The Miami Herald, Fri, Jan. 24, 2003

Fort Lauderdale voters will decide in March whether the city should fight to preserve Florence C. Hardy Park.

Residents of the Tarpon River neighborhood south of downtown hope to kill the U.S. government's plan to move the federal courthouse from Broward Boulevard and Northeast Third Avenue to the park at Andrews Avenue and Southwest Seventh Street.

Nick Sakhnovsky, who chairs the Hardy Park committee for the Tarpon River Civic Association, last month gave the city a certification notice from the Broward Supervisor of Elections Office that stated it had gathered 1,002 valid signatures on a petition to decide the issue.

The group needed 1,000 signatures to force the City Commission to place the item on its agenda and take a vote.

Commissioner Tim Smith placed the item on the commission agenda on Tuesday.

The March 11 ballot question will ask voters to authorize the city to take legal action opposing any effort by the federal government to take Hardy Park by eminent domain.

Smith and commission colleagues Cindi Hutchinson and Carlton Moore voted in favor of the item. Mayor Jim Naugle and Commissioner Gloria Katz voted against it.