Where were the crowds?

Oct 23, 2013 2 min read

To the editor:

That was the question that I asked to other friends as we arrived at the “Clean Water Rally” at our lovely Beach Park.

There were a couple of small blue tents with people who had traveled from St. Lucie to support the Beach’s effort to vitalize peoples’ participation in having the government agencies find solutions for stopping the polluted water discharges from Lake Okeechobee.

Under one of the large tiki huts were very credible and interesting speakers, including our Mayor Alan Mandel and Council member Dan Andre.

Afterwards we found that most of those that had been standing or sitting in the sun were also from other parts of Florida, VERY few from our Town.

For weeks, our two papers had such well written articles on the brown water that fills our Gulf and estuaries asking, will this be repeated year after year during the rainy spell?

Hoping for Solutions. Our Mayor and Commissioner Larry Kiker went to Washington with other dignitaries in order to get help to see if some answers would be forthcoming.

These past weeks it was the subject of conversation when stopping at the grocery store, dining at local restaurants and certainly on radio and TV. People were incensed.

So The Question still is unanswered but “Why Were There No Crowds?

Ceel Spuhler

Fort Myers Beach