies. Theatre.” 4B their hearts out at two The comic sketches ran Tickets cost $30-$65. on the cable network from . events for this year’s cele- hardy and fame seekers will And there’s a second 94.5, ocean, hosts closing Short Attention Span bration. attempt to set a world chance for conch shell ceremonies, which include 1989 to 1994. Jon Stewart Theatre runs through On Friday, April 27, at record. Last year, the con- enthusiasts and their fans on more conch shell blowing. was the original host and Saturday, May 12. Increased risk Sundowners Restaurant, test drew 200 and much Sunday, April 29, when acerbic wit, and clips from For more information, entertainment news, provid- 04 gulf, the noise was made. Snapper’s, mile marker G See Republic,6B visit: www.redbarnthe ed fodder for the comedy. atre.com or call the box Fast-forward 20 years office, 296-9911. and you’ve got the stage For aficionados of the version of Short Attention genre, Short Attention Span Span Theater, which opens Theater later morphed into April 29 Tuesday, April 24, at the guest sketches when Red Barn Theatre. Comedy Central became i cted by Juliet Gray The Comedy Channel, Blowout risks increase as drillers explore h Key which later became The d Network. deeper waters in the Gulf, presidential commission warns after studying the Deepwater Horizon disaster. See story, 9A. WWW.KEYSNET.COM KEY WEST Fallout overSATURDAY,APRIL manager? 21, 2012 VOLUME 59, NO. 32 By SEAN KINNEY ● [email protected] 25 CENTS Monroe County Mayor and Key West City Com- community activist, said she missioners this week stepped was “disappointed” that com- into the middle of the city missioners worked around Search committee chair expresses manager candidate search the process to add more can- ‘disappointment’ over commission move process. didates. And it has the search com- The fallout was quick. sioners overruled their own for mayor last year, losing to mittee chair a bit upset. Andrew Mair, administrator of search process qualification, incumbent Craig Cates. Shirley Freeman, former Merer County, N.J., dropped which mandated a minimum more after the commissioner Davis ran unsuccessfully for the Florida Department of out of the running when he of five years of equivalent weighed in on the process. for Monroe County Sheriff Community Affairs and was an learned Key West commis- management experience. Two of the four added four years ago, losing to Bob assistant city manager in MARATHON The committee’s shortlist of candidates are well-known Peryam. Pensacola, Fl. Shew has exten- eight prospects, grew by four Keys residents, Margaret The other two candidates sive experience managing city Romero and Ken Davis. added by commissioners are and county governments in Romero ran unsuccessfully Paul Shew and Thaddeus New York state, Massachusetts City vows to KEY WEST Cohen. and Connecticut. Cohen is former secretary With Mair dropping out address towing ● See Manager, 3A Cinque: ‘We need to make mile marker 54. The proper- ty’s owner, the estate of Gus corrections’ Boulis, gave him permission to do so. Boulis was murdered By RYAN McCARTHY in Fort Lauderdale in 2001. [email protected] Councilwoman Ginger Snead said she received a call Persistent concerns at the from a resident saying Florida former Quay restaurant prop- Keys Towing attempted to tow erty are forcing the Marathon her from the Quay property as City Council to reconsider she ate lunch inside her car. enacting a law overseeing She was “in her car eating local tow-truck operators. her lunch, with the car run- The council backed off ning, when a tow truck approving a law in backed up to her to tow her November that would require away and a situation ensued. tow companies to accept That’s not acceptable. I want traveler’s checks, credit cards to put it on the agenda next and debit cards-in addition to time so we can put an end to cash-after two operators it once and for all,” she said. argued against the measure. City Manager Roger But just as in November, Hernstadt told the Keynoter council members said they that his staff is working on an continue to receive com- ordinance that would require plaints about Florida Keys tow-truck companies to pay a Towing, owned by Bill Pruitt. nominal registration fee for Pruitt’s company began the privilege to tow private removing trucks and boat properties in the city. trailers from the private Quay “We’re not trying to do property adjacent to the city- comprehensive towing legis- owned public boat ramp near lation,” he said. “We just ● See Towing, 5A Joseph Varela and his dad, Freddy, enjoy a quiet moment in the dugout at Marlins stadium in downtown Miami. UP IN THE AIR Life throws many more pitches and punches Keynoter Photo by BURT BUDDE By DICK WAGNER Keynoter Contributor Conch father and son share You are Freddy Varela, assistant coach for the Key lessons about what’s important West High baseball team, and you’re at Rex Weech you went to the Homestead You went to Lower Keys Field this week, beneath the hospital, where X-rays and a Medical Center, where you mid-April sun. A Conch born CT-scan revealed a mass and you, Joe and Sheri came were found to have angina, to wear a uniform, you’ll be near his rib cage. At mid- home for the weekend, pray- and that Friday you were air- 45 soon, and after all the sea- night, your son - “I wasn’t ing for the best, hoping the lifted to Baptist. “Like, why sons as a fixture on orange- thinking cancer, I thought tumor would be low-grade. is this happening to us?” Joe dirt diamonds, you never maybe it was extra bone,” he Answered prayers - the had said. imagined there could be one had said - was admitted. mass was diagnosed as a On March 19, you under- like this, one that struck such The next day, grim news chondrosarcoma, cancer but went a stent procedure to fear in your heart. followed more tests. “A pos- low grade, and you remember clear a blockage in a coro- It was early March when sible osteosarcoma,” a doc- being relieved that it wasn’t nary artery. A doctor had the trepidation began, and tor had said, and you remem- worse. Surgery was sched- said, “It’s your left anterior you think back to how your ber her painting a picture uled for the next week, and descending, it’s called the son, Joseph, the senior sec- about the aggressiveness of you returned to Key West. widow maker,” and you ond baseman, complained such a tumor. A couple of days later, on remember laughing at that. that his left side was hurting. Another doctor was con- March 14, another Wednesday, Physically, you felt a lot “I think I broke my ribs.” sulted, and you remember you were throwing batting better three days later when And then at dinner on a your relief when he told you practice when your chest you were at yet another hos- Monday night, Joe showed and Sheri, your wife of 21 began to hurt. You stopped, pital, South Miami, in Joe’s Scott Deffenbaugh rides Missouri’s first zipline at Eagle Falls you the lump, and you both years, that rib-cage tumors making the excuse that it was a room, waiting for him to be Ranch in Eminence, Mo. Monroe CountyMCT/St. commissioners Louis Post-Dispatch tried to remember if he had were usually benign. After bad tooth. The next day, at taken to surgery. You looked give green light for Crane Point to pursue state grants for been hit by a ground ball. scans of Joe’s brain, chest, your job as controller at down at your anxious 18- Marathon zipline.