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Tag: Raymond Guthrie Jr.

Civil case in net camp dispute dismissed

Civil case in net camp dispute dismissed

Written by Leslie Lake on . Posted in Community News, Cortez, Featured.

CORTEZ – A civil suit filed in 2018 by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) against Raymond Guthrie, Jr. over his net camp building in Sarasota Bay has been dismissed.

Net camps were wooden shacks used by fishermen to hang hemp and cotton fishing nets to dry. According to historic photographs, there were dozens of net camps on the bay off Cortez.

“Net camps are small simple structures and provide space to store nets and other fishing gear,” according to the Florida Maritime Museum.

In a motion initiated by 12th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Edward Nicholas on Feb. 23, parties were notified that since no filings in the case had been made in more than 12 months, the case would be dismissed if no stay is issued or approved prior to the expiration of a 60-day period.

On May 4, Nicholas signed a Motion and Notice/Order of Dismissal.

Listed as lawyer for the plaintiff (DEP), Bradenton-based Attorney Robert C. Schermer, declined to comment on the dismissal via email on May 13.

DEP did not respond to a request for comment.

The civil case was filed Feb. 6, 2018, to have Guthrie remove the 1,200 square-foot structure.

The DEP complaint claimed Guthrie built the structure without permission on sovereign state submerged lands. Guthrie contended that his family previously had a net camp in that spot and the structure was protected under the 1921 Butler Act.

In May of 2018, A.P. Bell Fish Co., north of the structure, filed suit against the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) asserting its ownership of both the net camp and the submerged lands.

Bell claimed the structure has existed since at least the early 1900s and, with the submerged lands, is protected by the Butler Act, which awards title of submerged lands to adjacent waterfront property owners who made permanent improvements on the submerged lands. The law was repealed in 1957 but continues to affect title to submerged lands improved prior to its repeal.

Guthrie was widely supported by Cortez residents and legislators, many of whom recalled net camps along the coast in years past.

The Manatee County Commission voted in March 2018 to support Guthrie’s effort to keep the structure standing.

“Given historic photos documenting the presence of multiple net camp structures, the reconstruction of this single structure to recapture the essence of the historic Cortez fishing community should be supported with the appropriate state permits,” the commission wrote to Florida DEP Secretary Noah Valenstein.

An April 15, 2021 letter from the Manatee County Board of Commissioners to Valenstein and signed by chairperson Vanessa Baugh, stated in part “The net camp has played an inseparable part of the gill and stop net fisheries with the historical village and is referenced in the National Register of Historic Places. Preservation of this structure will help preserve the essence of the Cortez fishing community and the understanding of the cultural context of the village.”

Net camp headed back to court

Net camp headed back to court

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Community News, Cortez.

CORTEZ – For the second time, Raymond Guthrie Jr. has asked a local court to delay its order to demolish a structure he built on pilings in Sarasota Bay in 2017.

In a document filed on May 11 by Bradenton attorney Robert Schermer, Guthrie asked the 12th Judicial Circuit Court in Manatee County to grant a 90-day extension to allow four Florida legislators to help supporters find a way to save what Guthrie calls a net camp.

Net camps, which once dotted the Cortez waterfront in Sarasota Bay, were used to clean, dry and store cotton nets. They declined in the 1970s when netmakers began using monofilament nets, and were made virtually obsolete by the 1994 Florida gill net ban.

Citing prior net camps his family built on the same spot, Guthrie claimed ownership of the property, but the court ruled that the state owns the submerged land under his structure and ordered its demolition by Jan. 24, granting a 60-day extension on March 1 to allow the Florida Legislature time to act to save the structure.

While the Legislature did not act, Sen. Jim Boyd (R-Bradenton), Rep. Tommy Gregory (R-Manatee), Rep. Michele Rayner (D-Manatee) and Rep. Bill Robinson (R-Manatee) sent a letter on April 29 to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) – which initiated the complaint against Guthrie – suggesting the agency work with them to save the net camp.

