HERNANDO TODAY (Florida) 31 March 06 Tortoises must move to make way for school (Angeline Taylor)
Spring Hill: A 30-acre parcel off Northcliffe Boulevard and Azora Road has served as home to 20 gopher tortoises for years.
All that will change this year.
The gopher tortoises will be moved to make way for the county's newest three-story school. But, in moving the ancient creatures, the county school district's facilities team ran into problems.
It would seem logical to relocate the tortoises to land owned by governmental agencies such as the Southwest Florida Water Management District, also known as Swiftmud.
That process, however, is mired in paperwork, according to the facilities' team that inquired with representatives of Swiftmud about the best place to move the tortoises.
"I think we need to make a request to Swiftmud for consideration since they own a lot of property," said school board member Pat Fagan. "And, again, it is taxpayer property."
Board members decided for a second go round in asking the water agency representatives for help in relocating the 20 gopher tortoises.
When Swiftmud was first approached, said one facilities team worker, they didn't sound as if any land was available.
"That's ridiculous if you ask me," said board member Robert Wiggins about the Swiftmud response. "It's just funny all the property they're buying around the state ..."
As a result of the early response from Swiftmud officials, the facilities department needed to use other resources to relocate the turtles currently living on the site that will be home to the county's second kindergarten through eighth grade school.
Their back-up plan was school district property located by Lake Lindsey. Property, however, that could eventually be sold by the school district.
"That piece of property has a lot of issues," said schools executive director of facility and support operations Ken Pritz during the board workshop on the new school. "It's free and clear to do what we want with it."
Pritz advised that no school should be built on the property but suggested it might be ideal for offices. Either way, moving the turtles to the Lake Lindsey property didn't sit well with one school board member. Fagan said he believed moving the tortoises to the Lake Lindsey property could bring problems for school district officials later if they decided to build or sell the property.
"I totally agree with you," Fagan said to the facilities' team. "We've got to mitigate. Again, it's on the lake. It's a very expensive piece of property. But I don't know if that's the site where we need to locate the tortoises."
Schools facilities director Roland Bavota explained that the places to relocate them were dwindling especially since there are several mandates placed on tortoise relocation.
"They're not readily available," Bavota said about acceptable types of land to transfer the tortoises. "There aren't many places you can put them now."
Typically, said one facilities workers, they like to move the tortoises to a corner of the property where they already live. However, the way the school is designed that can't take place.
"Mr. Fagan, if (the Lake Lindsey property) would sell to a developer, I don't think he would care much about the turtles," Bavota said. "I don't even think it would diminish the price of the property."
Fagan disagreed.
"You know as well as I know what the developer would do if they bought the property and I don't think that's something we need to make comments about," Fagan said.
Right now, the 20 tortoises are being trapped for blood samples that will determine if any of the tortoises are too ill for the trip to another location.
The Lake Lindsey property consists of 40 acres with a portion of the land under the lake.
Tortoises must move to make way for school

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• FL Press: Tortoise must move for school - W von Papineäu, Mon Apr 3 12:14:15 2006