The Key West Citizen

$100,000 Paid For Land

Library Stock Island Dog Track Will Open Feb. 1;

$100,000 Paid For Land

Waiting For Dog Track Election Returns
Citizen Staff Photo

AT THE SHERIFF'S OFFICE in the Courthouse just before the victory of the dog track at the polls was announced. Here are Sidney Aronovitz, secretary of the Key West Kennel Club, and other track proponents gathered over the tally sheets. Across the hall Supervisor of Registration Sam B. Pinder and Mrs. Edna Mae Bullman were counting the returns.

Voters Approve Track By Vote Of 2514 To 1905

The people of Monroe county voted in the $300,000 dog track yesterday by 2514 to 1905, with 47 absentee ballots uncounted, Supervisor of Registration Sam Pinder reported.

Only six of the county's 17 precincts voted against the track; three of these precincts were located on the Keys. More than 36 per-cent of the 12,085 registered voters went to the polls yesterday.

Track secretary Sidney Aronovitz said that the Key West Kennel Club will rush through construction plans on Stock Island so that the track can open on February 1. The club paid $100,000 for 14 acres on Stock Island purchased from Charles Toppino.

"We have lots of work to do before then," Aronovitz told The Citizen last night. "We are gratified at the expression of confidence given the Key West Kennel club by the voters of Monroe County. Our principal effort will be to win the wholehearted cooperation and confidence of all the citizens of the county. We trust that at some short date in the future many of the people who voted against the track will be reassured by the clean, good operation which we intend to give Monroe county."

Meanwhile a minister's wife who said she was quoted by a Miami paper, called The Citizen to refute the statements attributed to her. "I did not say one word about newspapers being crooked, and that Key Westers will be sorry that they voted it in. Why did that reporter have to tell such a big fib? He called and asked if my husband would care to give a statement last night following the election results. I said to him, 'If you make as big a mess of this story as you did on the rally, he wouldn't'. His story today wasn't a misquote it was a big fib," said the minister's wife. Later she called The Citizen and said the Miami reporter denied he had been quoting her but instead another minister's wife.

The light vote yesterday was obvious to this reporter from the (Continued On Page Four)

STOCK ISLAND (Continued From Page One)

tour of the polls at noon and again just before 7 p.m. Instead of the usual crowds lining up for last minute balloting, the precincts looked bare. Even No. 14, in Poinciana. the largest district had only one voter at 6:30.

The most intense activity was at the Sheriff's office where track proponents Aronovitz and Ed Kaplan paced up and down excitedly with Monroe County Sheriff Berlin Sawyer, Johnny Delgado, John Lehman, and Peace Justice Roy Hamlin. As soon as the returns came in. the proponents came forward to issue their victory statement.

Leader of the opposition to the track, Father John Armfield. president of the Key West Ministerial association took the track's victory philosophically. He told The Citizen today:

"I have no comment to make. The people have spoken and that's that. We stood up for that which we thought right, so we can still hold our heads high."

Supervisor Pinder and Deputy Mrs. Edna Mae Bullman finished the vote count by 7:55 last night. As they sat at their posts in the Courthouse, election inspectors from the 14 city precincts brought in the official returns, the ballot boxes and the registration books

The phone rang with calls from Marathon, Tavernier and Islamorada giving the results reported from there,

The track victory ended a summer-long campaign waged for and against dog racing, that involved most citizens in controversy with their neighbors. With the approval of the state racing commission permit on the track by the county. all that remains is for the actual construction to begin. Miami architect Manfred Ungaro has drawn tentative plans for the track. Contracts will be let in the near future for construction. Aronovitz said.