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Main chains himself to bridge
BY STEVE GIBBS
Upper Keys Staff Writer
KEY LARGO
A seven-year
Key Largo resident chained himself to the Jewfish Creek Bridge at noon
July 4 to protest a planned $180 million highway project between Key
Largo and Florida City.
Ron Miller,
57, a Metro-Dade firefighter, quietly walked up to the bridge with a
long chain under his shirt and a sign that read "Governor Bush: We need
a safe road, not more ecological destruction."
Below that, in
smaller lettering, were the words "Think of the world our children will
inherit."
On one of the
busiest traffic days of the year, Miller wrapped the chain around a
bridge railing, fastened the padlock and pitched the key into the water
below.
The bridge
tender came out with a bullhorn and ordered him off the bridge, then
went back into the bridge tender's house and called the Monroe County
Sheriff's Office.
Miller stood
partially in the roadway and held the sign for passing motorists to see.
Many honked and gave him the thumbs-up sign. Others, possibly impatient
with slow-moving traffic, showed him a different digit.
Sheriff's
Detective Jason Madnick and Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Gretchen
Glenn kept traffic moving while they waited for the Key Largo Volunteer
Fire and Rescue to arrive with bolt cutters.
Cut free after
about 35 minutes on the bridge, Miller was escorted to a nearby
sheriff's cruiser and given a citation to appear at the Plantation Key
Courthouse on July 30 on one count of obstruction of the highway, a
misdemeanor.
When asked why
he was protesting in such a manner, Miller replied that he and those who
are against the project have exhausted all other methods.
"Civil
disobedience is a way to get people to pay attention and bring public
pressure on the government," Miller told The Citizen. "Sometimes the
media is more powerful than the government.
"The state is
planning to waste $180 million to widen the road ... even though this
project cannot make hurricane evacuation go any faster, and even though
there are many less costly and less destructive ways to improve safety
on the [18-Mile] Stretch that don't involve removing the mangrove fringe
and replacing it with a 10-foot chain link fence," he said.
"The public
has been misinformed about the facts of this project, and the governor
and regulatory agencies have chosen to ignore the facts."
The
long-debated plan calls for a concrete barrier down the center of U.S. 1
with a 10-foot high fence lining both sides of the road, a second
northbound lane with rumble strips for emergency evacuation use, a
75-foot tall fixed Jewfish Creek Bridge with a 360-foot wide cloverleaf
configuration and an elevated approach to the bridge across a causeway
over Lake Surprise.
The project is
in the state and federal permitting process.
Miller listed
17 points he says the Florida Department of Transportation has ignored,
including failing to improve evacuation times "while causing the
unnecessary destruction of 106 acres of wetlands."
Miller is no
stranger to civil disobedience. As a white teacher in a predominately
black school in Georgia in 1969, Miller was active in the Civil Rights
movement.
He said he
also spoke against the Vietnam war as a college student with a major in
history at Augusta College.
"After
studying history I realize that sometimes Americans just have to stand
up to the plate," he added.
Miller had
said he was prepared to be arrested. He said he also had a contingency
plan in case something backfired and his position became dangerous. He
had a spare key to the padlock taped to his skin under his shirt. |
