Baker honored Committee praises retiring city employee tf f*l Since 1861 Stif! first on Sanibel and Captiva Islands VOL 32, NO. 49 TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1993 3 SECTIONS, 32 PAGES 50 CENTS City purchase of Old Bailey Store lot recommended By Steve Ruediger Islander staff writer The Old Bailey Store property on the bay at the end of Bailey Road has been offered to the city of Sanibel for $1,265 million. City Manager Gary Price plans to recom- mend at today's, Tuesday, Dec. 7, Sanibel City Council meeting that the council agree to the purchase. This 7.35 acres is the property which has been under option to developer John Armenia. The attempts by Armenia to clear the way legally to build a dock on the property to be used by three homes he would have built there have been the subject of a number of discussions by local government bodies and a number of newspaper arti- cles in the past few years. That option apparently no longer exists because the property is now being offered to the city by its owners, the Bailey family. Specifically, Francis Bailey made the offer on behalf of himself and his brothers, Sam and John. The Old Bailey Store, which had been on the site, was moved to a location behind the Island Historical Museum. It was renovated and, two weeks ago, opened as part of an historical village which is being built. •Island.-holiday decorations Therefore the bay-front land on Bailey Road is now Typical island Christmas scenes like this one featuring a pooiside Christmas tree with all the decorative trim- vacant. mings are starting to pop up across Sanibel and Captiva. As soon as Thanksgiving approaches, islanders are In his memorandum to be presented to the council, quick to decorate the island for the festive holiday season. Price said that in April 1990 the property was offered to the city for essentially the same price. At that time the offer was turned down because other more environmental- Two men charged with disorderly ly desirable properties were available to be purchased and because of the recent defeat of the proposed land acquisi- tion bond issue. conduct for being nude on island beach Since then that other property has been purchased or By Steve Ruediger That could be the basis for any challenge to the charges. become unavailable, according to Price. The Bailey prop- Islander staff writer Parker and Wood have contacted attorney Stuart M. erty was appraised in April as being worth between $1.275 Two men charged by Sanibel police with disorderly Pepper but Pepper would not say on Friday, Dec. 3, million and $1.541 million, Price said. conduct for nudity on the beach plan to fight the charges in whether or not he had been hired. Price will recommend that the parcel be left undevel- court. Pepper was the attorney who got dismissals from sever- oped. He will say it will make "an ideal disaster recovery Jeffrey Joseph Parker and John David Wood of Wilton al Lee County Court judges of cases against three individu- area should a need arise. Acquisition would acquire over Manors were charged on Friday, Nov. 26, at 1:45 p.m. on als charged on April 11 with indecent exposure. 900 feet of bay frontage currently in private hands. the beach at the Silver Key end of Bowman's Beach. Those people had been arrested at about the same loca- "Failure to acquire will result in three large dwellings Officer Dustin Worth said that in response to a com- tion on the beach as Parker and Wood were when they facing the bay covering most of the now vacant bay plaint of nude men on the beach which had been phoned in were charged. frontage. If this happens, the appearance of the approach to police, he borrowed the Lee County ATV at Bowman's In the earlier cases, County Judge Radford R. Sturgis to the community will be inalterably changed and an Beach County Park and rode on it to the Silver Key area. said that past court decisions required lewd or lascivious opportunity for the public to forever own the last large There he saw the two men naked plus 10 to 15 clothed behavior for the nudity to be illegal, that simply being bay-front parcel will be lost." people on the beach, Worth said. nude was not illegal on Florida beaches. Price will recommend as the means of financing, the The Florida disorderly conduct law does not specifically mention nudity and, in the past, has been challenged in On Nov. 19, in a case that made state-wide news, a fed- Please see PURCHASE, page 11A federal courts as overly vague. Please see NUDE, page 7A 1. : '• Consultant finds current BMRH program aSHfiagMawaasE! Arts & Leisure SB appropriate; debt refinancing needed now Business 8B By Steve Ruediger annually subsidize the program until the The BMRH program is operated under Classifieds 3C Islander staff writer current debt is paid off, at which time the" agreement with the city by Community Commentary 1C Financial consultants Hamilton, city can begin to be paid back by the pro- Housing & Resources. There are currently 3C Rabinovitz & Alschuler Inc. have found the gram. 41 units in the program, which began in Crossword current Below Market Rate Housing pro- 1983. Its purpose is to provide affordable The report is dated Thursday, Dec. 2, and Island Guide 4-5C gram on Sanibel "appropriate." low cost housing on Sanibel. arrived at Sanibel City Hall Friday, Dec. 3. Police Beat 2A However, the New York-based firm The program is financed by debt, rents, Recreation 7B added that the current debt should be refi- The big public forum/special Sanibel an annual subsidy loan from the city, Weather Watch 4A nanced now to take advantage of low inter- City Council meeting on the future of the Community Development Block Grants, est rates. BMRH program is scheduled for this, charitable donation and some city grants for What's Playing 6A The consultants also found no way to Wednesday, Dec. 8, starting at 9 a.m. at eliminate the need for the city of Sanibel to City Hall. Please see BMRH, page 11A 2A THE ISLANDER Tuesday. December 7. 1993 Tuesday. December 7.1993 THE ISLANDER 3A All of the following Information was taken directly from Sanibel Police Department reports. David Martin Spry of Lehigh Acres was charged Dec. 2 POLICE with going 50 mph on Causeway Road. Goss discusses flood insurance, health insurance, debt reduction A man from Wisconsin asked for police assistance on By Steve Ruediger ing to different programs, Goss said. be done. Health care is getting too expensive plus people Friday, Dec. 3, to find a house in the Dunes subdivision. John Michael Kue of Fort Myers was charged Dec. 2 Islander staff writer He predicted that after the 1994 elections there will be with pre-existing conditions get locked into their current The man had been given a hand-drawn map by the owner BEAT with violation of a traffic control device (running the stop U.S. Rep. Porter Goss spoke to the Sanibel-Captiva enough reform-minded members of Congress to get debt job and the plan with that employer, and there are 37 mil- of the house. Sgt. Mike Murray, using the map, was able to sign at Periwinkle Way and Causeway Road), and with Rotary Club Friday morning, Dec. 3, about a variety of reduction passed. lion people with no health insurance. track down the location of the house. topics including flood insurance, federal health care pro- Illegal dumping at Whisperwood Cove is being investi- having no motorcycle endorsement on his license. Goss, who voted for NAFTA, the North American Free He called the health care issue "a big gorilla" on which posals and the need to reduce the federal debt. Trade Agreement, said that the U.S. economy cannot be different people have very different views. Police received a 10 p.m. noise complaint Thursday, gated by Sanibel police. Joseph E. Pearson of Cape Coral was charged The congressman from Sanibel also covered a variety of sustained sufficiently to maintain the federal debt without Goss commended Clinton for being willing to tackle Dec. 2. The home owner promised to shut the house up to Wednesday, Dec. 1, with going 54 mph on Sanibel- other topics at the breakfast meeting at Tarwinkles even an increase in international trade. He pointed out that a that big gorilla but said he differs from the president when keep the sound inside. Joseph P. Milroy of Fort Myers was charged with care- though he began the talk by joking, "I didn't want to talk a less driving Dec. 2 after being involved in an accident on Captiva Road. large percentage of the profits of the largest U.S. corpora- it comes to the mandate that all employees will have to be whole lot about Washington because I didn't want to ruin tions are earned overseas. Agreements such as NAFTA and A hit and run accident on Nov. 24 resulted in an investi- Causeway Road. His car hit the back of a car driven by covered, which is part of the Clinton plan. Someone reportedly stole $109 from a bank bag at the your day." GATT (the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) gation which determined the driver who had left the scene Jacob Hyner of Waterbury, Ct. Goss said this will cause employers to make up for the Hair 2000 beauty salon on Palm Ridge Road Dec.