“It has been rebuilt multiple times and is currently a more modern building than the previous structure,” the legislators wrote. “While the Guthrie Net Camp has lost some of its historic charm, it is an important part of the history of Cortez. We hope to find a way to save and preserve this small piece of Florida history for future generations to enjoy.”

In Guthrie’s request to the court for a second stay, his attorney states that Guthrie and his siblings are in the process of providing a bill of sale for the structure to an unnamed not-for-profit group that could apply to DEP to lease the submerged land under the structure.

Manatee County commissioners wrote DEP in their second letter of support on April 15 that while the structure does not conform to state standards, they believe that such an organization pledged to “the historical interpretation, facade reconstruction and subsequent maintenance of the structure will restore the net camp to its historical character.”

Whether the structure is owned by a not-for-profit organization is irrelevant, according to DEP spokeswoman Shannon Herbon, who said the agency intends to pursue the demolition.

The case has not yet been set for a hearing.

Legislature last resort for net camp

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Featured.

CORTEZ – Raymond Guthrie Jr. has 60 days to convince the Florida Legislature to save the net camp he built in Sarasota Bay off the commercial fishing village before a court order to demolish it takes effect.

Manatee County 12th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Ed Nicholas ruled today that if the Legislature decides before it adjourns 60 days from the session’s start on March 2 that the structure should be protected, “that would certainly be a factor that the court would take into consideration.”

There is no harm in seeing “if the Legislature wants to consider the potential to grandfather this camp, as it appears they have done to others at some point throughout the state,” Nicholas said in his ruling on Guthrie’s motion to stay the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)’s Oct. 8, 2020 order to demolish the structure by Jan. 24, 2021.

The order resulted from DEP prevailing in its claim that the state owns the submerged land under Guthrie’s structure and that its construction was illegal.

Guthrie built the stilt structure in 2017 on what he says is the site of his family’s three former net camps, built over 70 years in Sarasota Bay.

A.P. Bell Fish Co. manager Karen Bell recently asked local legislators to request that DEP stay its demolition order, giving them time to draft legislation to protect the camp during the session. Legislators advised her to seek a stay in court.

“I’m happy,” she said. “Now it’s time to talk to the Legislature and see if they can help.”

Bell previously appealed in vain to Gov. Ron DeSantis to overturn the demolition, writing, “These camps are iconic to this community. Artists come from all over the world and have memorialized these structures in their work. I do not understand how my state is not supportive of our history.”

“I think there’s a failure to appreciate the historical nature of this,” Guthrie’s Bradenton attorney, Robert Schermer, told the court. “This is, in our view, no different than the historic school in Cortez, the historic museum; this is a part of the history of the village.”

Cortez is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Net camps, which once dotted the Cortez waterfront in Sarasota Bay, were used to clean, dry and store cotton nets. They declined in use when net makers began using more durable fibers and were made virtually obsolete by the 1994 Florida gill net ban.

Today, only Guthrie’s structure and a historic net camp remain off Cortez, the latter restored by the not-for-profit group, the Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage (FISH).

Bell also previously intervened unsuccessfully in the lawsuit, claiming the structure has existed on the spot since at least the early 1900s and was protected by the 1921 Butler Act. DEP said the Butler Act did not protect the most recent structure because it had been allowed to deteriorate beyond use.

Net camp reroofed as suit planned to stop demolition

Net camp reroofed as suit planned to stop demolition

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Community News, Cortez.

CORTEZ – Karen Bell has directed her lawyer to sue to stay the order to demolish a stilt structure known as a net camp just offshore of her commercial fish house, A.P. Bell Fish Co.

After the Manatee County legislative delegation offered verbal support for the net camp at a public meeting on Jan. 6, Florida Sen. Jim Boyd (R-Manatee), Rep. Tommy Gregory (R-Manatee) and Rep. Will Robinson (R-Manatee) made it clear to Bell that their hands are tied on extending the demolition deadline of Sunday, Jan. 24, won by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in the 12th Judicial Circuit Court on Oct. 8, 2020.

