Jacob Ogles
An organization claiming it originated plans for a golf course at John Dickinson State Park only established a web presence after the controversy unfolded.
The website for the Tuskegee Dunes Foundation has little content about the organization but contains a statement claiming responsibility for, and abandoning plans to, develop multiple golf courses at the Martin County park.
“Serving God and Country is our daily goal. That was the spirit for the idea to bring world class public golf to south east Florida, and donate all proceeds to support military and first responders’ families,” the statement reads.
“Working with the state of Florida, we explored Jonathan Dickinson State Park at the location of a dilapidated military facility. We sought improvements that would invite families to enjoy the great game of golf, while honoring minority veterans and enhancing the natural beauty of Florida’s beloved environment. We have received clear feedback that Jonathan Dickinson State Park is not the right location. We did not understand the local community landscape and appreciate the clarity. We will not pursue building in the beloved Jonathan Dickinson State Park.”
A registration search of who purchased the domain TuskegeeDunesFoundation.com masks contact information using the Domains By Proxy service. But available information shows the domain was only purchased on Aug. 25. A web archive search shows the earliest record available on the site was around 7 p.m. the same evening, and shows no additional information on the site.
The statement, though, is identical to one shared by conservative pundit Dan Bongino on his Facebook page. Bongino said the statement came to him through Folds of Honor, a national foundation providing military scholarships. Founded by Dan Rooney, the foundation is tied to the American Dunes Golf Club in Michigan, a Jack Nicklaus course, which dedicates proceeds to the Folds of Honor Foundation.
The plans for a golf course at Dickinson Park were arguably the most controversial portion of the Department of Environmental Protection’s Great Outdoors Initiative, which was unveiled last week. The plan for active use upgrades at nine state parks drew bipartisan outrage. U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, a Stuart Republican, has made a request for all information about the proposal at Dickinson Park specifically.
The website for Tuskegee Dunes Foundation was apparently launched the same day the Palm Beach Post reported on the organization’s connection to the golf course plan. Delaware records show the foundation was formed in August 2021.
23 comments
Elmo
August 26, 2024 at 12:35 pm
Unbelievable. These golf courses were going to be built under the guise of patriotic Florida Freedom. The evil madness needs to stop. Worm DeSantis is totally behind this environmental atrocity.
Elvis [FKA Earl]
August 26, 2024 at 1:00 pm
Good afternoon Sage Patriots,
You are now free to Relax Your Political Sphincters as this Evul Scheme has all the fingerprints of Dook 4 Brains Leftys having set thisvl Hoax up to discredit Ron “The Ronald” and his lovely wife Casey Desantis.
Thank you Sage Patriots,
Elvis
Rick Whitaker
August 26, 2024 at 3:45 pm
ELVIS FAKE EARL, the sphincterman has spoken, it’s called an earl brain fart.
Sally Lieb
August 26, 2024 at 8:02 pm
I wish you were right. Park rangers were being forced to give the presentations at the Tuesday meetings before they got canceled. This plan was very much real.
Linda
August 26, 2024 at 10:20 pm
I wish I could reach through the internet and shake you senseless. Are you crazy
rick whitaker
August 27, 2024 at 3:06 pm
linda, everyone wishes they could reach through the internet and spank the 83 year old punk known as elvis, earl shitts, gary burbank, speedy gonzales, and any other childish cornball name he can dream up. he’s a fly in the ointment for sure.
Lori Foerster
August 26, 2024 at 3:58 pm
Totally agree with you!!
Jojo
August 26, 2024 at 12:47 pm
Who do they think they are kidding? Nothing about this idiotic plan would be non profit.
A land grab pure and simple
Nancy
August 26, 2024 at 6:41 pm
Look at the tax return for Folds of honor. Everyone on the payroll being paid 3 figures with the head guy, Lt.Col. Rooney making just under $500,000 a year.
BRUCE BRITT
August 26, 2024 at 1:27 pm
BEING A MILITARY VETERAN I’M MAD AS HELL!
FOLDS OF HONOR GROUP WITH JACK NICKLAUS ARE BEHIND THIS DESTRUCTION OF OUR FLORIDA STATE PARKS! This whole scam just proves once again you can NOT trust government to keep the public interest as a priority. All they see are dollars signs $$$. We do not need our state parks turned into Disney World. We need to have an amendment passed to protect our state parks from any further development. Its lobbyists included a former secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection.
Nicklaus joined the board of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in 2017 as an appointee of Governor Rick Scott. In 2022, he was reappointed for a five-year term by Governor Ron DeSantis.
Nancy Lopez World Golf & LPGA Hall of Fame Founder, Nancy Lopez Golf Founder, Nancy Lopez Golf Adventures Palm City, FL is a Folds of Honor Board of Director. Another Florida resident in connection with this organization.
Elvis [FKA Earl]
August 26, 2024 at 2:02 pm
Bruce please read my post of Sage Wisdom above. It’s an obvious hoax perpertrated by the left to discredit Florida Republicans.
Bruce, Ron, Casey, and I thank you for your Service to our Great Nation.
And I hate this evil Leftist Hoax as much as you do, Bruce.
We are proud to have you as a member of The Good Guys Team Bruce.
ELVIS
Cameron
August 27, 2024 at 11:38 am
So, DeSantis and Gary Nicklaus are now democrats trying to discredit republicans? If this was really a democrat plan to discredit republicans, why was Tuskeegee Dunes announcing to Dan Bongino (is he suddenly liberal?) that they are dropping their proposal for JDSP before the FDEP? Why was Dan Bongino the first to make the announcement the golf course for JDSP was scrapped instead of an FDEP representative? You realise that Rick Scott (is he another democrat now?) tried to push this golf course thing in 2011 and it was quashed then too. Why did DeSantis and the FDEP set the meeting simultaneously for one hour, with no virtual option, at a time where few concerned citizens would be able to drop everything to attend? Why is the pushback against this bipartisan, not just from the democrats? What drugs are you on Earl? Keep drinking the flavor-aid Earl.. eventually a batch that your alt-news sources keep feeding you will contain cyanide. (Also, look at the groups behind Tuskeegee Dunes – Folds of Honor being one of them – a conservative run group whose motto is God, Country, Golf). Sorry.. the conservatives tried to work their way around the sunshine laws in FL, and shot themselves in the foot here.
