CRANE POINT ZIPLINE FLOUNDERING

Some residents of Marathon may be beginning to wonder whether those running Crane Point Museum and Nature Center will be able to manage the process of constructing a controversial zip-line attraction they plan. That could mean taxpayers will have to bear the financial burden of what could be a potential failure and possible foreclosure on the land itself.  Originally planned to be in operation by February of 2012, the project is now scheduled to launch no sooner than March of 2014, over two years later than originally announced. The project suffered one more setback when the Board of County Commissioners, at its February 20 meeting, overturned a Tourist Development Council grant for 85,000 dollars because the plans have been so delayed.

The board of the Florida Keys Land and Sea Trust which operates Crane Point is only now trying to obtain a conditional use permit for the project. They had hoped to be on the planning commission’s March 2013 agenda to obtain that permit but missed the deadline for submitting a laundry list of requirements including providing a draft example of zip line operation and safety manuals, their revised site plans including the final desired location of the zip-line platforms, a detailed vegetation/tree survey for those areas, their detailed parking plans, plans for the individual platform feature types, and their proposed maximum heights of the launch towers.

Now they say they are aiming for the April planning commission agenda.  The issue is important to Marathon taxpayers because they will be responsible for ponying up 35,000 dollars for each zip-line worker that Crane Point can’t pay. That’s because Crane Point’s former executive director Audrey Moir persuaded the City of Marathon to apply for a Community Development Block Grant from the state to help fund the projected 1.1 million dollar construction for the tourist attraction. In exchange for 727,000 dollars, Crane Point will be required to create and sustain 21 jobs, 19 of them for low- to middle-income earners. Marathon taxpayers would be obligated to repay the state 35,000 dollars for each job short of that should the project fail or not hire the required number of workers.

Another concern is about what might happen to the natural area should the project collapse. Crane Point is offering the property as collateral for a line of credit from Iberia Bank for 300,000 dollars. Contrary to public comments indicating several local banks would be participating in the underwriting process, Iberia Bank is the only local bank involved. At the time the collateralization deal was struck, Florida Keys Land and Sea Trust board chair Jeff Smith was a senior officer of Iberia Bank. He has since moved to First State Bank of the Florida Keys.  Iberia Bank has offered an additional 140,000 dollars to reimburse the potential shortfall of four jobs. These funds, according to the contract signed between the city and the state will be “partially secured by an irrevocable letter of credit.”

On July 12, 2011, City Council member Mike Cinque, now Marathon mayor, said, “[Offering Crane Point as collateral] wouldn’t work because the city would never put [Crane Point] out.” Yet, that is precisely what has happened and the County Commissioners worried over the collateral agreement when rejecting the 85,000 dollar TDC grant.

At the February 20th BOCC meeting, Joan Borel, a life member of the land trust and a donor in the original purchase that saved Crane Point from development in the 1980s, said her greatest fear is the risk of bank foreclosure, if this financially shaky project totally leveraged with grants and bank loans goes forward.  Borel said that, “Viable alternatives for generating revenue with less risk have been suggested by members who want to help, but have been excluded from participation by the current board.”

Crane Point has had a checkered past when it comes to financial matters. As far back as 2005 the entire paid staff, other than operations manager John Henderson, was laid off. The site has barely recovered and is running on a skeleton staff. It has been impossible to determine the depth of Crane Point’s financial woes and how much money they need to meet their expenses. Meanwhile, Moir, who says she took no salary after the layoffs, has resigned. The operations manager, who was the person principally responsible for the day-to-day details of the complicated zip-line project, has left. The bank officer who worked out the collateral agreement has replaced the long-time chairman of the landtrust’s board.

Despite his stated rejection of a collateral agreement, Mayor Cinque was one of three council members to sign off on the project and is now an ex officio member of the Crane Point Board.  City Manager Roger Hernstadt has said, “The hard part of it [the zip-line installation] is ahead of them.”

That should raise even more concerns for taxpayers.