There’s An Elephant on Our Beach
To the editor:
Fort Myers Beach Town Council has found that the upcoming budget is short by about a million bucks. Coincidentally, they plan to spend about a million bucks on beach re-nourishment.
They have always told us the money has been there for beach re-nourishment. Now they are talking about raising our taxes to fund the million dollar budget shortfall.
They told us we needed to hurry up and sign the interlocal agreement with the Lee County because the “free money from the fed” for re-nourishment may not be there much longer. It turns out that “free money” may not be there anyway or if it is it may even be less than $250,000. And, it goes to the county, not us.
If we do re-nourishment, we will have a shortfall of a million bucks, which is why council is talking about raising our taxes. Without re-nourishment we shouldn’t have to raise taxes at all.
The elephant is in the living oops, on our beach. But, perhaps hasn’t made it to Town Hall yet.
Tom Merrill
Fort Myers Beach