The Key West Citizen Newspaper, June 9, 1952, Page 7

Dry Tortugas Light Guides All Heavy Shippi And Out Gulf Of Marks Entrance To Gulf ° exico 151 FT. BEACON IS SOUTHMOST TENDED LIGHT IN U.S.A. BY SUSAN McAVOY In sharp contrast to aneient Fort Jefferson is Dry Tortugas Light Photo by Westbo, CG DRY TORTUGAS LIGHT which shines from a height of 151 « f@et to guide mariterg-ir and out 6f the Gulf 6f México: Op- £ erated by the Coast Guard and : one. “civilian, .Tony Canalejo, the lighthouse was built in i 1858. In the olden days light- house keepers had to climb 194 feet to turn on'the light. ‘House Buying Curbs Eased By Government : te its antique ruins, and grace- _ |the middle of the 19th century. | miles to guide merchant ships, and the Coast Guard Station two and one half miles away on Logger- head Key, 68 miles from Key West. The beauty of Fort Jefferson architecture, reminiscent of Tortugas Light two and one-half miles away at Loggerhead, makes its chief appeal through its power- ful modern beacon whieh shines 18 shrimpers, naval and pleasure craft on their voyages through the _ | waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Tortugas Light is the southern- most tended light of the USA. Its million and one half candlepower is today automatically operated. Towering 151 feet above the sandy, evergreen island on which in days used to have to steps to light the bea- mariners. y I bed those steps at the island and as my first lighthouse climb- ice Cape Hatteras which the “graveyard of lantic’ off the outer banks of North Carolina. T had formerly thought the black and white eandy striped light at Haiteras the most beautiful beacon house on the Atlantic coast. Saturday, the towering dignity and the setting of Tortugas light, facing the hexagonal ruins of rosy brick, that are Fort Jefferson changed my mind. Of black and white the tapering tower built in 1858 rises frem its bed of evergreens, white sands, and turquoise sea to put all. other lighthouses out of competition. My hostess of the weekend: Mrs. Joseph Santini, wife of Fort Jef- ferson’s Boat Superintendent: rode over with her three children in the boat to see the light. The children, Sandra, 13, Jo, Jr. 10, and Martha, six, scamper- ed up the familiar terrain on the beach. ; 5 We adults were greeted by two of the four Co: Guardsmen permanently assigned to Logger- head station, and two civilia who aff the ship “Hydrographe with their crewmates: are making new charts of the waters off the Florida Keys. Coast Guard Chief Peter De Boer of the station was in the kitchen WASHINGTON ®—The govern- ment today relaxed its restrictions on how much you must pey down | | to buy a new house Under the new program, effec- tive Wednesday, purchasers will } be allowed ta make down pay- | ments 30:to' $0 per cent less than | those required under Regulation | dral domes in Europe I took :t slow a X, whieh bas been in effect nearly | two years. On the least expensive houses, | down pa¥ment requirements were | cut in half. Oo the most expensive, thoy were reduced 20 per cent. The relaxed controls program means that only five per cent will be needed in Gown payments on some houses and that the maxi- mum required will be 40 per cent. | The action was announced today by the Federal Reserve Board Here is what the board order will do On houses costing $7,000 or less five per cent down payment will | be required: it bas been 10 per | cent On ‘houses costing $25,000 or more, 40 per cent will be re quired, it has been 50. On houses between those a sliding scale fixes re at a sum between 1 cent of t r The box built Regu’. There were Bult before Pegulation NX Produce Sold WINTER HAVEN growers duce fc livestock markets ‘sold of cattle and 21,955 rector of the Fic: ers’ Markets said Su Director William 1 in Nis weekly live Seven markets ¢ compared with $174 gures, rements nd 40 per or Wilson said k report that S245.8 296 22 arkets the we In his fruit and vegetable re d Starke mov vy ye fancy by federal in ow swe | baleony, | Formerly fat jaf the attractive one-story Coast | | Guard quarters, making lunca. ‘The | men from the Coast and Geodetic | Survey, therefore escorted us to the ase of the lighthouse and led the | Way up the 194 steps. Reminding myself that hid climbed some of the highest :cathe- going up, stopping to look out over | seemed too steep. Finally Hazel Santini and 1 reacked the top. The men were al- ready there, standing on tke iron high over