Citizen protests Mosaic stadium name deal
Sue Reske of Charlotte County does not want the Mosaic name placed on the Charlotte County baseball stadium. She's pushing an online protest designed to alert commissioners not to vote for the deal.
"Friends, your e-mails today and presence Tuesday are needed," Reske mass e-mailed Monday afternoon. "Please e-mail these people and ask them not
to allow Mosaic's name on our Charlotte County Sportspark."
The issue will be voted on at 9 a.m. Tuesday at 18500 Murdock Circle.
"Voice your opposition to the commissioners who can vote this association with a polluting company down," Reske said. "This 'brands' Charlotte with an EPA-listed polluter."
She listed several contact e-mails, including:
Commissioners at BCC@charlottefl.com or
Bob Starr, bob.starr@charlottefl.com
Robert Skidmore, robert.skidmore@charlottefl.com
Tricia Duffy, tricia duffy@charlottefl.com
Adam Cummings, adam.cummings@charlottefl.com
Dick Loftus, dick.loftus@charlottefl.com
Skidmore's secretary is taking "yays" or "nays" with a phone call at (941) 743-1200," Reske said.
Season Ticket-holders can call and e-mail also, including
Devilrays Sr. VP of Development: Michael Kalt can be reached via an
assistant: Jen Funk at JFUNK@RAYSBASEBALL.COM or if that mailbox becomes full: MKALT@RAYSBASEBALL.COM and Kalt's phone number is (727) 825-3137 Ext. 3234.
Charlotte County built the new stadium primarily with public money for the Tampa Bay Rays spring training and for its Charlotte Stone Crabs minor league team. The Rays agreed to sell the stadium's naming rights to the strip-mining company, Mosaic, for $175,000/year, $75,000 of which goes to the county.
Mosaic Fertilizer LLC has been identified as one of the top 100 polluters
in Florida by a recent EPA Facility Release Report (synopsis attached).
Mosaic earned $100.6 million net in the first quarter of 2009, according
to its website. Mosaic strip-mines for phosphate in the Peace and Myakka River watersheds, which flow through Charlotte County and out through the
Charlotte Harbor estuary. To do this, Mosaic uses three times the water that all 250,000 water authority users use in one day (76 million gallons per day).
Since 1993, there have been nine major chemical spills into waterways
related to phosphate mining in Florida. Three of these were from Mosaic's
parent, Cargill.
Mosaic is expected to mine 150,000 more acres of land and streams in our
watershed in the next 20 years.
"It's ill-advised for the Rays to ask Charlotte County, which has been
working to reinvent itself as a green community, to sell its primary public
symbol to a significant environmental polluter for what amounts to peanuts," Reske said. "In fact, no amount of money is worth our county name being associated with this company."
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