WWW.KEYSNET.COM WEDNESDAY,AUGUST 8, 2012 VOLUME 59, NO. 63 ● 25 CENTS LOWER KEYS Big Pine fire set Thursday By KEVIN WADLOW ignite the controlled burn on a sons learned” from the Blue changes Thursday will be Senior Staff Writer narrow, boomerang-shaped Wildlife refuge staff says lessons Hole Fire at prescribed burns more firefighters at the site. [email protected] tract covering 10 acres along learned from out-of-control blaze in mainland refuges in recent “There will be a lot of peo- the west side of Key Deer months. ple there,” Morkill said of The first intentional burn Boulevard. larger area and forced a five- on weather and conditions,” “We’ve been testing the units from Fish and Wildlife, on Big Pine Key since the The site, between Big Pine hour evacuation for residents refuge manager Anne Morkill protocols learned here last the National Park Service, the Blue Hole Fire scorched 100 Avenue and Mahogany Lane, of the Pine Heights subdivi- said Tuesday. year and things have gone Florida Division of Forestry, acres last September could be lies close to the Blue Hole sion. Refuge fire-management perfectly,” Cohen said. “We Monroe County Fire Rescue lit Thursday. area where a planned 10-acre “We won’t make the final specialist Dana Cohen said look forward to a good burn and the Sheriff’s Office. A Staff with the National burn on Sept. 15 turned into a decision to burn until U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service here.” Key Deer Refuge plan to wildfire that covered a much Thursday morning, depending staff has been applying “les- One of the most visible ● See Fire, 2A ELECTION 2012 OUR YOUTH Thousands already voted in primary primary election. Early balloting As of Tuesday, 850 peo- is continuing ple had visited one of the five early-voting sites that through Aug. 11 opened July 30. Another 4,200 absentee ballots have By KEVIN WADLOW been returned to the Monroe Senior Staff Writer County Supervisor of [email protected] Elections Office, accounting for about half the total of More than 5,000 Monroe absentees requested. County voters already have cast ballots for the Aug. 14 ● See Vote, 3A KEY WEST Peary Court suit may hold up sale says the 890 military housing Housing firm units in Key West comprising wants reversal Peary Court, Sigsbee Park, Truman Annex, Trumbo Point on tax status and the Branch Medical Clinic should not have received tax- By SEAN KINNEY exempt status in 2007 when [email protected] ownership of the houses, but not the land, transferred from The U.S. Navy’s private the Navy to Southeast housing partner has taken to Housing LLC, a division of Monroe County Circuit Court Balfour Beatty Communities. to contest an $11,488,575 bill His office placed liens on Photo courtesy SARAH DODAMEAD for back taxes, penalties and the properties on July 17 seek- Sarah Dodamead (left) and residents of her host village in Botswana head to church. Dodamead was in Africa on a interest. ing back taxes from 2008, plus Karl Borglum, Monroe five-week immersion experience through the Experiment in International Living. County’s property appraiser, ● See Navy, 2A TRAFFIC HEADACHES From Keys to Botswana a really beautiful experi- you don’t get the full cul- Dodamead says she found Keys student ence because these people tural immersion. I wanted herself huddled over a fire is enriched lived with nothing but to see how people live and in a shack each morning they were so happy,” she stop taking things for with her host family. with immersion said. granted,” she said. “We boiled water out- The trip, from June 28 For the first three side and carried it in a By RYAN MCCARTHY to Aug. 2, was arranged weeks, Dodamead and a bucket through the house [email protected] through the Experiment in handful of other American and into the tub. We’d lit- International Living, a students stayed with host erally have an inch of Imagine working 40 company that’s been families in the village of water in the bathtub that hours per week at a local sending high-schoolers Mogobane. She stayed in we had to roll around in,” restaurant as a full-time abroad since 1932 and a three-bedroom house she said. high school student so working in Monroe with a mother, her five The village residents you could spend more County since 2006. Since children and one grand- wore their finest clothes than a month during the then, more than 100 Keys child. to the community church, summer doing chores and students have gone abroad Dodamead says most which belied the condi- community service in a through Experiment, of her days were spent tion of the building. tiny African village. which partners with the doing chores, such as “People went there in Incoming Marathon