FMB Council to get tough over beach nourishment issue with county
The Fort Myers Beach Town Council has agreed to take a tougher stand in dealing with the issue of Beach nourishment with the Lee County Board of County Commissioners.
The town council agreed to re-tender its ongoing interlocal agreement with the county – the same one that was already approved and tendered by them – along with a cover letter which will urgently request the issue be put on the BOCC agenda in the near future.
The urgency identifies the easement project and anticipated state funding which may be lost in time.
“If these easements aren’t well under way from being acquired, we’re going to lose state funding,” said Town Manager Scott Janke. “It’s tenuous at best anyway. That’s $2 million that we don’t have to make up. I think the county needs to prioritize using the acquisition as the highest priority in their workload until we have 70 percent of the easements at hand.”
The council discussed the need to attend a future BOCC meeting as a group.
“We need to try to get on their agenda,” said Mayor Larry Kiker. “We can convey our message, but we still have to pursue it in a public forum directly with the (BOCC).”
Councilman Bob Raymond thinks it should be taken to another level.
“What I’d like to do at the BOCC meeting is to tell them ‘this is a take-it-or-leave it’ and that we are not going to negotiate any further than this,” he said. “And, I also would like to put the point across that they are the biggest obstacle for not getting easements. Tell it to their faces, so that you’re putting them on the spot.”
Kiker and Janke agreed with the urgency of the subject.
“It’s time to either make it happen or not make it happen,” said Kiker. “We’ve been doing this for 11 years.”
“We can walk into each county commissioner’s office tomorrow and hand them the interlocal agreement that we approved some time ago with a cover letter that says the issue was reiterated,” said Janke. “This is our final stand. When can it be put on your agenda?”
Councilman Tom Babcock suggested an olive branch approach with the county commissioners.
“They have concerns about parking,” he said. “I don’t think there is any intention on our part to remove parking. In fact, we’ve added parking. They should be reassured that we’re not going to take any additional money out of their pocket by removing parking. We also need to show them that we really have the intent to follow their comprehensive plan as well as our own. It will look like we are serious about making this happen.”
Town attorney Anne Daulton was concerned about some of the language in the interlocal agreement. In her opinion, she believes there is a need to change it before any signing.
“The reason for that is that we had discussed with the county the ability to forever take a look at the agreement and walk away,” said Daulton. “No one would be harmed by it. This language I personally find very offensive because if we chose to exercise that option and cancel, we would have to pay whatever costs that were incurred to date in the project. This is a complete departure in what was discussed with the BOCC and with what the town council direction has been.”
Janke returned to the time issue with easements.
“My biggest concern is timing,” said Janke. “Easement acquisition is a huge job. There are some of us that believe that if this isn’t done in the next six months, this thing is dead.
While Raymond pointed out that “these are the county’s easements not ours,” Kiker believes the council should “fight” for their tendered interlocal agreement.
“I think that, fundamentally, this new document is easy to read and well done,” he said. “We already spent hours on this and we already figured out what it is that we wanted. Substantially, I wonder why we would even vote on this.”