Fort Myers Beach Council turns its back on environment
Fort Myers Beach has had some sad moments the last two years. Hurricane Ian took the lives of 16 people from the island and the homes of countless others. The town’s former Manager Roger Hernstadt lost his home to a fire the day after and then his job at the hands of a new council weeks later.
Fast forward two years later and Fort Myers Beach received a one-two-three punch from hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton. More homes flooded and more damage done. And now the island deals with the possibility that the town’s National Flood Insurance Program discount is at risk. Some are openly discussing leaving Fort Myers Beach.
And amid all of this turmoil, the town is treated to another sad moment – as the town council chose to not re-appoint Rose Larkin (and potentially also Rob Howell depending on the outcome of a new vote after a miscount in last week’s voting) to its Marine and Environmental Resources Task Force (MERTF).
The council instead appointed Ed Rood, whose crusades against the town in order to build a 298-feet boardwalk in the town’s environmentally critical zone divided the community and resulted in years of litigation. Rood is one of at least three new members the town council voted to appoint to MERTF as it overhauls the committee.
This completes a change in focus — and a change in mission — neither of which are for the better.
The actions follow a vote last year by the new town council to not re-appoint two volunteers of MERTF (Dr. Gregory Fossum and Wendy DeGaetano) who were full-time residents, with two part-time residents who now often attend MERTF meetings by Zoom. Rood had been rejected last year by the town council for an appointment to MERTF in a split vote. The council apparently had a change of mind (as well as a change in one of the town council seats when Bill Veach resigned earlier this year and was replaced by Scott Safford).
A politically-charged environment has surrounded MERTF ever since it opposed town council actions last year to approve the boardwalk for Mr. Rood and Kurt Kroemer in the environmentally critical zone – a right prohibited without a special exception permit and a right they had been denied for years by prior councils. Mr. Rood had also filed an American with Disabilities Act lawsuit against the town for not approving the permit. That lawsuit was tossed in federal court. Rood and Kroemer also challenged the state’s ownership of the Little Estero Island Critical Wildlife Area (which the state moved to dismiss). And then after Florida Audubon challenged the town council’s approval of the boardwalk, Rood organized neighbors to block Florida Audubon from utilizing their properties to monitor shorebird nests at a major breeding ground for shorebirds – including four threatened species. Rood also circulated a petition to remove MERTF Chair Steve Johnson.
Mr. Johnson withdrew his application to return to the committee last week, which followed the resignation of longtime vice chair Mary Rose Spalletta over the summer. Both cited the politicization of MERTF by the town council and outside interests.
Along with Rood, the council chose to add to the new MERTF advisory board former Castle Beach Condominium Board President Sharon Hegstrom, as well as contractor Leo Sand – who operates a construction company in Minnesota while also maintaining a residence on Fort Myers Beach.
The council did return one member to MERTF – Jennifer Rusk, and gave two votes to return Howell though that appointment will require a new vote as it turned out Tom Torgerson also got two votes after the Fort Myers Beach Observer filed a Sunshine Law request for copies of the written ballots that showed there was a miscount in a runoff vote by the council.
Not a single member of the council voted to re-appoint Larkin, a volunteer who lived on the island for 37 years before losing her home to Hurricane Ian. Larkin devoted herself to native plantings, educating the public about native plants and the Estero Island Garden Club, with whom she helped plant native gardens from Bay Oaks Recreation Center to The Whale and Times Square.
The ascension of Mr. Rood to MERTF was a shot across the bow to the town’s founders who worked to protect the island’s natural resources and enshrine those protections into the town’s comprehensive plan and land development code.
The late Mayor John Mulholland’s commitment to the town’s environment was such that the highest honor the town can bestow upon an individual is through its Mulholland Award. Mulholland also created MERTF and a whole section of the beach is named after him. The Mulholland Award recognizes individuals dedicated to the stewardship of the local environment through conservation of the natural habitat and wildlife by promoting awareness, education and preservation of the community’s natural resources. Past recipients include the late Fish-Tale Marina owner Al Durrett and Turtle Time volunteer Cindy Johnson (the last honoree two years ago).
Johnson’s husband Steve said he withdrew his application to sit on MERTF in part due to Councilmember John King (who serves as the council’s liaison to MERTF) having shared an email from a MERTF board member sent to the town council with a social media outlet. The email, which was not meant for publication, was posted on the social media outlet – a site which has called for the disbandment of MERTF.
History of town’s environmentalism threatened
Mulholland’s impact on the town council was so great that the town named Mulholland Point after him. The stretch of beachfront land on the southern end of the island also goes by Carlos Point or Carlos Beach (near Big Carlos Pass) and part of it includes the Little Estero Island Critical Wildlife Area. Rood asked the town council to call on the state to remove the critical wildlife area title and name the area after former Mayor Dan Hughes (who already has a street named after him at the Mound House). Four threatened shorebirds nest at Mulholland Point – the only place in Florida outside the panhandle where all four state threatened shorebirds nest. It’s also right next to where Rood built his boardwalk (which collapsed during Hurricane Milton after years of opponents warning it would be vulnerable to a hurricane) last year.
It’s also where Florida Audubon, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission worked tirelessly for years with neighbors to build relationships to protect shorebirds.
Florida Audubon ultimately sued the town to stop the boardwalk from being built after the town’s own staff recommended denial of a special exception permit. Nearby property owners, organized by Rood, responded by denying Florida Audubon access to their properties. While Rood ultimately settled the suit by agreeing to allow the FWC to monitor his property and agreed to encourage property owners to allow the Audubon back on their properties, not all did so and a lot of damage was done.
Now we wait to see what happens to the seat of “Ranger” Rob Howell, which was up for a runoff vote after only two councilmembers voted to reappoint him. Howell, who works as a naturalist at the Pink Shell Beach Resort and Marina and who has helped save injured birds and an attempted rescue of a manatee earlier this year, only received two votes to be put back on MERTF (from Scott Safford and Karen Woodson).
That caused a runoff in which Mayor Dan Allers and Vice Mayor Jim Atterholt chose Tom Torgerson. King voted for Maureen Kocisko.
Rusk received three votes from Atterholt, Safford and Woodson. Allers and King did not vote to reappoint a woman who cares so much about the environment that she regularly spends her days in 90-degree heat at Times Square to educate the public about the island’s special environment in a MERTF pop-up tent with information about local wildlife, plants, clean water and nature coloring books that she spearheaded the publishing of with the aid of the members of MERTF, the Fort Myers Beach Community Foundation and others. Thousands of visitors to Fort Myers Beach have been educated by Rusk’s tireless dedication to the environment. She also is a volunteer to Turtle Time and is an International Osprey Foundation monitor.
Allers and King did not vote to re-appoint a single member back to MERTF.
What the council has done to MERTF guarantees its failure. It has turned its back on the town’s environmental advocates.
A wise council would have united the town and reappointed its selfless, tireless, passionate and environmentally dedicated volunteers. Instead, this council chose to divide the town unnecessarily when it needs unity more than ever.
That is regrettable.
Fort Myers Beach Observer Editorial