the island. Though it was a hot humid day the breeze was so strong at that altitude, we were soon cooled off. | Tony Canalejo the only ¢ivilian on the station, has tended the light for 17 years. He explained the ruins | Eopernesy. | near the harbor of the lighthous¢ keeper and his family lived in the brick house. Since it burned in 1943, fam ilies are no longer permitted on the all man-key. Tony comes in to visit his ten children and wife, for two weeks, after a month's duty | Loggerhead “Lots of the old keepers sre dy ing off,” he told me as we rede down to Loggerhead Thursday on the Coast Guard 83 foot boat He ed out Rebecca Shoal igh its five room: house 2 iron stilts matic lived ht—the been ‘im for The house, a familiar and weil loved sight for mariners in the dangerous shoal waters, is: being torn down by the Florida Erector Co. agent Steuck told me 2n the trip down. His company is cepair. ing and solidifying the focmerly unique light structure, and the house will be taken apart and floated into Key West Ana light towe: ‘will re of the looks 1880's, & like bird house and stilts The mariner is never out ghts on his trip westward te essentia: since Rebecea and the ed with shallows ch fro at gas. This is | had heard of the rugged trip by best te Ternagas, and was ful 1880’s, long a marker for mar: foot high lookout tower. The floated into Key West. Rebecca Shoal Light Photo by Westbo, CG SOON TO BE TORN DOWN. the five room house built in the ‘iners, will be replaced by a 25 house will be dismantled and Rebecca Shoal light is the most im- portant navigation aid between here and Dry Tortugas. geing or coming. Thursday we had a dead calm, the water was | glassy without a ripple save those caused by flying fish jump- ing. We left Key West on the 83 footer at 8:20 a.m. and arrived at Loggerhead where part of the | crew and provisions went off, at 1:45 p.m. Lunch aboard the ship was served by “Cookie”, as fine a chef as | haye run into in a long time. We had meat loaf and gravy, salad, peas, mashed po- latoe sand radishes. The Coast Guard boat goes down j every two weeks to take back men from the Loggerhead station who have been on leave, and bring back | to Key West on Friday the men who are going on leave. This run and that made by the National Park Service boat to Fort Jefferson every two weeks on Tues- days are the only regular trips made at present to the Tortugas. Mail, groceries, books, and other needs go down with these boats. Last Thursday, not only was the 83 footer taking down groceries and Coast Guard men, tut three on Rebecca Shoal Light, and two contractors, Steuck who is working | others who are bidding on repair \of the radio station at Loggerhgad | Key. Electronics mate, third class, Leonard Westbo of the CG also made the trip Thursday. He was going down to put the tadio tele- phone at the station in order. It had gone out on Tuesday. The powerful radio beacons, however, with their twice hourly signals to mariners, never go out. The radio beacons are complete automatic. . Westbo a young man from a farm near Seattle, Washington trained at New London Conn. in jelectronics and will return to the University of Washington upon completing his duty with the Coast Guard. He enjoys his duty more than any of the men I talked with Thursday, chiefly because he car- |ries a rollflex camera on all trips and shouts what ever appeals to his camera Thursday, but was de- \lighted when I saw him with it |slung over his shoulder. He sat down and wrote the list of pictures |1 wished for the stories on Tortu- gas, and said The Citizen could use {them, As the 83 footer pulled into him. I had not asked him to bring | “Dopey Duck” “Ashi Safety At Harris School Have you heard about “Dopey Duck?” The children at Harris Elemen- tary School know him quite well. You sée, he is the guy who is always doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. He plays out in the street amongst the heavy automo- bile traffic, he stands on a rocking chair to reach for something on a shelf, etc. “Dopey Duck” comes to the ) children in the form of a cartoon with a scrambled slogan. Prizes are, offered to the boy or girl who can-test rewrite the safety slogan and. also. submit a good, original piece of poetry or prose explaining what “Dopey Duck” has done wrong. The idea was sponsored by the PTA and Mrs. Lawrence’s fourth grade at Harris Elementary School has won most of the prizes. Such things as bracelets, pens, books, ete. | Inéidently, the contest seems to be bearing fruit. ‘fhat green safety flag you see flying over the Harris School is suppose to be taken down for a week if achild suffers an ac- cident. It wasn’t taken down 3 single time during the past year - pretty good record, huh? Friday over two hundred chil- dren from the school attended a picnie on Monroe County Beach. Highlight of the affair was a water- melon party. Dorothy Daniels, teacher from Harris Elementary School, spent the entire day with the 3rd. and 4th. grades. aie $ ° Visitor’s Visa WASHINGTON (#—Sen. Smath- ers (D.