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16 from Tarpon boatyard reap $4.1-million bonanza
By MEGAN SCOTT TARPON SPRINGS -- There is one woman, a secretary, in the Duckworth Steel Boats lottery pool. Most of the others have blue-collar jobs: welder, pipe fitter, electrician and painter. There is a retired diesel mechanic who hangs out at the boatyard and two New Yorkers who come to Duckworth Steel Boats every winter to get their boats repaired. Today they all have something in common: a share of a $7-million jackpot. Boatyard owner Junior Duckworth, 60, and Leon Kowaleski, 79, went to Tallahassee on Tuesday to claim the group's winnings from the Florida lottery's Jan. 15 drawing. "I'm really tickled pink," said Paul Forsberg, one of the New Yorkers who uses Duckworth to repair his boats. "This is really a nice break." Forsberg, 63, who owns Viking Fishing Fleet in Montauk, N.Y., enters the lottery pool every winter when he brings his boats to Tarpon Springs to be repaired. He once left Duckworth $100, so he could be in the pool even after he returned to New York. His employee, Richard Castellano, 36, also in Tarpon Springs to help with the repairs, said he just happened to have a $5 bill when the money was collected last week. "My boss (Paul) came and told me, and I didn't believe him," Castellano said. "I thought he was joking." The group chose to take a one-time cash payment of about $4.1-million. Lottery officials said there were 16 members in the group, and each would receive $258,815.43 of the prize. Last week, Duckworth said there were actually 18 people in the pool, but two did not get their money into the pot last week. Nonetheless, he said last week, the plan was to split the money 18 ways. Duckworth could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but he told lottery officials for a news release, "That's just the right amount of money. It's a lot of money, but not so much for anybody to quit working." Kowaleski has run the boatyard's lottery pool for the past 21/2 years. He collected the usual $5 from everyone in the group the day before the drawing. He bought $80 worth of Quick Pick tickets at the Sunoco service station at 940 N Pinellas Ave. "A lot of the guys did not want to believe we won at first," Kowaleski told Lotto officials. "They just kept walking away when I tried to tell them. They apologized for that later when they found out it was true." After learning that he had a winning ticket, Kowaleski said he made sure it was watched around the clock by hiding it under the paper lining in his bird's cage. Kowaleski and Duckworth said they will use the money to pay bills and help their children and other family members. Forsberg and Castellano, who are staying in Holiday, said they plan to use their winnings to buy a home. "I'm going to buy my dream home in Florida, in Tarpon Springs," said Forsberg. "I'm making an offer right now." -- Researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. Megan Scott can be reached at (727) 445-4183 or mscott@sptimes.co .
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From the Times North Pinellas desks |
