Community Corner
FishHawk Mermaid Gets 2nd Ruling, Wants To Swim By The Rules
Jenna Conti, also known as Eden Sirene, the FishHawk of mermaid, went before a second Community Development District to learn if she has permission to swim with her tail.
Jenna Conti, also known as Eden Sirene, the mermaid of FishHawk, said she is not giving up in her quest for permission to swim with her tail in all FishHawk pools even after a second Community Development District told her that would not be possible at this time.
But she also wants the community to know that she does "not want to be known as the person who blew something out of proportion."
"I feel bad that is has come to this," she said in an interview July 16, after a meeting before the Community Development District (CDD) for Phase 2, which has jurisdiction over the Aquatic Club pool. "I was only trying to do something good. I never would have imagined that my going to the pool with a tail would hit the U.K."
Conti, a FishHawk Ridge resident, is referring to the attention her story has received in local, national and even international press markets after word of her situation spread throughout her local community.
She said she is going to acquire insurance and a scuba diving license and work with CDD board members to see if there is a chance she can become a vendor, per their requirements, and/or to get listed on the events calendar as soon as possible, which Conti said is not likely until 2014.
While no definitive answers are yet in place, Conti added that she does not want to be seen as a person who believes the rules apply to everybody else but not to her.
"I certainly don't want the rules bent for me and only me," Conti said. "I think that's an unfair thing to do. I want to do things the right way."
Her intent "is to be able to entertain and be able to swim and practice inside the FishHawk pools," she said.
"If I have my ducks in a row and what they need insurance-wise and a plan put together as they asked for, I might be allowed back in the pool," she added. "They told me [July 16] they need to have this stuff for them to book me right now."
On July 15, Conti attended another meeting on the issue before the Community Development District (CDD) for Phase 1, which has jurisdiction over the Osprey and Hawk Park pools.
"The rule is no fins and kickboards are allowed,” Conti said in an interview after that meeting. “The only way they will change the rules is if I become part of the events calendar, which I do know is booked up for the rest of the year. I won’t be able to get on the events calendar until 2014.”
FishHawk residents had been asked to attend the July 16 meeting by Bob Abruzzese, a mermaid supporter, who posted the request on his FishHawk Area Neighborhood Page on Facebook.
It was on Abruzzese's Facebook page that Conti's case became more widely know, after he posted a video of her swimming in a FishHawk pool to counter what she said were very negatives comments she had received on her own Facebook page.
It also was the day after she was asked to leave the Aquatic Club.
As Abruzzese put it, in an interview with Bloomingdale-Riverview Patch: “They turned her away because she had fins. There was a rule, no fins at the pool."
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