Return to greatness
To the editor:
It occurred to me that the St. Louis Arches and the Paris Arches may not have been built if those communities would have been led by the current Lee County BOCC.
The insistent direction our leaders are driving, that we put up a smaller roadside attraction is mediocrity. Not a return of a grand over the road Arch gateway (that 70 percent of those polled here on the pages of the Observer desired). It has made it apparent to our group we are not driven/guided toward greatness.
The citizens did not ask that we remove the Arches when the bridge was put in. We tried to save them. But there is something not right about blocking our self funded efforts to put them back over the road.
I quoted 50 show-stopping ways Government/People have quoted the Arches unachievable of our Facebook page. But it is easy for people to do that having not looked at the project officially. If the leadership/FDOT would work with us we could get it done.
We have dug up the remains of the Arches from under a Banyon Tree for 3D imaging where they sat for 40-years. We are a community group. So we going the direction the community drives us. It is up to you what happens to the Arches remains, and how/if they are returned to our FMB landscape.
Imagine being able to offer something different to tourists who wisely choose the way/place they spend their hard earned money. Something that once made us once unique; bringing back something old instead of something new to FMB.
Steven Ray McDonald
President, Restore Fort Myers Beach Arches, Inc.