NORTH BAY VILLAGE -- Almost all the tumult convulsing this three-island town of 7,000 -- the crude cartoons, the departure of the police chief, the arrests of the mayor and three commissioners, the recall campaigns, the shouting and the whispers -- started with the desire to do a good deed.
Arriving two Januarys ago from the cold Chicago winter to thaw out on a houseboat, Fane Lozman wanted to help his 80-year-old neighbor install an aluminum wheelchair ramp at the village marina where they lived, something Clement Mikelis had been pestering his landlord about for months.
Heck, Lozman thought, he would even spring for the ramp. After all, Mikelis lived on a fixed income, while Lozman, 43, a market trader and software entrepreneur, didn't think twice about spending $600 on a loud Versace shirt or donating a few grand to the pelican refuge up the street.
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