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engineer, he took soil borings that show the channel once was 7 feet deep. But now they show the water is 2 feet deep, inside and out- side the channel. Taylor next called Mike Abbott to testify. He was asked by Tignor to take his 36-foot off- shore powerboat up and down the channel to demonstrate the waterway is still navigable. He testified that his boat draws 30 inches of water with the triple engines raised. "Is there any doubt in your mind there is a channel there?" asked Taylor. "None," said Abbott. Taylor produced a series of enlarged photo- graphs showing the boat making its way up and down the channel. Abbott did not say which day, or at what time, he navigated the waterway, only that it was a "mid-tide excur- sion." Depending on the phase of the moon, the fourth hour of a six-hour tide can add 2 feet to charted depths. Abbott's company has been hired to dredge Armour's boat basin, but he vociferously denied the $130,000 contract (as shown on the permit) influenced his testimony. "I obvi- ously have a financial interest in it, but I would never give any false testimony," he said. The photographs were evidence of his journey. While Abbott was carefully motoring through the old channel, a number of nearby residents opposed to the dredging were taking the same trip on foot. Boots Culverson tromped through the seagrass on June 7. "One hour after high tide, I did a search of the area within the pil- ings, and it had less depth than the areas north and south of the channel," she said. "If you were blindfolded and walked across, you would never know there is supposed to be a channel," testified Ruth Folit. "A 400-foot gash through a seagrass bed is not good for the health of the bay." Neighbors showed video of their excursions through the seagrass and across the site of the channel, although Taylor objected to them under rules of evidence that say the person responsible for a video must be present to authenticate it, and that person was absent in this case. Jono Miller, another neighbor opposed to the dredge, offered an aerial survey of the chan- nel from 1926 through this year. He said that by 1957, the channel was defunct and by 1983, "Sand has completely filled the channel." MORE TO COME After more than four hours of testimony, the Board of Adjustment recessed the hearing until Friday, July 18. At that time, it will hear rebuttals by the city and the applicant and then closing arguments before beginning its deliberations. "I need about an hour for rebuttal," said Taylor after hearing all the public testimony. Litchet told the board he would not make a rebuttal. He estimated his closing arguments would take about 15 minutes. The hearing is a "quasi-judicial proceeding," which is a court-like action with sworn wit- nesses and the board members acting as judges evaluating the preponderance of evi- dence and testimony. Should Armour's arguments fail to convince the Board of Adjustment, his next step is Circuit Court should he desire to pursue the issue further. % Sarasota News Leader June 20, 2014 Page 30