Council develops topics for BOCC joint meeting
The Fort Myers Beach Town Council developed agenda topics for a scheduled joint meeting with the Lee County Board of County Commissioners during its Monday morning Management & Planning session. The meeting between town and county officials, which is expected to include voting privileges, will take place at Bay Oaks Recreational Center on Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2011, from 2 to 4 p.m.
Council members suggested topics such as Estero Boulevard and the storm water, fresh water and road components involved with it; Lee County/Tourist Development Council funding where the town seeks ownership of its money-driving properties; sales tax; public transportation involving a trolley service or other modes; beach accesses; Seafarer’s Mall rights; and beach re-nourishment. The list dwindled to main discussions on Estero Boulevard, TDC funding and public transportation.
The suggested topics were assigned to council members for research and presentation reasons: Councilman Tom Babcock and Jo List – Estero Boulevard; Vice Mayor Bob Raymond – public transportation; and Councilman Alan Mandel – TDC funding. Mayor Larry Kiker will run the meeting from the town’s end.
Before the joint session, county officials will review the Beach topics and add others if they see fit. There has been a collective verbatim discussion regarding Estero Boulevard funding that dates back two years, and prior joint sessions between county and town have addressed some of the subjects.
Convincing the county commissioners to focus funds to Beach projects is the aim of the joint meeting for town officials. The council members agreed the approach would be to help the county with its budget.
“We need to get their attention one more time, remind them of their commitments one more time and re-substantiate the commitment from them one more time,” said Kiker about the Estero Boulevard topic, the expected lead-off topic for the joint session.
Kiker stated county officials have paid the nearly $1 million for the engineering analysis survey, but have $1.7 million extra in the budget for Estero Boulevard.
Regarding TDC funding, Mandel pushed for payment in lieu of taxes to help fund the tourism industry on the Beach. He cited the revenues that come from parking fees at Lynn Hall Park as one source, then refreshed what Kiker said during the Legislative Delegation meeting.
“We have a population of 7,000 that supports 60,000 people everyday, and we need help,” he said. “Frankly, (county) owns a lot of the property out here that is generating a lot of dollars which should be paying for what we have to pay for our tourist attractions.”
Town Manager Terry Stewart agreed the Beach is responsible for keeping the infrastructure in place during seasonal population fluctuations.
“If we’re going to generate billions of dollars worth of sales tax and millions of dollars worth of TDC bed tax dollars, yet our citizens are positioned to having to cover the costs to support that, something is wrong with that picture,” he said.
Raymond, who is currently the vice chair of the Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization, would like public transportation to be addressed. Stewart said it should be a county cost for the county road, and one that should not be pushed on the Beach taxpayer.
“What I’d like to have on that is cost, number and service,” said Raymond, “and whether it benefits the county.”
Kiker warned his fellow council members about being prepared for joint sessions such as this one.
“You need to give them solutions,” said Kiker. He also stressed the need to keep these Beach matters alive in the minds of each county commissioner.
“We have evidence that says things are not moving towards that five-year plan,” said Kiker. “We want the county out of here, so that we can control the (Beach) parks and recreation which is in our charter.”