Joel EngelhardtLeaked document short-circuited state effort to revise long-dead plans for golf courses in the 10,000-acre state park in southern Martin County.
It’s rare to draw as much outrage and condemnation in just a few days as drawn by the state’s light-on-details plan to build two-and-a-half golf courses at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in southern Martin County.
The cacophony came from all sides and it came so fast and hard that before the state could convene a meeting planned for today at a wedding venue in Stuart, the proposal had been withdrawn.
- Proposals for changes at eight other state parks remain and environmentalists plan press conferences throughout the week, including one at 2 pm today at Flagler Park in Stuart.
Getting the word out started with a leaked page of the plan confirmed by Max Chesnes, a former Treasure Coast Newspapers reporter now working for the Tampa Bay Times.
Why it’s important: The outcry fed by media coverage and social media forced the state to delay today’s meeting and brought new demands to assure that Dickinson is preserved in perpetuity.
- But reporters could only speculate on what group had enough political clout to get the governor’s office to resurrect a 2011 proposal to convert 10 percent of the 10,000-acre park to fairways and greens.
That mystery ended Friday night when WPBF Channel 25’s longtime investigative reporter Terri Parker broke the story wide open.
Parker got state Sen. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, to describe a meeting last year with the veterans charity Folds of Honor, in which she was asked to sponsor a bill to allow three golf courses in the park. An unidentified Florida Department of Environmental Protection worker confirmed the charity’s involvement.
- Chesnes followed the next day with his own story, also tracking the concept to Folds of Honor.
On Sunday, Folds of Honor withdrew, according to DEP, an agency that had not previously acknowledged the charity’s role.
Yes, but with another twist. Folds of Honor planned to use the course to memorialize the famed Tuskegee Airmen, a group of Black U.S. military pilots during World War II.
An unanswered question: Did golf legend Jack Nicklaus, who was involved in the 2011 effort, play a role?
Folds of Honor founder and CEO, Lt. Col. Dan Rooney, credited Nicklaus with helping the charity save his family-owned golf course in Michigan, now called American Dunes.
Nicklaus redesigned the course, which raises money for the charity, and waived $3 million in fees, the 2021 edition of the group’s magazine, Honor, said.
What they’re saying: “I want people here to play, have fun, (and) say, ‘I had a great day,’ but I also contributed to a great cause,” Nicklaus told the magazine. “That’s sort of what this golf course is. I think it’s going to serve its purpose.”
Read more: How Palm Beach County Commission reacted by Joe Capozzi.
— Joel Engelhardt
