The effect of the Bahama Conch Community Land Trust's financial insolvency isn't just affecting its Bahama Village tenants, but extending up the Keys.</p><p>"It's a shame," says Marathon resident M.J. Rickard. "We get government money and no one administers it."</p><p>Back in August state officials awarded a $929,000 grant to the Land Trust that was handed down by the federal government as part of a $4.7 billion Department of Energy stimulus injection.</p><p>The goal was to make Keys homes more energy efficient, and economical, by installing insulation, window and door seals, compact fluorescent light bulbs and the like. The grant has since been rescinded.</p><p>"I heard about [the rescission] when I got back," said Land Trust Board member Bob Kelly, who recently returned from a six-week trip to Europe. "It was actually to my relief because it always concerned me that we would take this project on and not execute it well, and I think that's exactly what happened."</p><p>Rickard agrees. On Aug. 26, she and her husband, who on 46th Street in Marathon, applied for home weatherization through the Land Trust.</p><p>"I gave Norma Jean [Sawyer, former Land Trust executive director] everything she needed and away she went," Rickard told the <i>Keynoter</i>.</p><p>"I called every week. Norma Jean was never in the office," Rickard said. "The applications are probably sitting on a desk collecting dust."</p><p>Rickard, 59, and her husband Joe, 68, are retired. They're originally from Buffalo, N.Y.</p><p>"The insulation is minimal," M.J. Rickard said of their trailer. "We wanted to put up siding because we put a new roof on and that made a big difference. That almost cut my electric bill right in half."</p><p>Kelly wasn't aware of Rickard or anyone else's application.</p><p>When the grant was awarded, the Land Trust received $37,000 "fronted by the state to get the project underway," Kelly said. Now that money is owed back and Kelly doesn't know how, when or if the money was spent.</p><p>"I need to find out what happened to it. It's something for the near future."</p><p>Add that $37,000 to the $102,000 owed to the city of Key West after city officials reimbursed the Land Trust twice for the same renovation project.</p><p>Using the Tax Increment Fund, a special property tax collected in District 6 and reinvested in public projects in that area, the Land Trust buys houses in Bahama Village, fixes them up, deed restricts the property as affordable and rents them to income-qualified tenants.</p><p>Rents range from $200 to $900 monthly, with most in the low range, Kelly said. That covers 41 properties with between 80 and 90 individual tenants.</p><p>News of Sawyer being laid off was announced by Land Trust officials earlier this week. They said the group has no money, and that's what city officials are finding out as they continue conducting a financial audit of the trust's books.