FR EE Council Reacts to Water Crisis Algae
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STUDENTS ARE BACK IN SCHOOL! DRIVE CAREFULLY! FortMyersBeach.news FREE Volume 18, Number 32 “By Islanders, For Islanders” August 10th, 2018 Council Reacts to Water Crisis Algae Outbreaks “Far From Natural” By Gary Mooney Mayors to ask that the Com- having to wait for two weeks [email protected] missioners extend their local to return to Council to give State of Emergency over the you permission to join in on The effects of a per- area’s water quality issues, all of these things; would that sistent Red Tide bloom and persuade the State of Florida be helpful to you?” blue-green algae related to to extend its State of Emer- “Other mayors have Lake Okeechobee water re- gency and request a Federal permission to do certain leases continued to effect one from the President. “Let’s things, like sending messag- Fort Myers Beach this week. be real, however – this is a es to the Governor or Presi- The Fort Myers Beach Town bigger problem than our little dent,” agreed Gore. “We take Council returned from its Town can resolve, even if we our lead from Sanibel Mayor summer break that began sign resolutions all week long, Kevin Ruane, who has all on June 18, hosting its first so we need the right people sorts of connections on this. public meeting since the twin in office to fix the system. Our He has been doing this for outbreaks of Red Tide and area mayors are the greatest a long time, and we need to blue-green algae on Tuesday, group to work with, and they continue to act all year long, August 7. Four Council mem- are so concerned about our even when the water im- bers and Town Manager Rog- communities. We are trying proves, before we find our er Hernstadt addressed the our hardest, and anyone who backs up against it again, no issue; with Anita Cereceda on says the opposite, it’s just not matter what it takes. an excused absence, though true.” “Today, I am asking for she participated in an earlier Vice Mayor Joanne us to declare a State of Emer- part of the session via Skype Shamp thanked Gore for her gency for the Town of Fort My- from Spain. time and support of water ers Beach, and to sign off with Mayor Tracey Gore quality and her work with oth- the other mayors to request joined the session rough- er Lee County mayors. “Town that the Governor hold more ly two hours late, as she at- Council should go on record water to the north of Lake tended the Lee County Board to provide you with the au- Okeechobee, send more of County Commissioners thority to act with the other water south, and seek fund- meeting that morning, join- mayors, to sign any neces- ing to reimburse businesses Mote Marine sign at FMB beach access providing ing her fellow Lee County Red Tide information. Photos by M. Layfield sary proclamations, without for their losses Cont’d pg.14 Bay Harbour Hearing Marina Village Seeks Zoning Approval End of Summer Bash By Gary Mooney Examiner will hear the request [email protected] by Bay Harbour developers Jack Mayher and Nick Ruland The Fort Myers Beach Town to convert the area’s zoning to Council provided its unanimous Destination Resort Mixed Use approval for the new Margaritaville Water Dependent Future Land Resort on May 21. The equally-as- Use (DRMUWD FLU). “I have no controversial Bay Harbour Marina idea if the Hearing Examiner will Village, for 1195 Main Street on conclude the case in one day or San Carlos Island, faces its next take all three,” said Mayher. “This hurdle, before the Lee County zoning request is directly from our Hearing Examiner, on Wednesday, conversations with the Beach Area August 15, at 1500 Monroe Street Civic Association (BACA), as it is in Downtown Fort Myers, at 9 a.m. a category that already exists on If necessary, this will continue on San Carlos Island. We worked with Thursday and Friday, August 16 BACA very closely over the past 18 & 17, at 9 a.m., with the public months, to find compromises with welcome to attend. which everyone can live.” The Lee County Hearing BACA formed Cont’d pg.7 Beach kids gathered at Bay Oaks for the End of Summer Bash. More photos on pg.22 Pastor Ivan Corbin Joins Beach Methodist Comp Plan Game-Changer FMB His Third Island Parish Council Counters LPA Decisions By Gary Mooney that the nearest one was 75 miles By Gary Mooney Council members Bruce Butcher [email protected] away, and it was unbelievably hot in [email protected] and Dennis Boback flanked her, with the summer. My calling came while Mayor Tracey Gore at first absent, “I was at Merritt Island for in the First Church of the Nazarene The Fort Myers Beach Town attending the Lee County Board five years,” chuckled Ivan Corbin, in Zephyrhills, and I fought it