Bell had intended to ask the legislators to request that DEP grant a 120-day extension on the demolition order, allowing the Florida Legislature time to draft legislation to protect the camp during the session that begins on Tuesday, March 2.

The delegation made it clear almost immediately that the request was futile.

“Because it’s a court order, they have no authority. I was told to ask the judge for a stay,” Bell said.

Meanwhile, back at the net camp, a work crew appeared on the roof the day after the hearing, prompting rumors to fly about whether the stilt structure was in the process of being demolished as ordered.

It was not.

Guthrie, who built the camp in 2017 and claims ownership based on prior net camps his family built on the spot, instead reroofed the structure last Thursday, Bell said.

Net camps, which once dotted the Cortez waterfront in Sarasota Bay, were used to clean, dry and store cotton nets. They declined in use when netmakers began using more durable fibers, and were made virtually obsolete by the 1994 Florida gill net ban.

Today, only Guthrie’s structure and a historic net camp remain, the latter restored by the not-for-profit Cortez group, the Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage (FISH).

The 12th Judicial Circuit Court has ruled that the state owns the submerged land under Guthrie’s structure, and that the construction was unpermitted and therefore illegal.

Bell appealed in vain to Gov. Ron DeSantis to overturn the demolition order by Manatee County Circuit Court Judge Edward Nicholas, saying that the Guthrie camp had been rebuilt in the same spot as previous Guthrie camps and on some of the same pilings.

Previously, Bell had unsuccessfully intervened in the lawsuit, floating the argument that the structure has existed on the spot since at least the early 1900s, and, with the submerged lands, is protected by the 1921 Butler Act.

The act awards title of submerged lands to adjacent waterfront property owners who made permanent improvements on the submerged lands. Repealed in the 1950s, the act continues to affect title to submerged lands that were “improved” with construction prior to its repeal.

DEP conceded that aerial images show that a smaller, dilapidated structure existed where Guthrie built his structure, but said the Butler Act did not protect it because it had been allowed to deteriorate and become unusable.

Other stilt structures stand on state submerged lands in Charlotte, Lee and Pasco counties, but DEP maintains that those structures were not allowed to collapse before being rebuilt.

Bell said she is hopeful that her most recent lawsuit to stay the demolition order will be heard before the Jan. 24 deadline to tear down the net camp.

As she wrote to Gov. DeSantis: “These camps are iconic to this community. Artists come from all over the world and have memorialized these structures in their work. I do not understand how my state is not supportive of our history.”

Fish house owner in Catch-22

Fish house owner in Catch-22

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Awards, Awards 2019, Environment, Outdoors, Second Place, Special Sections.

CORTEZ – As the Florida Legislative session winds down this week, Karen Bell, of A.P. Bell Fish Co., is caught in a “Catch-22” – she says she’s not allowed to talk to her state elected official about resolving an issue in his district because she is a party in litigation on the issue.

Bell said she has tried to set up an appointment with Florida Senate President Bill Galvano (R-Bradenton) to discuss sponsoring legislation to allow Raymond Guthrie Jr.’s stilt structure to remain standing in Sarasota Bay just south of her fish house.

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Guthrie built the structure in 2018 on the location of several former Guthrie family net camps, which were used by commercial fishermen to clean, dry and store nets, Bell said.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) says it owns the submerged land under the net camp and has ordered Guthrie to demolish the structure, but Bell says her company owns the submerged land pursuant to the 1921 Butler Act, which awarded submerged lands to upland property owners who made improvements, such as building structures, to the submerged lands.

She is trying to prove ownership in court. But because of her pending suit against the DEP, Bell said she was told by Galvano’s assistant that he can’t speak to her.

“It was suggested by DEP staff who came to Cortez and met with us that we talk with our local delegation about submitting special legislation to allow the camp to remain. They told us that other counties (Pasco, Lee and Charlotte) had done this successfully,” Bell wrote in a February email to Galvano’s legislative assistant, Amanda Romant.

Romant replied by email that “Our office has reached out to the Department of Environmental Protection for information regarding the status of the Guthrie Net Camp case. Based on the details they shared, you are involved in pending litigation in the 12th Judicial Circuit that prevents our office from getting involved. If these legal issues are resolved in the future and you would like to update our office again, please feel free to do so.”

