Boy Scouts in talks to sell 50-acre slice of Brooksville reservation

When businessman Larry DiePolder died in 1978, he left about 1,300 natural acres in Hernando County to the Boy Scouts with explicit instructions.

He said the land must never be sold “in any way shape or form” or be used for any commercial purposes, according to his will. DiePolder stated the acreage should serve only for the Boy Scouts to “enjoy the great outdoors and the beauties and benefits of nature.”

Known as the Sand Hill Scout Reservation, the land is now just that — an oasis of 10 campsites with space for archery, shooting, canoeing and swimming while development has sprawled around it.

Despite the wishes outlined by its benefactor, the Greater Tampa Bay Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America is currently in talks to sell a 50-acre portion of the Sand Hill reservation along SR 50 to the Withlacoochee Electric Cooperative for it to build an administrative office, Scout executive Mike Butler confirmed on Tuesday.

In January, after the Boy Scouts sought a court order to clarify the title on the land, a Hernando County Circuit Court judge ruled the council was not bound to the terms outlined by DiePolder. The ruling states that when his family conveyed the 1,300 acres to the Boy Scouts 45 years ago, the deeds did not include any of the usage restrictions cited in the will.

Asked by the Tampa Bay Times in March why the council sought that court action, president Benson Porter said the organization wanted to ensure there were no legal issues as they spent millions upgrading Sand Hill’s dining hall, restrooms and main building. He said at the time the council had no plans to market the land for sale.

On Tuesday, Butler said the Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative, a longtime supporter of the scouts, approached the group in June about buying the 50 acres because it has outgrown its administrative building about two miles away on Cortez Boulevard. He said there is currently no sale contract but negotiations are ongoing.

Butler declined to disclose the asking price but said proceeds from the sale, if executed, would be spent on upgrades to the Sand Hill reservation and other campsites.

“I would hope (DiePolder) would see this as a very positive partnership for scouting and the community and what would be mutually beneficial,” Butler said. “It would provide needed resources for the Boy Scouts to make the camp even better and at the same time serve the community and their electrical needs better.”

The 50 acres on the property’s west side currently house a camp ranger residence, maintenance barns and a ropes course that is out of commission and in need for repairs, Butler said.

Gary Steele, manager of member relations for the Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative, cautioned the utility is at “the very, very, very beginning of this process” and has not yet conducted a due diligence examination on the property.

If it were to buy the land, the new office would likely not be built immediately due to construction costs, he said.

The electric cooperative serves 83,000 homes and businesses in Hernando County. Steele said that the utility has been a longtime partner of the Scouts by helping them with several facilities and hosting an annual fundraiser.

A Boy Scout leader himself who has kids in the scouts, Steele said that there is no interest in buying a bigger chunk of property beyond the 50 acres.

”I love that property out there,” he said, talking about watching sunrises and sandhill cranes on the site.

But others who have watched developers pine over the land for years are appalled the scouts are considering any sale.

Travis Johnston, former president of the Sertoma Club that raised money for the Boy Scouts, said DiePolder’s wishes were black and white. He said scouts like himself grew up feeling that their land would be protected forever because DiePolder saw development creeping north, planned ahead and cemented his will to preserve the land.

“It’s just not right,” Johnston said. “Look at the scout oath and the scout law and trustworthy and loyal and all these things that they are trying to instill into the youth. They are absolutely not living by those sets of morals at all when they get money put in from of them.”

Hernando County Commissioner John Allocco said that constructing an administrative building for the utility on the 50 acres would require county approval through a land-use change.

“I cannot imagine the board (of county commissioners) changing that,” he said. “It seems to me like it was meant to be recreation in perpetuity.”

He considers the scout reservation “the Central Park of Hernando County.” Allocco also said he doesn’t believe that the Boy Scout leadership has any idea how negatively the public would react to a sale of any portion of that land.

“It’s going to be a very uphill battle to make this happen,” he said.

DiePolder founded DiePolder Electric in St. Petersburg in the late 1930s and later bought the 1,300-plus acres in Hernando as a cattle ranch, according to newspaper archives. Several underwater caves in the area are named after him. He executed his will in 1977. It expressed his wishes to convey the land to the Boy Scouts to be preserved forever.

After he died in 1978, there was a dispute among his family members about the disbursement of the estate, according to court records. The relatives settled their dispute, and DiePolder’s son and personal representative, Main Henderson, deeded the 1,300 acres to the Boy Scouts in two actions in 1979 and 1981.

Those deeds conveyed the Sand Hill property to the Boy Scouts without the restrictions DiePolder outlined in his will. After the Boy Scouts sought the court order clarifying the title, Circuit Court Judge Donald Eugene Scaglione ruled in January that the deeds issued by DiePolder’s son superseded the will and conveyed the land “free and clear of the use restrictions.”

DiePolder wrote in his will that if the Boy Scouts ever failed to use the property as he wished, then the land should be given to Hernando County “to be used as a recreational area and park.”

But Hernando County filed a motion consenting to the Boy Scouts clarifying the title. Scaglione ruled that any rights the county had to the land in the will are null and void.

Butler, the scout executive, pointed to this legal conclusion that the land is not bound to DiePolder’s restrictions. As to the spirit of DiePolder’s will? He believes the group will still be living up to that.

“Our intent is to continue to invest in our properties and our programs and continue to deliver even a better scouting program for our kids and our adults and we feel this can really help us,” Butler said.