Free parking extended on Fort Myers Beach
Last Monday, the Fort Myers Beach Town Council voted to extend the temporary suspension of parking fees at town owned pay stations and parking meters through Sept. 30. Lee County Parks & Recreation also extended its no parking fees at Lynn Hall Memorial Park and Bowditch Point Park, both located on the beach.
The suspension is to help businesses who are feeling the impact of red tide, blue-green algae and fish kills.
Fort Myers Beach Chamber President Jacki Liszak said the waiver of parking fees has been a huge help for businesses. She said someone might have said, “You know, I’m not going to go down to the beach because it’s bad down there.” Now, with the parking fees waived, Liszak said individuals are now saying, “I don’t have to pay to park, let’s see what’s going on.”
People, she said are taking a ride down to the beach, watching the sunset and listening to music at Times Square.
“It makes all the difference in the world because people are more likely to come take a ride and see what’s going on,” Liszak said.
Although the Town of Fort Myers Beach and Lee County are offering assistance by waiving parking fees, business owners are worried, due to the slower foot traffic, which has led to cutting their employees hours.
“It’s very challenging. Across the board everyone can agree they have never seen anything like this,” Liszak said. “We are running just under a million dollars a week in lost employee wages because of cut hours and shorten shifts.”
The Chamber began a campaign, Tip the Bill challenge, almost three weeks ago, which is helping the waiters and waitresses on the beach. Customers are tipping their waiter/waitresses the amount of their bill.
“If you are able to give up to the total amount of the bill on the tip line to double the bill,” Liszak said is what they are encouraging people to do. “We had some waiters call in and say thank you. It’s been kind of fun to see that happening. It’s helping.”
Businesses that have gone through the busy season know they have to save a little bit of money to get through such slow months as September and October. The problem with this year, she said is businesses have already used that pot of saved money in August.
“We haven’t even gotten into our really slow season,” she said. “That’s really concerning that they have to use their reserves a lot sooner than they normally would have. I think businesses are really worried.”
The hotels on the beach, as well as the shops, are also struggling.
“It’s trickling down. One of our bars got a delivery, six cases of beer and one keg,” Liszak said.
With that said, she said last weekend she was out and about quite a bit and saw more people on the beach and more boats out on the water.
“It’s not what we are used to, but it definitely improved,” she said. “Our local folks are hearing us cry out here and they are responding.”
Liszak said the beach looks great, better than it ever has looked before. She said the Town did a great job keeping it clean, and the water has cleared up.
Liszak encourages individuals to make use of the free parking and visit the small shops on the island and grab a bite to eat.
“They are desperate for your support,” Liszak said of the small shops. “You can find a lot of good specials at all of them. There is a lot on sale. It’s a good time to gear up on your holiday shopping.”
Last week, Lee County announced a countywide campaign, #OneLee, which is aimed to help businesses impacted by red tide and algae blooms.
“The county is also hoping that the free parking combined with this week’s announcement about #OneLee will bring more people to beach locations,” Betsy Clayton, Lee County government communications director, said.
#OneLee is a promotion, which contains dozens of deals from area businesses to bring individuals into their businesses to dine, shop and play locally. The deals, which launched Saturday, Sept. 15, can be found at www.fortmyers-sanibel.com/onelee.