No replies to this topic

[Lightningrod]

NO NAME KEY, Fla. — It is the promise of tranquillity that attracts the hardy few to this tiny wooded island that lies unspoiled off the road to Key West and off the grid altogether. What keeps them here is the pristine fishing, fantastic vistas, ambling Key deer and winter breezes blowing in sighs of contentment.

But these days, good karma is sorely missing on No Name Key. The 1,200-acre island has been riven by two warring camps of residents who have pleaded, sued, offended and, ultimately, turned their backs on each other in a fight over power, the kind that gets piped in by an electric company.
“It’s the Hatfields and the McCoys here,” Dave Eaken, 41, a longtime resident who wants commercial power, said about the split on the island. His father, Bob, has waited decades for public electricity, which he said he was promised when he first bought land on No Name Key in the 1960s. “I don’t look at those people. I don’t talk to them, and I don’t want to talk to them.”
“If they want to remain off the grid, go for it,” he added, recalling years of sticky sleepless nights and stealth attacks by no-see-ums, the tiny insects that squeeze through screens. “Have fun. Just don’t tell me what to do.”
At the heart of the 15-year battle is whether, after a lifetime of deriving electricity from solar power or generators or both, No Name Key should move into the last century and install power lines. This now looks increasingly inevitable. Barring one last-ditch court injunction, the island and its 43 houses could have public electricity for the first time by the end of August.


http://www.nytimes.c...gewanted=1&_r=1