Bank on ^,Ijm^T; Rob the Island Coming Soon
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M*• •«--*f*-*-.--jr-K--H--'ft--JJ-;•• CAR--RT SORT **R003 15900001003486 THU 000000 ! I . SAW1 BEL LIBRARY 770 DtJMLOP RD SAN I BEX FL 339?;? : i L, Week of March 14-20,2002 SANIBEL & CAPTIVA,FLORIDA VOLUME 29, NUMBER 10, 32 PAGES 75 CENTS Public hearings face another day New Saw City By Erik Burriss ommended City Council make a Florida," said Robert Pritt, an attor- Propane law new and Staff writer improved. Effective pair of changes to the Land ney for Community Housing April I. Development Code needed to Resources, Inc., the foundation that hears A proposed below market rate allow the 12-unit complex to be administers the city's below-mar- housing project on CasaYbel Road —See page 4 built. Council will vote on granting ket-rate-hoLising program. passed its first major hurdle — and conditional use and development The first recommended change its first five hours of hearings — permits at its March 26 meeting. Protect plovers Tuesday. "Affordable housing is a See BMRH public The Planning Commission rec- requirement of , the state of A count of the nesting snowy plovers on Sanibel page 15 in the planning stages. A GRUMPY ROAD AHEAD —See page 5 Red tide 'bloom7 Fast growing Areca palms yj'owing suceessliilly in South Florida now for a long time. By Dawn clt-Coer ••- 'v:V o;i>j>e 6 Hi1.' i Mi 11 ' New community bank on ^,iJM^t; Rob the island coming soon. Tuesday sifter u week's wnrth of worry and cleanup. —See page 4 "It is a huge bloom offshore. We dou't have good inibniuiiion right now. The last sampling that was done by the stale was two weeks ago, so we don't even know where we stand. I can't even teJJ you if it's going away or not." Major beach cleanup by the Public Works Department this week picked up "hundreds" of 30- to 50-pound black Little Lea« drum after washing up on the beach. Commissioner Dick See TIDE Muench at the plate page 4 of game recall. —See page 11 wjmn LIFE Eco®TSpstere Don't miss on the eco scene from annual meetings to conservation awards. Michael Pistella —See page 5 Michael Pistella Red Tide made another appear- ance in the waters of Southwest Aaron Hernandez, in the foreground, conducted interviews last weekend for Florida, littering beaches with Florida Transportation's undertaking of a traffie survey for Sanibel. (See page,2.) dead sea life. • ENVIRONMENT page 5 o BUSINESS..................page 7 Pickup line that.works, on-isSand e LOOKING BACK page 8 • A grand total of .185 peo- "sweepers" on Captiva filled This year, for the first ple showed up to clean up an eight-square-yard Dump- time, participants tried to o OPINION ., j.snge 9 our islands Saturday for the ster about three-quarters full, separate recyclables from •21st Annual Great Island 22 individuals .pitched in on garbage, In the doing, a lot o> e Dni'B \\'-'.l.. .,,,page 23 Pickup sponsored by Sani- •the Causeway, and the rest "unique" stuff was collected bel-Captiva Conserva-lion filled the 20-"yard Dumpster for BIG Art's Garbage Art t'TVLlsliMCS page 24 Foundation, Twenty-two at the Nature Center. project on Earth Day. « CLASSlflCUS.., page 28 i ill. 2 • Week of March 14-20 , 2002 • ISLAND REPORTER 1 • S ' Staff report -OSTY NEIGHBORING LOCAL NEWS Staff report-COUNTY Agendas online Cleanup under way The city of Sanibel took last Lee County residents now week's excessive red tide kill in have improved access to what's hand with an immediate beach up for vole by the Board of Lee cleanup of dead fish and debris, County Commissioners. Its week- while the snowy plover's nesting ly agenda is now posted online at season kept mechanical cleanup <www.lee~counly.coin>. Direct with heavy equipment off the link <www.lee-couiily.com/ineet- beach. ings>. Otherwise click on "Lee Wednesday morning at low County Information," click again tide city trucks were found beach- onto "Lee County BOCC Agen- side, east end to west end, reduc- das & Minutes Online" and again ing the likelihood of disturbing on "BOCC Meeting Agenda with nesting birds. all backup online." Packages include Board agen- City crime on the Web da, one-page description of items A crime report on Sanibel's before Commission for approval crime rate recently accessed by and all supporting documentation the city on its site <www.ci.sani- — contracts, agreements and bel.fl.us>. Crime in the city Anna Liakan legal