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Local says “Ten Years of Smoke and Mirrors”

3 min read

To the editor:

Vice mayor Herb Acken made some interesting observations in last week’s Fort Myers Beach Observer about the so called beach renourishment project.

The first is money. Herb points out the “money pot is looking sweeter and sweeter”. Mind you, this money pot is not to rehabilitate our crumbling water infrastructure, but to put a bunch of sand into the water as in the Gulf of Mexico.

He calls it beach renourishment, but we all know it is actually a process of land reclamation. Or, the process of adding landfill to an open ocean to create a big, artificial beach where land has never been before. When they spent $5 million to widen beaches 250 feet in St Petersburg in 2003, it was gone within a year and the Public Works Director said, “Everyone knew (the sand) was gonna wash away.”

Vice mayor Acken goes on to say this “will be the last major infrastructure investment our island will see for many, many years.” So, with our infrastructure and economy crumbling around us, our vice mayor feels that adding sand to the open ocean is the way to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.

We agree there is a problem. Property owners are not signing easements, and many have actually asked to take theirs back. Well, perhaps people are unwilling to sign an easement for this project for good reason. After 10 years of spin and misstatements, who would want to put their faith with the politicians and bureaucrats who have continually used scare tactics 1) to create false illusions of protection when there has been absolutely no research to back up such claims; 2) to make it appear erosion is something it is not when surveys back to 1927 clearly show the island has gained more than it has lost; 3) to make it appear that an artificial beach will be stronger than the natural one we have now. (Part of this project requires future replenishments every three years since they expect erosion when completed); 4) that the money we spend now is the end of it when there are all kinds of costs – adding to the millions – that haven’t been fairly publicized but will burden this community far into the future; 5) that the environmental concerns that our town has conveniently never studied will never materialize; 6) that the restrictions imposed for dunes and plantings won’t turn out to be different again; 7) that the restrictions imposed on residents won’t turn out differently for businesses.

Oh, by the way, let’s not tell anyone about this week’s new restriction residents will no longer be able to have special parking passes since conveniently overlooked fed guidelines won’t let us be treated differently than anyone else. Just why did we become a town?

Let’s not dwell on the fact that the money we spend now and far into the future is to solve a problem that has never been stated.

So, at a time when we need to focus our limited resources on projects of most concern to our island, our vice mayor tells us the best use of our limited capital is to throw sand into the water. And, there doesn’t seem to be a reason for doing it.