The estimated seven thousand fans that jammed Riverside Park last month for Celebrate Bonita, the City’s annual birthday bash, were thirsty for some first class county music. And, they were just plain thirsty. By the time the last fan filed out shortly after 9 p.m., 44 barrels of beer, 130 cases of soda and water [...]
Bonita Springs – “I guess if you irritate folks in the government long enough, they will make you a part of it. That was long time Bonita resident Rick Barber’s self effacing reaction to his recent appointment by Governor Scott to the South Florida Water Management District seven-member governing board. In reality, it’s a fitting [...]
With about 180,000 people now living in south Lee County, almost one third of the County’s population, Lee Memorial Health System has decided its time to have a hospital here. If all goes well, the proposed hospital will open in July 2017. As previously reported, it will be located on Coconut Road, adjacent to the [...]
The announcement of closing triggered plenty of activity. News helicopters whirled overhead; Fort Myers TV crews camped at the back door, awaiting live-at-5 remotes; a “celebrity” animal trainer from a channel way up the dial got some press when he waded into a crocodile pool; and a local man with perhaps a few too [...]
Bonita Springs – The ongoing saga of Bonita Fire District’s quest to provide ambulance transport in Bonita Springs reached another milestone recently when the Lee County Commission formally denied the Bonita Fire application. Bonita Fire’s next move is a lawsuit appealing the County’s decision, to be filed by April 25. However, Fire officials are, in [...]
At 8:08 p.m. on April 3, Steve McIntosh leaned into his microphone at City Council chambers. City Council had just voted to adopt a homeless shelter law. Now, after countless meetings on homeless shelters and hours of debate, dialogue and deliberation, the Deputy Mayor had one last thing to say. “You have taken a beating [...]
City Not Ready to Rumble The City of Bonita Springs assiduously courts a constructive relationship with Lee County government. “Partnership” is City Manager Carl Schwing’s mantra; “Diplomacy, at all costs,” says Mayor Ben Nelson. The City has plenty of agenda items with the County, like Beach Road widening, library expansion and Imperial Parkway landscaping. What [...]
There are three essential elements to the homeless shelter law. First, City Council approval is required for any shelter. Secondly, any shelter is limited to 30 residents, plus children. Lastly, distance buffers are required from schools, parks and liquor stores. At City Council’s early April meeting, where it approved the law, distance buffers were boosted [...]
Bonita Springs – One Bonitian has an intriguing idea to beautify the Imperial River bridge on new US 41, where concrete “Jersey” barriers bookend six lanes of concrete and a naked concrete median. That monolith is what can happen when traffic engineers are left without a chaperone. Imagine a series of metal sculptures of fish [...]
Bonita Springs – Bob Bachman, Hank Hochstetler and Robert Sharkey were reelected as directors of Bonita Springs Utilities. Vote tallies were as follows: Bachman (2,590), Hochstetler (2,302), Sharkey (1,678), Kathy McGrath (1,391), Kathleen Walters (1,176), Bob Lienesch (1,098), Ed Fitzgerald (960), Richard Lundberg (815) and Michael Pelletier (705 votes). Twenty percent (4,446) of BSU customers [...]
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