Free trees for Arbor Day on Saturday
Editor, The Sun:
On January 17th, the annual Crawfordville Arbor Day festival will feature its signature tree giveaway and much more. Even if you have no need for a tree, plan a visit to Hudson Park between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. this Saturday.
Families will enjoy the children’s activities that include a petting zoo, marine touch tanks, face painting, and an art contest. Look for the trailers and tents offering tasty foods, artisan pantry staples, baked goods, and hot and cold beverages to sample onsite or take home.
Visit interesting educational exhibits and talented artisan and craft vendor tents as well. More than 50 vendors and exhibitors are expected. Don’t miss the raffle table with a Meyer lemon tree and more. Raffle tickets are $1 or 6 for $5.
If you have room in your yard for a tree, choose from among 24 kinds of large and small trees ranging from red maple to redbud to red cedar. Each person may take home 1 free tree. Kids, too. After 12:30 p.m., remaining trees will be available in any quantity for a requested donation of $4 per tree. Nearly 1,000 trees in 1-gallon pots and 1,000 pine seedlings are looking for homes
Lynn Artz
Arbor Day Festival
Gulf Specimen forced to remove sign
Editor, The Sun:
For at least 30 years Gulf Specimen Marine Lab’s main sign on Highway 98, located on a parcel next to the Panacea Plaza Shopping center, has directed school buses to Clark Drive where the aquarium is located. Recently this parcel was purchased by the Panacea Waterfronts Partnership which told us remove our sign immediately.
We acknowledged that Panacea Waterfronts Florida now owns the property and has the right to tell us to remove our sign, but explained that we couldn’t move it right away because there was no place to legally put it, and requested time to find a location and acquire the necessary new permits.
We all agreed to meet on March 1st for continued negotiations on the deadline for moving our sign.
With such short notice we had no choice but to purchase an available piece of highway frontage property at the intersection of Palmdale Street and Highway 98. The lot is heavily wooded, which will regrettably have to remove some trees and undergrowth so our sign can be clearly seen from the highway. In keeping with our long-standing fight for environmental protection, we are bringing in forestry and landscape experts to minimize the loss of trees and wildlife habitat.
Even so, FDOT ordinances and county rules allow businesses located directly on the highway to display their signs, but prohibit directional signs for businesses off the highway.
If we can’t get the permits we will try to work around them by installing art displays. There are no regulations regarding art. Five years ago, we helped the Rock Landing Marina erect a 20-foot fiberglass Great White Shark and a 14-foot giant blue crab on their property at the intersection of Highway 98 and Rock Landing Road. These have become an icon identifying the turn which has helped, but it’s not as effective as having a sign with their name on it.
Jack Rudloe
President, Gulf Specimen