sws4420
04-14-2005, 08:09 AM
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/050413/050413_everglades_hmed_6p.hmedium.jpg
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - A man who fought for years to keep his home and businesses in the swampy Everglades has accepted a $4.95 million buyout offer from the state, which plans to restore the wetlands ecosystem.
The deal, approved Wednesday by a Collier County judge after a more than 12-hour mediation hearing, allows Jesse Hardy to remain on his 160 acres until Nov. 30.
Hardy paid $60,000 in 1976 for the land about 40 miles east of downtown Naples, and built a small, corrugated metal-roofed house. He had no electricity and used propane for cooking and refrigeration.
He refused for years to sell, saying he wanted to hold onto a dying rural lifestyle. He also started a fish farm and had a contract to quarry limestone on the site. Hardy lives there with a friend and her son, a 9-year-old boy he considers his own.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7494423/
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - A man who fought for years to keep his home and businesses in the swampy Everglades has accepted a $4.95 million buyout offer from the state, which plans to restore the wetlands ecosystem.
The deal, approved Wednesday by a Collier County judge after a more than 12-hour mediation hearing, allows Jesse Hardy to remain on his 160 acres until Nov. 30.
Hardy paid $60,000 in 1976 for the land about 40 miles east of downtown Naples, and built a small, corrugated metal-roofed house. He had no electricity and used propane for cooking and refrigeration.
He refused for years to sell, saying he wanted to hold onto a dying rural lifestyle. He also started a fish farm and had a contract to quarry limestone on the site. Hardy lives there with a friend and her son, a 9-year-old boy he considers his own.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7494423/