The Florida Keys Only Daily Newspaper, Est.

1876

Snappers spear Morays in mens softball Page 1B

Wednesday

STILL

50

September 23, 2015 Vol. 139 No. 266 16 pages

Officials opt for no tax increase

WEATHER

Leaders tap $250K of reserves to keep millage rate at rollback

BY GWEN FILOSA
Key West Citizen

City commissioners Tuesday

chose to tap into reserves rather
than raise property taxes, approving
a millage rate of $259 per $100,000
of taxable value and a total fiscal
year budget of $166.3 million.
Of that $166.3 million, $14.9 mil-

Ada Van Loon, fourth grade,

Poinciana Elementary School
See forecast on Page 2A

EARLY VOTING
Early voting is underway through Oct. 3 for
the general election in
Key West, which will be
held Oct. 6.
Registered voters can
go to the Supervisor of
Elections Office, 530
Whitehead St., Ste. 101
in Key West, Monday
through Friday, from
8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and
Saturday, from 10 a.m. to
5 p.m.
In Marathon, early
voting is scheduled for
Oct. 19 through Oct.
30. Registered voters can
go to the Supervisor of
Elections Office, 10015
Overseas Highway in
Marathon, Monday
through Friday, from
8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The
general election is set for
Nov. 3.
Absentee ballots will
be mailed approximately 35 days before the
election. To request an
absentee ballot, visit keyselections.org/Voters/
Request-an-Absentee.
aspx.
For information, call
Supervisor of Elections
Joyce Griffin at 305-2923416.

lion comes from property taxes,

Mayor Craig Cates pointed out,
after the 4-2 vote.
Commissioners Teri Johnston
and Jimmy Weekley were the two
dissenters.
Finance Director Mark Finigan
presented the last 2015-2016 bud-

get proposal from staff, calling for a

1.79 percent tax increase.
But staff gave commissioners the
option of taking 2.1 days worth of
reserves to achieve rollback, which
is the rate that would generate the
same amount of tax revenue as the
current year.

CONTESTED ISSUE

Before Tuesdays vote, Key West

had 92 reserve days, about $11 million, stored up to run the city in the
event of a natural disaster. Each
reserve day is worth $122,500.
Finigan, the former assistant city
See BUDGET, Page 10A

Ocean
Reef clerk
accused of
grand theft
BY ADAM LINHARDT
Key West Citizen

ROB ONEAL/The Citizen

A proposed Walmart and retail shopping center may soon come to this area of Rockland Key.

Study: No new housing for center

SPRAYING ALERT
The Florida Keys
Mosquito Control
District has scheduled
an aerial adulticiding
mission today, from 6:30
to 8:30 a.m., over Upper
Matecumbe, Windley,
Plantation and Lower
Key Largo. The airplane
mission will be completed, weather permitting,
using Dibrom.
For information, call
the district at 305-2927190.

BY TIMOTHY OHARA
Key West Citizen

Monroe County commissioners and planning staff have refuted the findings of a letter that
states a proposed shopping center on Rockland Key wont bring
in employees from out of the area
and the developers do not need
to build affordable housing.
When county commissioners
approved the conceptual plan for
the 335,000-square-foot center,
commissioners said they wanted
a workforce housing project or
component be tied to the development, as it will be one of the
biggest commercial developments in the Keys.
Miami Economic Associates
Inc.
was
contracted
by
the Georgia-based development
group A.J.C. Garfunkel to review

ON THE RADIO

MEAI (Miami Economic Associates Inc.) does not

believe that Walmarts proposed store nor those other
national and regional chains that locate at the Rockland
Key Retail Center are likely to cause prospective workers
to move into Monroe County from elsewhere given its
high cost of living and atypical lifestyle. ... Accordingly,
we do not believe the proposed project will create a significant new demand for affordable housing.
Andrew Dolkart
President, Miami Economic Associates, the firm hired by developer to review the plans

the plans for the commercial center. Miami Economic Associates

Inc. determined the developers
would not need to build housing for workers, according to a
three-page letter the developers
submitted to the county.
Miami Economic Associates
letter states the entire shopping
center will be staffed by 263 full-

time employees and 400 parttime employees. Walmart, which

will be the anchor tenant and
comprise 144,000 square feet of
the complex, will be staffed by
about 115 full-time employees
and 175 part-time workers.
A portion of Walmarts employ-