Bell responded to Romant that she had no other choice than to intervene legally to prevent the camp from being destroyed, but that she would be willing to “drop the legal opposition if we can get a bill to protect the camp.”

She also noted that the Manatee County Commission passed a resolution last year in support of allowing the building to remain.

The Sun contacted Galvano’s office for an interview on the issue and was told in an email from assistant Katherine Betta that Galvano would respond. Instead, he asked his staff for an update from DEP, she wrote in a subsequent email. That update consisted of a history of court dates in the case, and advised that the next hearing is on June 4.

The Manatee County Clerk of the Circuit Court’s website lists the next hearing as June 3.

“This is ridiculous,” Bell said. “I don’t understand why a lawsuit should prevent me from talking to my elected representative.”

Cortez net camp tangled in lawsuits

Cortez net camp tangled in lawsuits

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Community News, Cortez.

CORTEZ – Junior Guthrie’s net camp is safe – for now.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) won a summary judgment against Raymond Guthrie Jr. in 12th Judicial Circuit Court in Bradenton this month to force him to demolish the 1200-square-foot structure that he built in May 2017 on submerged land in Sarasota Bay.

Guthrie claims he was entitled to rebuild the net camp on the submerged land, south of the fishing village of Cortez, because his family of commercial fishermen had maintained a series of net camps there to mend, clean and store fishing gear for several generations.

The DEP claims he built the structure illegally without a permit on state-owned submerged lands.

Cortez net camp tangled in lawsuits
The Guthrie net camp in Sarasota Bay off Cortez in February 2019. – Cindy Lane | Sun

But while DEP won a victory, the case is not over – Judge Edward Nicholas stayed the demolition order and fines until a lawsuit filed last year by A.P. Bell Fish Co. is concluded.

A.P. Bell President Karen Bell claims that the structure and the submerged land belong to her company, a fish house on land north of Guthrie’s structure, basing her claim on the 1921 Butler Act, which awards title of submerged lands to adjacent waterfront property owners who made permanent improvements on the submerged lands.

The law was repealed in the 1950s but continues to affect title to submerged lands that were improved with structures prior to its repeal.

DEP maintains that the Butler Act does not apply to the case because it requires the structure built over the submerged land to have been continuously connected to the upland property, and that the Guthrie family’s structures were freestanding.

Net camps used by commercial fishermen in other Florida counties, including Charlotte, Lee and Pasco, have been legally rebuilt under the Florida Forever Act, Bell said, adding that she has asked state Sen. Bill Galvano (R-Bradenton) to take legislative action to preserve Guthrie’s structure.

The case is set for trial in April.

Cortez Guthrie

Bell claims ownership of disputed Guthrie property

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Community News, Cortez, Featured.

CORTEZ – A third party has joined the legal battle over the net camp that Raymond Guthrie Jr. built in 2017, and the disputed submerged lands under it in Sarasota Bay.

A.P. Bell Fish Co., north of the structure, filed suit against the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) on May 3 in 12th Judicial Circuit Court in Manatee County, asserting its ownership of both the net camp and the submerged lands.

FDEP sued the wrong party when it filed a complaint against Guthrie in February ordering him to remove the 1200-square-foot structure, claiming he built it without permission on sovereign state-owned submerged lands, according to Bell Fish Co. Manager Karen Bell, who also sued to intervene in the DEP vs. Guthrie case.

“We’re claiming that we have title to the net camp and the submerged lands, and we are intervening because they’re impacting our ownership,” she said. “We own it. We want it there. We’re not going to make him leave.”

In the motion to intervene in the action between FDEP and Guthrie filed on May 4, Bell claims the structure has existed since at least the early 1900s, and, with the submerged lands, is protected by the 1921 Butler Act, which awards title of submerged lands to adjacent waterfront property owners who made permanent improvements on the submerged lands. The law was repealed in the 1950s but continues to affect title to submerged lands that were “improved” with construction prior to its repeal.

