County Votes to Sue Largo Fishing Museum

The Pinellas County Comission has taken the first stepts to sue a Largo fishing museum for back rent.

The Tampa Bay Times reports that the commission voted 5-2 Tuesday to file a lawsuit against the Florida Gulf Coast Center for Fishing and Interactive Museum.

The commission says that the nonprofit museum owes the county $34,065 in back rent. The county will seek to evict the museum if it does not pay. The museum is located at 12211 Walsingham Rd.

The museum is barely a year old. (See "New Fishing Museum Set to Open.) It is located at the former site of the Gulf Coast Museum of Art, is next to the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo.

The Tampa Bay Times reports that the county has notified the museum twice of its default and also had meetings with  museum founder Jim Simons. According to the Times article:

In a March 19 letter to the county, Simons indicated he would pay half the cost of a mediator. He wrote, "We have difficulty understanding that the county would walk away from a facility valued at over $5 million, but pushing this situation to litigation where the county has unlimited resources against a small nonprofit serving children and families is just wrong."

Simons claims that the museum building needs repairs to make the entire facility safe. His rent is $6,000 per month.

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