A longtime clerk for the exclusive

Ocean Reef Club in the Upper Keys is
accused of stealing $857,393 between
2008 and 2014, according to the Monroe
County State Attorneys Office.
Jamie Lynne Anderson, also known
as Jamie Lynn Cole, 39, of Homestead,
faces a first-degree felony charge of
grand theft of more than $100,000,
which carries a maximum sentence of
30 years in state prison.
Anderson was hired as the clubs general cashier in 2006, but she was fired in
March 2014 after a surprise audit by an
outside firm found a $700 cash shortage
in the clubs vault, according to an arrest
affidavit. Further auditing by the firm
exposed a larger scheme, reports state.
The arrest affidavit outlines the
scheme in which Anderson allegedly
took check payments from members
for toll tickets among other items, falsified deposit and accounting records
and stole money, reports state.
Anderson took the money in such
a way that the accounting appeared
clean each month and no attention
was drawn to the theft, reports state.
At which point, she then repeated
the process and did so for several years,
reports state.
Anderson reportedly admitted to the
theft after meeting with a investigator in
November and wrote a letter of apology to
her former supervisor. Anderson alleged
she stole the money to help support her
husbands drug habit, but added she also
bought drugs, concert tickets, cruises and
a new Chevrolet Camero in an effort to
maintain some normalcy, reports state.
She told investigators the thefts
began in 2009 shortly after the birth of
her daughter, reports state.
Anderson was taken to Monroe
County Detention Center on Stock
Island and given a $30,000 bail.

See WALMART, Page 10A

alinhardt@keysnews.com

Utility Board candidates

Steve Wells (Group 1) and
Mona Clark (Group 4) talk
about their platforms.

Hedvall sentenced to 40 years for 2011 murder

Also on todays show:

Judd Wise KWHS
Rick Ramsay sheriff
Roman Gastesi county
administrator
Jim Scholl city manager
Susan Miller Lower Keys
Chamber
Liz Young Arts Council

BY ADAM LINHARDT
Key West Citizen

Circuit Judge Mark Jones told

convicted murderer Peter Erik
Hedvall that he was tempted to sentence him to the maximum of life in
prison that prosecutors asked for
Tuesday.
And that would be more than
justified, Jones said, but added
that though prosecutors called
the October 2011 bludgeoning and

NEWS: 7:30, 8:30 a.m., noon,

5 & 6 p.m.
Evening Edition 5-5:30 p.m.

INDEX

CLASSIFIED ADS 4-6 B

COMICS 6 A

strangulation death of Jonathan

Alvarado Perez barbaric, Jones
explained the case simply wasnt
among the worst of the worst.
Jones added that the State
Attorneys Office must agree with
him, because they did not seek the
death penalty in the case.
Nonetheless, Jones called Perezs
death brutal and extremely violent.
Hedvall, 29, only told Jones prior
to his sentencing that he never

CRIME REPORT 2A

KEYSWIDE CLASSIFIEDS keysnews.com/classifieds

made his living by criminal means

and never will in a very brief statement to the court in which he neither admitted guilt nor expressed
any emotion or remorse.
Defense attorneys Jason Smith
and Alan Fowler asked Jones to
sentence Hedvall to 15 years citing
five reasons: Hedvalls cooperation
with police, that Perez may have
been the aggressor, that Perez didnt
needlessly suffer and died quickly,
that the crime was unsophisticated

CROSSWORD 5 B

KEYS CALENDAR 2A

and that Hedvall didnt have a substantial criminal history.

Assistant State Attorney Val
Winter refuted each of those points
saying there was no evidence to suggest Perez was the aggressor. Winter
also said that Hedvalls cooperation
began and ended with him giving
them access to his clothes, which
doesnt meet the legal requirement
for the requested sentence. Winter

OPINION 4A

See MURDER, Page 9A

SPORTS 1B

FOR CLASSIFIEDS 305-292-7777, Option 3