FDEP concedes that historic aerial images show a smaller structure where Guthrie built his structure, but the smaller structure became dilapidated, negating a Butler Act claim, according to spokeswoman Shannon Herbon.

The motion to intervene traces Bell’s ownership of the real estate to the 1800s when Guthrie, Fulford and other families from North Carolina settled the area. By the early 1900s, wooden structures built on pilings – called “net camps” or “fish camps” – were numerous in the bay off Cortez, used for supply storage, net mending, and living quarters, and were connected to the mainland by piers, according to the lawsuit.

Bell asserts it is entitled to a disclaimer from the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund of the State of Florida, named as a co-defendant in the lawsuit, acknowledging Bell’s ownership.

“A.P. Bell will suffer irreparable harm if BOT and its agent, FDEP, are allowed to continue in their quest to remove and destroy the historic Guthrie Fish Camp structure under the guise that it is on sovereignty submerged lands without this circuit court’s determination of A.P. Bell’s Butler Act ownership claims, in violation of A.P. Bell’s property and due process rights under the Federal and Florida Constitutions,” the lawsuit asserts.

A hearing has not yet been set in the case.

Guthrie denies DEP allegations

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Community News, Cortez.

CORTEZ – Raymond Guthrie Jr. denies all but one of the 21 allegations in the state’s order to tear down the net camp he built in Sarasota Bay off the fishing village of Cortez last summer.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) filed a complaint in Manatee County 12th Circuit Court on Feb. 6 to have Guthrie remove the 1200-square-foot structure, claiming he built it without permission on sovereign state submerged lands in an Outstanding Florida Waterbody. Other claims include that he may have polluted the water and failed to take proper measures to protect manatees during construction.

Representing himself without an attorney, Guthrie admits in his response to the order only that the property is in Manatee County.

In his response, filed April 27 with the court, he denies all other allegations of the order, including nine responses that he “is without knowledge as to the truth or falsity of the allegations of this paragraph, and therefore denies same,” repeating five times that he “denies the allegations of this paragraph,” and repeating twice that he “is without knowledge as to the nature of FDEP’s action, and therefore denies same.”

The DEP Office of General Counsel is reviewing Guthrie’s response to determine its next steps, according to DEP spokeswoman Shannon Herbon.

Guthrie claims he built the structure on submerged land where his family once had a net camp, said his representative, Joanne Semmer, president of Fort Myers-based Ostego Bay Environmental Inc. Net camps are wooden structures built on pilings in the water where cotton nets – now obsolete – were stored.

He claims that he owns the submerged land under the 1921 Butler Act, which awarded title of submerged lands to adjacent waterfront property owners who made permanent improvements on the submerged lands, she said. The law was repealed in 1957 but continues to affect title to submerged lands improved prior to its repeal.

DEP concedes that historic aerial images show a smaller structure where Guthrie built his structure, but the smaller structure became dilapidated, negating a Butler Act claim, according to Herbon.

Commission, village support

The Manatee County Commission voted in March to support Guthrie.

“Given historic photos documenting the presence of multiple net camp structures, the reconstruction of this single structure to recapture the essence of the historic Cortez fishing community should be supported with the appropriate state permits,” the commission wrote to DEP.

Cortezians Karen Bell, of A.P. Bell Fish Co. – which overlooks Guthrie’s structure – and Capt. Kathe Fannon, who operates a tour boat business at Bell’s Star Fish Co., also support Guthrie.

Fannon calls net camps a “birthright,” recalling numerous net camps in the waters off the fishing village, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The net camp could be protected by that designation, and by the Manatee County Cortez Village Historical and Archeological Overlay District. The Cortez Village Community Vision Plan of 2000, included in the district’s design guidelines, supports “maintaining the historic fishing culture of Cortez.”

The net camp also could be protected within the Florida Working Waterfront program; Cortez is one of 24 Designated Waterfronts Florida Partnership Communities, a program created in 1997 to address “the physical and economic decline of traditional working waterfront areas,” according to a DEP publication.