a Council returned from its summer of Commissioners meeting with the new Pastor at the Beach United break in an unusual session, rotating area mayors, asking that Board to little bit but not a whole lot, and in-and-out from to 3 to 5 members, Methodist Church, “and I was at extend its State of Emergency over everything subsequently confirmed with only 4 ever at the actual dais. the region’s water quality crisis. Key West for seven years, so being it. I originally studied architecture In between its musical chairs, the Hovering over them all in council at an island church in not foreign in college, but soon shifted to panel made a divided decision to chambers was the face of Anita to me! Whoever said, ‘no man is the ministry, first transferring to approve a Rezoning Ordinance Cereceda, on the room’s gigantic an island’ never followed me from Kentucky Wesleyan College, that, according to a Local Planning television screens, resembling assignment to assignment!” where I fell in love with basketball Agency (LPA) member who spoke something out of “The Wizard of Pastor Ivan grew up in and became the mascot, ‘Wesley before the roughly 30 people in Oz” without the pyrotechnics, as Holland, Michigan, but his family P. Anther,’ because we are the attendance, may forever change she participated in the first portion moved to Zephyrhills. “I was so Panthers! Next came the Candler home reconstruction on Fort Myers via Skype from Spain. Shamp excited, because I always loved School of Theology in Atlanta, and Beach. began on a somber note, calling for Vice Mayor Joanne Shamp the beach, but I was disappointed that was scary at first, a moment of silence for slain Fort Cont’d pg.4 called the meeting to order at 9 a.m. Myers Police Officer Cont’d pg.8 Page 2 The Island Sand Paper FortMyersBeach.news August 10, 2018 August 10, 2018 The Island Sand Paper FortMyersBeach.news Page 3 Letters to the Editor FIGHT BROWN WATER you in any election, remember these infamous words declared by radi- cal activist Abby Hoffman, “Show your contempt! And don’t vote.” Amen Perhaps because I’m a resident of just two years, no matter how Brother! much I love FMB and how happy I am living here, I have no idea how ev- But if you think you can do better, run for office! eryone is so overjoyed about Margaritaville and all the plans for downtown, when our beautiful Caloosahatchee River regularly carries of billions of J.D. Burdge gallons of brown, tainted water released from Lake Okeechobee into the Fort Myers Beach Gulf of Mexico coating the very shore where Margaritaville will be located with dead fish, stench, and God knows what bacteria, with no one but a very small group of valiant local citizens fighting this travesty. (Where are politicians when we need them?) When I walked along the beach in June, I was wondering why TPI wasn’t pulling out as are tourists cancelling their vacations and fishing trips left and right. By burying our heads in the contaminated sand and not fac- ing up to and attacking the travesty of what is happening in front of our very eyes leaves us vulnerable to a catastrophe worse than Charley. Denial is not the answer. Mary-Ann Tirone Smith Fort Myers Beach VOTING NOT THE ANSWER I must take issue with Alice Mack’s Letter to the Editor (“Vote This Year,” Island Sand Paper August 3, 2018). I’ll tell you what “voting” gets you – A Mad-Hatter’s Tea Party of domineering amateurs now running Town Hall, here on FMB! And how about that new Town Manager they hired, Wow!! What a piece of work he is! That’s what voting gets you! THANK YOUR CLEAN UP CREWS! The ongoing problem being, is the questionable quality of candi- Thank you to all involved in cleaning up the red tide mess on dates we are given to vote for, wether it’s on a local, county, state or federal our beach. The beach was empty, except for the beach clean up crews! level. Most, if not all, candidates we are presented with in any election, Photo taken Friday, August 3, 2018 by Geoffrey Allespach. make promises that ring hollow, and rarily ever come true. The only excep- tion to this, that comes to mind in recent times, is Donald Trump, wether Geoffrey Allespach you like him or not! But of course, he’s not a career politician. Fort Myers Beach When I’m presented with candidate choices I don’t believe in, nor trust, I won’t vote for the “lesser evil!” I believe (the letter-writer) was abso- lutely wrong in saying “not” to vote for 3rd party candidates, that’s exactly CORRECTION: what we need to do to keep the other two corrupt parties in power, honest! I also take issue with her broad-brushed biased charactorization of In the “Short-Term Rental” story in the August 3, 2018 “right wingers!” issue, the council vote total cited was wrong.