Council goes forward on water system and renourishment
After passing a motion to keep the Beach water system under its current ownership – Public Works Services Inc. – the Fort Myers Beach Town Council reflected on its recent crisis regarding a main water line break that left the town without water for 22 hours before reinviting talk about beach renourishment.
“I think things went as well as could be based on the situation,” said Mayor Larry Kiker about the water outage. “This raises the concern on what it is like to be on an island without water. Because of the communication presented by Town Manager Scott Janke and his team, a bad situation went very well. It gave us a chance to look at emergency operations.”
Janke commended his staff – led by Public Works director Jack Green – for their “above and beyond” efforts.
“I’d like to thank the crew, Cathie Lewis (deputy Public Works director) and especially Jack who kept things moving under very dire straits,” he said. “I appreciate the entire community joining hands to get through a difficult situation.”
Janke then asked the council to consider giving his staff until a planned management and planning meeting on May 20 to return with more information concerning financing on a long-term utility solution. The motion was passed.
Concerning beach renourishment, the council reviewed the BOCC’s latest interlocal draft and discussed its language at length to see if both parties were in agreement. The amendments to the interlocal that were made by the county officials and were approved by the town council included: 1) county would be primarily responsible for acquisition of easements; 2) town would pay difference in the reduction of town parking spaces in state shared funding if applicable; 3) the town would not charge different parking rates for islanders and others; 4) the town has the ability to walk away if the bids exceed the $1 million cap; 5) after construction contract bid is awarded, whoever walks away from the deal has to pay the costs incurred up to that day but is proportionally allocated up to the trigger point.
During public comment, beach residents and business owners addressed many compelling arguments on both sides of the renourishment issue. Councilmembers presented their views afterward.
Terry Cain referred to everyone who resides on Estero Island as a “stakeholder” and asked the council “to keep communication open with BOCC and not to take a hard line with discussions with the county officials.” She is in favor of keeping the signed easements.
Jeff Warner told the council “it’s up to you and no one else to save the beach for our children and our grandchildren by completing the task of beach restoration that you endorsed this past winter.”
Joanne Shamp quoted Warren Pelky, a retired director of Duke University’s program for the study of developed shorelines. She said Pelky called beach replenishment “remarkably inefficient,” and gave statistics – including $23 million worth of projects completed from Bonita Beach to Marco Island in 2006 that have since washed away – to support that theory.
Tom Merrill used the state of economy, an unclear objective and infrastructure problems to suggest that money spent on beach renourishment might be better spent elsewhere.
John Albion, president of the Greater Fort Myers Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, thinks the “situation is worsening” and “the economy of the island will be exasperated if we cannot come up with a way that the true character and qualities are not going to be adequately maintained.”
The debate between the council members raged on until Kiker interjected.
“We made a promise to the people – after we had changed the dynamics of this agreement so many times – and it is now time for us to step up to the plate, do an educational process and sit down with folks and come up with a completely honest agreement with them,” he said. “The onus should not be on this town council to decide whether this project goes forth or not. It should not be on Lee County either. The people who live here should make the decision.”
Councilperson Jo List gave her views.
“All the circumstances have changed over the last 10 or 12 years,” she said. “There are a lot of people who want beach renourishment and a lot of people who don’t. That is why it hasn’t happened yet because there isn’t a clear, resounding decision. There are many compelling reasons on both sides of this issue.”
Councilman Tom Babcock stated that the argument wasn’t over beach renourishment but on “how to do it.”
In the end, the council passed a motion, 4-1, to accept the county’s latest interlocal agreement with the added changes. Now, the draft is back in the county’s hands.