Action is needed from Judah in resident’s eyes

Sep 16, 2009 2 min read

To the editor:

I was so pleased to read in last week’s Observer that Commissioner Ray Judah met with Mayor Larry Kiker and interim Town Manager Jack Green and discussed “Beach Issues.” (Has it occurred to anyone beside me that every town manager since Marcia Segal-George has been “interim,” one way or the other?)

Anyhow, it feels so good to know that friendly discourse is taking place such a pleasant change from the clearly adversarial mindset of the previous council. Surely, civil discussion beats all the bickering and cheap shots.

Unfortunately, the sad reality is that most of what was discussed has been on the table for many years, particularly the questions of the County’s responsibility to upgrade Estero Boulevard, which is theirs. This issue has been around for several councils’ tenures. Councils have come and gone. Commissioner Judah has been in office since 1988.

I remember during the last election campaign that Judah and all of the other candidates for Commission spots came to the Beach to a “forum” and went on and on about how “the Beach is the economic engine that drives Lee County and we have to make sure the right things happen here.”

I also remember reading a story about Mayor Kiker’s astonishment when he found out that after all this friendly discussion, Estero Boulevard wasn’t even on the County’s five-year plan for completion.

It’s nice that everybody is being so buddy-buddy. However, the time is long past when Commissioner Judah and his colleagues should heed the words of one of the 20th Century’s most important philosophers, Elvis Presley, “A little less conversation a little more action.”

Perhaps Commissioner Judah can explain why nothing has happened in so many years on his watch. Perhaps he could do it at a town meeting for all the Beach residents at the new Red Sox stadium right before a game. Maybe Judah can use his big-time connections and get us all free tickets. Then he could honestly say he had done something for Fort Myers Beach.

Jay Light

Fort Myers Beach