Beach renourishment concept contains several fatal flaws
Editor:
Do all residents and businesses of Fort Myers Beach want permanent tax increases that never can be revoked? That is exactly what all will get if council passes beach renourishment!
The current plan allows the town to spend $1 million of tax dollars that they have on hand, for beach renourishment. Once renourishment is committed to by Council we can never back out of being required to periodically renourish this artificial beach. The Town will be doubling the size of the beaches! Nature will take it back.
Evidence has been presented to council of respected experts attesting that we will have to keep repeating this mistaken beach widening forever.
Once we sign up, we have no guarantees of how much we will be charged for all future renourishments required by Lee County, who once again become the town’s master.
Taxes will be the only source of funds for these repeated millions. Your tax pocket books will be hit forever.
The next fatal flaw is that required artificial plantings will cause sand dunes. Once planted, the Town cannot prevent dunes from spreading to residents and business property. Guaranteed! Lee County is in control! I The widened beach is not your property.
From the data from the impartial outside enginnering study commissioned by Lee County (Naples Coastal Engineering), there are but eight blocks total of erosion in the 4.7 miles of beach doubling that Lee county wants to do. That eight blocks can be renourished alone without giving away our most precious asset to the Lee County masters!
Doubling the size of the beach is intended to bring in more day trippers to the beach. As a past chairman of Lee County commissioners put it to me directly, “Anyone who does not believe that this will affect traffic is simply not credible!”
This artificial beach widening is simply the biggest mistake that we can make with our beach.
Frank Schilling
Fort Myers Beach