Public relations versus public opinion
To the editor:
After personally promising at the July workshop that the deadline for the re-nourishment was mid-August and then changing it to December, the Lee County Commissioners will now use more of our limited tax dollars to hire a public relations firm to get property owners opinions and a lobbyist to extend the deadlines they claimed could not be changed.
Even the Fort Myers Beach Town Council has now been put on the spot by the County, having promised to let the property owners decide and make a decision by December.
With just 52 percent (14 percent – Town/County; and 38 percent – private) of easements signed after twelve years of trying, I think that the property owners have already clearly made their opinion public.
So now comes further expensive arm twisting… asking yet again what don’t you like?
The question might better be what do you like, since that is a very short list.
Property owners would like proper solution-oriented management of Matanzas Pass. That is the only action by the CORPS Inland Navigation District that our island needs.
What don’t we like? Wasting millions of tax dollars, sand that will wash away, loss of island residents’ control, false claims, putting tourism ahead of environmentalism, burying our near shore, killing off live shells and infauna, loss of property rights, easements attached to our property deeds, mandatory vegetation, increased FDEP regulations, arm-twisting and public relations firms that are hired with our tax money to harass us.
When they call you, just say NO. Save the struggling taxpayers some money by keeping the conversation short and the billing hours low.
Although our elected County salesmen don’t want to take no for an answer, it is all the public opinion that they should need.
Joanne Shamp
Fort Myers Beach