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Highlands Today

Commissioners nix training center, again

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By GARY PINNELL

Highlands Today

Published: October 21, 2009

SEBRING - After listening to two attorneys and about 30 citizens for four hours, the Highlands County commissioners again sided with the Venus community and said no to the National Security Training Center.

A second bit of news: Southern Farms owner Ron Grigsby is now running the show. Revised presentation materials to the commission left out the name Eagle. Greg Eagle, a Cape Coral developer, originally proposed the project, but Grigsby said Eagle is now involved "peripherally."

More news: Eagle attorney Ron Weaver of Tampa said he intended to appeal the Oct. 6 zoning decision of the commissioners and Tuesday's decision not to accept the stipulated settlement agreement with the Department of Community Affairs and Southern Farms. Weaver said he would appeal the zoning decision to circuit court, and the settlement agreement veto to the Department of Administrative Hearings.

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But then a final bit of news came in: the commissioners made their decision at 4 p.m. But on his way back to Lakeland, about 4:45 p.m., Grigsby called from his mobile phone.

He is selling the 7,700-acre facility as a citrus grove.
Grigsby is not going to appeal?

"That certainly is an option," Grigsby said. "But I'm not going to threaten anybody. I'm sorry (Weaver) even said that."

Then, Grigsby said he wanted to read the transcript of the hearings before he decided. But before he ended the call, Grigsby again said, "We are going to sell the property."

Eagle, he said, left the project because "he didn't like the treatment he got up there."

The news of Eagle's lack of success was spread far and wide, Grigsby said. "A lot of people are looking at this. It's been well publicized in the security community. A lot of people contacted us."

Public hearing

At Tuesday's public hearing, Weaver, co-counsel Bert Harris, and Grigsby presented revised plans for the Eagle Center, which once again include an airstrip. Commissioner Jeff Carlson sensed that all concessions from the Oct. 6 meeting had been pulled off the table. Grigsby, Harris and Weaver did not take the opportunity to disagree.

At the Oct. 6 meeting, the airstrip was pulled from the plans as a concession to about 250 Eagle opponents who came to protest what they called a war games training facility, and so was the use of .50-caliber bullets and 250-foot-tall control tower for the airport.

Without mentioning the soldiers Grigsby planned to train there, Weaver said, "We're going to train the good guys, referring to EMTs and law enforcement officers. Grigsby's plans included "first responders."

"We are not our own police force," Weaver said. He included an airstrip concession - planes would only take off and land to the west, not over the Grigsby facility. Impossible, said a retired airline pilot who lives in Venus. Planes must take off and land into the wind.

Harris said the training center has been mischaracterized as a military war games training center. The anti-Grigsby attorney, James Lobozzo, disagreed, repeatedly referring to the National Security Training Center as a military-style facility.

Lobozzo was in error, Grigsby said. "It was a war games college, no questions about that," he said on the phone, but this facility was a table-top war college.

"It was unfortunate (Eagle) didn't a better job of letting the people know what it was about," Grigsby said.

As a young, Harvard-trained lawyer, Weaver said he came to Highlands County to work on foreclosures, in an economy similar to today's.

"Do not foreclose on these jobs," Weaver pleaded. Grigsby eventually plans to hire 250 workers, and Weaver said $100 million would be spent on construction.

But, Lobozzo countered, there was no guarantee of jobs, and nothing Grigsby presented proved otherwise. It was always a mere mention in the business plan, Lobozzo said.
Grigsby also offered a concession, saying that the Department of Homeland Security and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement would oversee training of students with guns.

The commissioners bought none of what Grigsby was offering, and turned him down 4-0. Commissioner Don Bates was out of the state dealing with a family illness.

Highlands Today reporter Gary Pinnell can be reached at gpinnell@highlandstoday.com or 863-386-5828

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