Re-Nourishment is heavy on the minds of business owners
Now that the high-volume part of tourist “season” is officially winding down if not considered over, residents and business owners of Fort Myers Beach are becoming more involved in a delicate controversy – beach re-nourishment.
Views from FMB Town Council meetings and letters from residents on Estero Island show that this issue will not lie down. It needs constant addressing.
Should residents sign easements? Does the beach need to produce more sand through dredging? Will our island become victim of a hurricane this summer that will erase more beach and possibly close businesses in the Time Square area?
Fran and Tom Myers, owners of the Red Coconut RV Park, have 450 feet of beach front property and are in favor of beach re-nourishment. Fran said that she and her husband signed their easement quite some time ago.
“Several years ago, the state designated Fort Myers Beach as a critically eroded beach,” said Myers. “I’ve been sitting on the Lee County Tourist Development Council for 20 years and every year we set aside more than $1 million for beach re-nourishment. I see it going everywhere except Fort Myers Beach. It’s time. We need that re-nourishment.”
Myers said that money for the project comes from the Federal government, the state of Florida as well as the county’s tourist development tax. She is worried that time might be running out.
“This re-nourishment project has been in the pipeline for 14 years that I can remember,” said Myers. “I can’t imagine that we’re going to refuse free money. If a storm does come, I really believe it could tear a lot of our beach out and rip right into Estero Boulevard. I want to know who is going to pay for it.
“I’ve listened to all the nay-sayers that have appeared before town council and most of them do not live on the beachfront. I’ve listened to all their tales about how terrible it is and I just can’t imagine that anyone in their right mind would come up with those kinds of antics for why they’re against beach re-nourishment.”
Myers believes the prior town council is responsible for the negative implications about beach re-nourishment.
“I think our last council scared our residents to death when they said that pipes were going to come in their front doors and out their back doors,” she said. “I think they purposely tried to scare people so they wouldn’t sign (easements). I think everyone has a right to sign or not sign an easement, but I really believe it’s a shame that the folks that are so adamantly against it have to write those horrible letters about the vice mayor. I think the vice mayor is very passionate about what he believes in and, while we all have a right to our opinions, I think what they’re doing to him is pretty awful.”
Myers then commended the work of the current board of town officials.
“These five council people that we have right now see the need,” she said. “They have answered all the questions and I really believe they’re heading in the right direction. However do I believe this is ever going to happen? I think the clock is running out.”
With less than two months for easement signing and a September date for the project as a whole, time does not appear to be on the side of the average business for beach restoration.
“I think it’s getting to an emergency situation especially here on the most northern end of Estero Boulevard,” said Ellis Etter, the director of sales and marketing at Pink Shell Beach Resort. “Over the past several months, our beach has deteriorated significantly.”
Etter, who is also on the Board of Directors for the FMB Chamber of Commerce, explained that it is tough enough trying to survive in this economy without beach recession problems.
“We do probably 135 weddings a year and, since it is Florida, everyone wants to have their ceremony on the beach” he said. “Now, before we can really commit to a wedding on the beach -especially in front of our two main buildings- we’re looking at things like tide, wind direction and the moon phase. If its high tide, we really don’t have enough beach to set up most of the ceremonies that we have.”
Etter experienced first hand the benefits of beach re-nourishment when he worked at South Seas Resort in Captiva before, during and after Hurricane Charley in 2004.
“We had beach re-nourishment out there before Hurricane Charley and thank God we did because -if we wouldn’t have had it and some of the three-feet-high dunes they put out there- I’m sure that we would have had a lot more water damage and beach erosion to the point of, perhaps, Captiva Island splitting in half,” he said. “Seeing the devastation out there, I’m very scared about what could happen here if we don’t go through with this beach re-nourishment. It’s not just protecting our businesses; it’s protecting our residents and their properties.”
Myers feels sorrow for her friends and neighbors -especially in the Times Square and Newton Park areas- that have no beachfront whatsoever.
“That’s why I’m standing for it,” she said. “(The Red Coconut) can live with or without beach re-nourishment. That’s not going to change our business.”
Is it time for a change?
“We’ve never really had a total re-nourishment,” said Myers. “Mantanzas Pass has been dredged twice and they had to have a place to lay the spoils. So, both times they laid the spoils up on Fort Myers Beach starting from Bowditch Point all the way to the pier. This time they’re telling us the quality of the sand does not match, so they’re going to throw it offshore.”
Is it worth the process?
“The opponents are right,” she said. “Does it smell? Yes, it does. Is it inconvenient? Yes, it is. Is it worth it about three or four weeks later when the stench goes away and the sand turns white? My goodness, yes, it is.”