GK
August 26, 2024 at 3:24 pm
Thank you for posting this information. (Only correction is Gary (son of Jack) Nicklaus was appointed and then reappointed.) Far too often people are not asking the right questions and following the money. You are right – nothing about the Great Outdoor Initiative. PGA and LPGA should be ashamed of their actions. At the helm and the leader of the State, DeSantis’s position can not be overlooked. Imagine if this was voted on and passed…. Imagine the retaliation for local representative and leaders who spoke out against the plan; retaliation (financial sanctions/limited funding) would be felt, affecting citizens, in my opinion. This is a very unfortunate situation, one that speaks to the people involved, values of our leaders and something I will remember when I vote.
Addie Cartwright
August 26, 2024 at 5:47 pm
Exactly, I read where there was a meeting between Desantis and Gary Nicklaus immediately before this surprise, even to the environmental agencies, and rushed public meetings and to everyone. This is against the Florida Sunshine Law and both Desantis and Nicklaus should be charged with crimes as officials in the government trying to acquire state park land and seashore for private development and profit at the expense of the delicate ecosystems already bought by the taxpayers of this state. Shameful and criminal.
Cat Thompson
August 27, 2024 at 7:35 am
Thank you, Bruce, for this info (and for your service!). I would clarify that it’s not our government that isn’t protecting the government interest, it’s the DESANTIS government. He’s got to go!!!
Margaret Silverstein
August 26, 2024 at 10:31 pm
Have they no shame? INCREDULOUS
LexT
August 27, 2024 at 8:52 am
First, the purpose of conservation lands is to conserve the land in a nearly natural state. Second, let’s make it easy and comfortable for people to engage with conservation land in ways that do not create major disturbances. A remote park may benefit from a lodge or hotel that provides better access, but they don’t need expansive golf courses, reducing the area of conservancy. Additionally, many of these parks are adjacent to urban and suburban areas. The lodge in St. Augustine was going to build a hotel within 100 feet of the existing largest hotel in St. Augustine. This plan is not well thought out. If this type of plan were to move forward, the state should be replacing the conservation lands at a rate of at least three or four to one, so that the clear benefit was vastly more conservation land.
C.A.
August 27, 2024 at 11:29 am
Or maybe it is well thought out, and they don’t care about the impacts on nature. Our governors for the last few decades haven’t, and one of them is now a US senator. They just care about profit and power. Not our state’s environment, wildlife, or conservation/preservation. The fact that they made the announcement last monday, and the meetings were originally set for one hour, simultaneously, at an hour that few people would be able to attend, with no question and answer session, and no virtual option only a week after the announcement shows where their intents were. While Jonathan Dickinson state park is in the clear, there are still 8 other parks that have other proposals we need to keep an eye on, so don’t let this rest!
Melissa mocogni
August 27, 2024 at 9:46 am
Did you research the Bondino FB post because I read it was a fake FB post? Stopping this org from building golf courses in ANY state park is the goal, not just saving Jonathan Dickinson. Florida does not need anymore environment-destroying, water-hoarding golf courses. What we need is representation in Tallahassee that works for the people, not developers.
Anthony
August 27, 2024 at 11:23 am
Lets keep it as natural as possible. Golf is so boring anyways.
Bill Parks
August 28, 2024 at 11:48 am
This is an obvious land grab. Personally I have no use for Gary Nicklaus. Last year there was an effort to enact a short seasonal closure of three small areas of sea floor off Palm Beach County where the giant Goliath grouper gather to spawn . This was in response to the fact that the numbers of this fish were declining, especially since a directed catch and release fishery during the spawn was killing a lot of the few remaining breeding fish. Over the phone Gary Nicklaus promised me that since he was a local diver who grew up here he understood the problem and would support the closure. At the meeting in Panama City he joined the rest of the Scott-DeSantis appointed developers on the Fish and Wildlife Commission and denied the closure. He flat out lied to me and the numbers of spawning Goliath grouper continues to decline. He’s nothing but another greedy developer.
KATHRYN MULDOON
August 29, 2024 at 1:25 pm
They were trying to out-Hiaasen-Carl. Looking for the next unbelievable plot . . . but hey, the state got away with the land trade of part of Withlacoochee State Forest for a golf course in June 2024!
Are they really this stupid
August 29, 2024 at 10:40 pm
Anastasia island preserve survived millennia including colonial rule and the Revolutionary war and the strip mall disaster that is modern day surrounding St. Augustine beach, only to fall victim to these crony clowns??!!. Let’s just say they tried to build those asinine pickle ball courts and thumb sucking littering cabins and toxic chemical golf courses in the middle of one of the most ancient and important nature preserves in the whole country in the oldest city in the country. I don’t think they’d have any idea what kind of fury they’d unleash. You can only push people so far. I’ve had enough of these cronies meddling and usurping and ruining everything that made Florida special and unique and functionally disfuncional. Enough is enough!!! Fight back!!! And btw in Florida and in the US if you ever see the word “Foundation” for any reason you’d better pay real close attention because it ain’t ever what it says it is. It’s far far worse. Are these crooks really this stupid or do they think we are? I’m a small c conservative and this makes me sick. I’m about to send Nikki Fried some money.
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