-Fla.) said today he has asked the State Department to is- sue a visitor’s visa to a high wire performer now in Vienna, Austria. The performer is wanted by Ar- turo ‘Trost!l, “The Great Arturo,’ whose daughter Helen died when she fell while performing in Bal- timore last year. Trostl_ who lives at Tampa, told Smathers he needs someone to fill bis daughter’s place and the only possibility is his nephew, Wolfang Weiser, now in Vienna. Loggerhead Key harbor, Westbro true to his promise, took shots of the crew, and then went ashore to combine his electronics duty, with |his hobby of photographing the photogenic key. Skipper of the 83 footer is Ensign William Cline. Though this was one of his first runs to Tortugas, he made the trip |like a veteran. Commander of the Key West | Coast Guard station is Lt. Clemons Pearson. | the pines and palms when the going | eee Lain Qune tow th ¥ Rome “Dopey Duck” Prize Winners —— ise 3 ee dat Rettig tees, —_— ahaa | =i } unre LS i Menday, June 9, 1952- THE KEY WEST CITIZEN Page 7 CITY OF KEY WEST ELECTRIC SYSTEM KEY WEST, FLORIDA Condensed Balance Sheet and Condensed Statement of Revennes and Expenses MARCH 31, 1952 ASSETS PLANT, PROPERTY AND EQUIPMENT Purchase Price of Property as an Entity August 13, 1949 Net Additions at Cost SINKING FUND AND SPECIAL DEPOSITS Cash on Deposit in Sinking Fund Cash on Deposit in Reserve and Contingencies Fund RESERVE AND CONTINGENCIES FUND INVESTED CURRENT ASSETS Cash on Deposit Revenue Fund Construction Fund 1950 Electric Revenue Bonds Special Construction Funds No. 28 No. 29 Working Funds Accounts Receivable $ 9.390.75 Materials & Supplies Inventosigs 3/31/52 Prepaid | Insurance DEFERRED CHARGES Miscellaneous Interest on 1950 E Power Plant Construction Work in Progress ELECTRIC REVENUE BONDS LIABILITIES Electric Revenue Bonds, Series 1946 Electric Revenue Bonds, Serigs 1958 CURRENT LIABILITIES Accounts Payable Contracts Payable-Rent Customers Deposits Accrued Taxes City of Key West County of Monroe Gross Receipts Other Current Liabilities RESERVE FOR DEPRECIATION ACCUMULATED NET REVENUES Balance April 1, 1951 $16,008.00 8,500.00 Additions for Yeas Ended Mazsh $1, 195% We have examined the Balance Sheet as of March 31, 1952, and Statement of Rev: ination was made in a perm and ineluded such tests of the jures as we consi necessary In our ig ogg Bala iy ih financial cond! ended. Our examin: come, present fa’ oe ie of Re in enue and Expense 4 the a yes ceounting reeands and ds ond Bes et epee $1,208,797.91 1,189,973.88 93,999,971.73 s + 119.219.87 119,319.87 150,000.00 " $2,085,061.56 10,750.00 114,468.81 74,761.01 7,820.28 2.998.680.92 $ 43,151.59 165,912.61 944,495.21 1,159,849.35 $8.109.090.97 —_ $1,320,000,00 9,000,000.90 $4,320,008.00 $ 12,378.99 20,850.00 64,946.55 30,069.58 1,371.00. 129,418.48 476,754.94 $ 902,630.59 200,200.98 1,192,920.87 $9,199,000.97 Key West Electri for the fisesl Seat ie co all see” et, sig ment of in- leetrie System at March 31, 1952, and the results of operation for lor the. year “Then ended, in conformity with generally ‘accepted accounting prifciplés applied %e a basis consistent with that of the preceding year. Respectfully submitted, ERIC G. CURRY, Certified Publie Accountant. City Of Key West Electric System KEY WEST, FLORIDA CONDENSED STATEMENT OF REVENUES AND EXPENSES FOR THE FISCAL, YEARS ENDED MARCH 41, 1993 AND 1951 GROSS OPERATING REVENUES Operating expense Maintenance expense Taxes Depreciation + OPERATING REVENUE DEDUCTIONS TOTAL OPERATING REVENUE DEDUCTIONS NET OPERATING REVENUE OTHER INCOME Merchandise Miscellaneous DEDUCTIONS Interest on Revenue Bonds-| 948 Other NET REVENUE * Fiscal Years Ended March 31 1952 1951 $1098,596.73 $ 661.478.12 8 546,575.92 $ 371.709.84 96,293.90 $9.127.31 39,520.59 7,790.97 92.567.87 S 764,966.33 $ 261,570.35 a Sis 2/3 Sis : = F ls 2lis | 5 381.00 2 i 79.50 S %.31§.00 ‘3 3 E