Monroe County hand-washing clothes or their best clothes and High School junior Sarah Education Foundation. feeding the family’s ani- when you go inside, it’s Dodamead, 16, did just Dodamead chose an mals. Comm-unity service bricks thrown on top of Keynoter photo by SEAN KINNEY that and said her five- economically poor desti- at the village school each other. The benches This is the view facing south down North Roosevelt week journey to the nation because she want- included building benches are pieces of wood on top Boulevard in Key West from the intersection with Palm Republic of Botswana ed to experience some- and tables, bricklaying of rocks, but they were so Avenue, where traffic switches to one inbound lane, down was one of the most thing worlds apart from and tutoring children. happy to be together,” from two inbound and two outbound. A $41.5 million rewarding experiences of her life here in the Keys. The trip fell during the Dodamead said. her young life. “I was looking for an winter in Botswana, She ate rice almost overhaul is under way and slated for completion by June “It was the most eye- experience. You can back- where temperatures often 2014. Story, 2A opening thing ever. It was pack through Europe, but reach the freezing point. ● See Dodamead, 3A INDEX Printed on 100% Classifieds . .4B recycled ‘Sea hag’ DUI- newsprint Living . .2B CONTENTS © 2012 killing manslaughter KEYNOTER PUBLISHING CO. Business . .7A Now that she’s been Nearly three years after a Opinion . .6A indicted, an accused killer Keys man was charged known as ‘sea hag’ is with killing two people Sports/Outdoors . .1B scheduled for arraignment. while driving drunk, a trial Story, 2A seems imminent. Story, 3A Crossword . .4A 7786790 22222 2A Wednesday, August 8, 2012 KeysNet.com Keynoter NEWS BRIEFS ELECTION 2012 More protection Early-bird lobster hunter arrested From Fire, 1A refuge report. “However, Sternad accused their diversity diminishes as firefighting helicopter from forests become overgrown. A Key West man just can’t Everglades National Park “Plants in this forest type learn that you can’t take lobster will be stationed on the need open areas and rare outside the eight-month season of race-baiting island. plants endemic to the pine that started Monday. “I definitely feel better rocklands such as deltoid Friday, state marine officers Another flier simply us. Gov. Rick Scott’s about this burn,” Monroe spurge, sand flax and Big arrested Luis Perez-Torna, 43, Congressional states: “Lamar is as administration continues to County Fire Chief James Pine partridge pea flourish at the Boca Chica Channel American as Apple Pie.” try and stop us. Are we Callahan said. “Fish and following a fire.” Bridge when they discovered hopeful’s fliers It’s not clear what demo- going to let them?” Wildlife has prepared more Burns also clear out he had four lobsters out of sea- called ‘deceptive’ graphic among Monroe Sternad’s opponents and we have prepared more. underbrush that could fuel son and under legal size, and County Democrats Sternad blasted the message in the There will be more people unplanned fires caused by three speared lobsters. All are DAVID GOODHUE is trying to attract. fliers as racist, divisive and assigned at the burn to make carelessness or lighting misdemeanors. [email protected] According to the U.S. deceptively opportunistic. sure there is no threat to life strikes. On June 29, he was arrested Census Bureau, more than “I assume if there was an The area targeted The battle for U.S. or property.” for similar violations at the 20 percent of the Keys pop- Indian vote, he’d be speak- Thursday was last burned in Congressional District 26 Even as it grew to 10 same location. ulation is of Hispanic or ing Hindi,” said Joe Garcia, 2009. has been brought to the times the planned size, the Latino origin. former Democratic Party Robert Ehrig, an ecolo- Keys following campaign Blue Hole Fire was con- Sternad could not be chairman in Miami-Dade gist and 34-year Big Pine KEYS WEATHER literature sent by candidate tained within national refuge reached for comment. The and a District 26 candidate. resident, doesn’t agree that a Lamar Sternad that his property. No homes were phone number he provided Vladimir Gutman, cam- site burned three years ago PREDICTED TEMPERATURES opponents call “race bait- damaged, and wildlife losses the Florida Division of paign manager for Gloria needs to be ignited again. ing” and “hateful.” apparently were limited to Elections has been discon- Romero Roses, called the “There is no real science DAY HIGH LOW Sternad, the lesser about a dozen box turtles. nected, and an e-mail sent mailers “unbelievable.” saying you should burn any- WED.