documents. declined 24 percent last year, the A 60-foot-something sand sculpture discovered gulfside Board agendas and backup lowest in importable crimes since routinely run several hundred 1994. pages. In the past, access to back- Since 1930, cities nationwide up information required a trip to report crime stats to the FBI for Family leaves legacy behind at Sanibel Arms the Lee County Administration murder, manslaughter, forcible Building in Downtown Fort rape, robbery, aggravated assault, By Anna Liakas hands and trowels and buckets that in two short Myers. Oilier online applications burglary, larceny-theft, motor Staff Writer days had formed her, that she had not been chis- at the county's Web site are coun- vehicle theft and arson. Of the eled for decades out of the hard stone. ty ordinances, Comprehensive 140 importable crimes last year in Behind the slate gray buidings of Sanibel Its the fourth year and the fourth massive sand Plan and Land Development SanibeJ, five incidence of violent Arms, on a beach littered with the coiled yellow sculpture that the Sexton family (who originally Code, I ,ibrary System's card cata- crime — one forcible rape, four husks of whelk casings and the glistening silver hail from Minnesota) has created on Sanibels log, Human Services Directory, assaults — reported in with 135 backs of rotting fish , is a giant woman fast beaches, and now paserbys,residents and vaca- Parks and Recreation programs tagged non-violent. asleep in her wentletrap shell, ft is rumored that tioners from Captiva to Curaco have come to and facilities, Deparlineul of Auto larceny hed as lead crime the red tide may have set her here, expect an annual offering from the group, sifted Transportation requesls for on-island last year with 45 report- washed her up with the myriad of gasping and molded out of the line white sand. action, annual budge! bonk, rev- ed in and four more than the year dying fish to watch over them while they strug- enue manual, debt manual, week- previous. Arrests fell to.107 from gled for a last taste of the salty air. ly agendas, hoard minutes and 109 in 2000 — violations in drug A 66 foot sea goddess carved in sand, it is See FAMILY advisory committee descriptions, and liquor laws. hard to imagine that it was thesimple work of page 12 as well as ounty job applications. problem to solve problem By Erik Burriss island they were headed. base, said Jack Freeman, an plaints Saturday and 50 more cent of those crossing from the Staff writer Surveys were only part of the engineer with the city's consult- Tuesday. City Manager Judy mainland — 2,300 on Saturday. information being gathered: ing firm, Kittelson and Zimomra said there were two or Tuesday's numbers were not yet Grumpy expressions seemed Mechanical traffic counters. ha,V,& j4&j4ll, to be the order of the day at the aistf tfeen set up at various island In a scene played out hundreds weigh station Tuesday as the ci(\ ing the southern Causeway locations to determine traffic As motorists neared tin siin- of linn"- I'rtiin 7 ,i m (o ft p in concluded IK study on the 011- \olume.s. Information collccled Island Saturday and Tuesday blasted weigh station, a police gins and destinations of S.Html.i; ,iinl I nc VI,K, i-,ii h \ i hi in the study will be used to help were greeted with a series of officer waved groups of eight or cle was approached by a survey motorists crossing the Sanibel the city compete for grant fund- orange reflective signs alerting nine in. The remainder traffic or who asked the driver where Causeway. ing for dealing with traffic prob- them the survey was taking place rolled on by, albeit slower than they lived, where they wen.- com- City Council approved the lems. and be prepared to stop. A coun- normal since the right lane was ing from, where they were going two-pronged study last month to The last similar study was ty light-up sign provided more closed for most of the way across and purpose of the trip. gather information on where done by the city in 1988. information, like the city's phone the island. vehicles crossing the Causeway Study data will take three or number. The survey's goal was to See SURVEY were coming from and where on- four weeks to enter into a data- The city received five com- interview 15 percent to 20 per- page 6 a t'.jpft.*4».<- Riverside Luxury Living from $202,000 to $460,000. 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