Activist comes down from tree

Tracy "Dolphin" McNeely is headed west.\nNot long ago, McNeely pledged to remain atop a red oak in Stoney Springs as long as it took to protect the privately-owned forest area, which will soon be razed to make way for an apartment complex. \nThen last Saturday, she descended from her perch -- a four-by-eight-foot platform suspended 50 feet in the air -- after 88 days. It has since been manned in shifts by fellow environmentalists who decry the planned Canterbury Apartments as a reckless development.\nHer mother, Donna, said at the time that she had left temporarily to visit a sick grandmother.\nBut now it's clear McNeely won't be coming back. Friends and fellow activists say she plans on traveling out west before she attends the University of Oregon in the fall.\nMcNeely could not be reached for comment. Her home phone number in nearby Nashville has been disconnected.\nShe threw in the towel two weeks after the Monroe County Council approved $10 million in tax-free bonds for developer Herman & Associates of Indianapolis, which has pledged to provide affordable housing.\nThe city plan commission -- which has jurisdiction over the proposed land use -- gave the project its stamp of approval last November. The 50-acre area just east of Ind. 37 has been zoned for high-density residential use for nearly three decades.\nThe developer hopes to start construction in mid-July. The only obstacle left is the environmentalists, who have been planning acts of civil disobedience.\nThey claim McNeely's departure won't present a setback to their cause.\n"It's a committee effort," said the man occupying the tree-sit early Tuesday evening, who would only identify himself as "Moss." "This will just get more people involved."\nThe activists disavow any knowledge of the metal barricade cemented in the dark of night into Basswood Drive, the only road leading up to the wooded land. Police have yet to make any headway in their investigation of the vandalism, which will cost local taxpayers thousands of dollars.\nBut the environmentalists admit to having more up their sleeves than just the tree-sit.\n"We're kind of playing it by ear," Moss said. "It's a work in progress. We haven't yet figured out everything we're going to do.\n"But when the shit hits the fan, there are plenty of people who are willing to go to jail."\nMonroe County Sheriff Steve Sharp said he's working on a strategy to remove anyone occupying the tree when construction begins. And he's warned property owner Bill Brown to hire private security for the site.\n"We'll do what we need to do," he said. "But we can't be out there at all hours"