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Council selects four new CRA board members

By Staff | Nov 30, 2009

The Cape Coral City Council elected four new members of the board of directors for the Cape Coral Community Redevelopment Agency Monday evening.

Not unlike other city agencies, the CRA has been negatively affected by economic troubles in the form of closing businesses, high unemployment and low commerce.

Some city officials have proposed dissolving the agency to save public funds.

Councilmember Eric Grill addressed rumors related to his support of disbanding the CRA by admitting Monday night he had a draft resolution sitting on his desk to dissolve the agency.

“I have a draft resolution to disband the CRA and have council take control,” said Grill.

Disbanding the CRA would place the agency’s responsibilities on the council and city officials. Grill later said he would not present the resolution after voting to appoint new board members.

Terms for four of the CRA’s seven board members – Frank Dethlefsen, Robert Greco, Scott Hertz and Jason Tramonte – are due to expire on Jan. 1.

Monday night, the council appointed James Martin, Jack Evans, Frank Dethlefsen and Dan Creighton to serve on the CRA board. In the voting process, each of the council members had four votes and chose the applicant they preferred.

Each came from different backgrounds: Dethlefsen a president of Suncoast Moving and Storage Inc. for the last 15 years, Evans the general manager of the Leapin’ Lizard for the last three years, Martin a retired pilot and Creighton the CEO of Creighton Construction and Management.

Greco and Hertz decided not to pursue another term for personal reasons, wrote CRA Executive Director John Jacobsen in a memorandum to council.

Twelve people originally submitted applications for the vacancies and council spent multiple meetings eliminating candidates – three of which withdrew their own names.

The next meeting of the CRA board is Dec. 15.

New board members will debate whether to assume control of the city’s annual Red, White and BOOM fireworks show on the Fourth of July. The event was dropped by the Cape Coral Chamber of Commerce, which could no longer support the event.