Coastal Breeze News

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By Danielle Dodder Negative elasticity of demand is a complicated way of saying that the more something costs, the less consumers will use it.  It was the leading concern expressed by councilman Bill Trotter at the May 12 meeting to asses city water rates. Complicated is also an apt description of the new cost of service study, termed by the consultant himself as a convoluted way of getting to reasonable water rates for the island. As consultants study a way to create a cost structure for city water bills, South Florida itself is mired in especially vicious drought conditions. From ... Read More »

If you see little American Flags planted along the median on Collier Boulevard, you know the time is near for the annual Memorial Day ceremony scheduled for Monday, May 30th at the Marco Island Cemetery at 11:00 am. The ceremony is conducted by the Marco Island Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 6370. Veterans from all Wars will be attending including vets from WWII up to our current conflicts. A community address will be presented by Commander Lee Rubenstein. The Marco Island Strummers will be playing with Anna Schilling and Craig Greusel singing. Prayers will be offered by local clergy. ... Read More »

By John Patterson A Ground Breaking Ceremony for the next stage of the 1996 Airports Master Plan was conducted on May 5, 2011 at the Marco Island Executive Airport just off island on Mainsail Drive. Work on the $7 million taxiway project is scheduled to begin on May 9 and expected completion is by April, 2012. DeAngelis Diamond Construction, Inc. is the general contractor and URS Corporation, the design engineer. Chris Curry, Executive Director of the Airport Authority welcomed invited dignitaries and guests to the event and described the efforts which preceded the long awaited ceremony. In 1996 an Airports ... Read More »

This is the third year the agents of the local Keller Williams office have participated in a huge national Red Day event with a purely local twist. All around the country, the offices of Keller Williams close for the day so their agents, customers, family and friends can spend time giving back to their communities. Red Day was started by a group of Keller Williams agents. They wanted to present a huge birthday gift to someone they considered “A woman of culture.” That woman was Mo Anderson, CEO of Keller Williams International. The local crew lived up to the event’s ... Read More »

By Danielle Dodder Amber Prange is the new social studies teacher for the Marco Island Academy charter high school. The twenty-eight year old Prange has been teaching and creating programming for young people locally for several years. She also brings valuable leadership experience gained through her prior work in Washington, DC for Congressman Connie Mack. “I’ve always been inclined towards working with young people,” says Prange. Even as she appreciated the policy scope of her work as a legislative coordinator for Mack, Prange says she missed making a direct connection to the people she helped Mack represent. “I like making ... Read More »

By Danielle Dodder The Florida Department of Education has a highly competitive grant program that funds start-up costs for public charter high schools, and the Marco Island Academy is one of the fortunate few who will receive it. Gayle Thawley is the Academy board member who patiently culled the 44 page grant application from the 600 pages that comprise the school’s original charter application. After shepherding the application through a process that would rank the Academy on 18 points of demonstrated competence, Thawley learned on May 10 that the Academy would be awarded the funding. “This grant affords the opportunity ... Read More »

By Donna Fiala You’ve probably read or heard about the catastrophic weather being experienced around the country and around the world, from earthquakes to tsunamis, from droughts to floods, and tornados of historic proportion and numbers. Well, here comes the hurricane season on the heels of all that weather, and the Atlantic Ocean is heating up quickly, which of course is where the hurricanes originate in most cases. So, dear friends, it is time for my annual advisory to prepare in advance. Right now I am beginning to clean, bleach, rinse thoroughly, and then rinse again with alcohol, my nine 5-gallon ... Read More »

By Monte Lazarus My name is ———– and I’m an addict. So is my wife. We’re both addicted to television food channels. We’re insatiable. It started when we simultaneously realized that there’s virtually nothing left of value on television, and we turned to our opiate…food programs. There are about two hundred variations of implausible “detective” stories, all with interchangeable casts consisting of (1) a team leader, usually male, (2) a very attractive young female, (3) one or two “minority” members, (4) a sidekick, sometimes for comic relief. All crimes, usually homicides must be solved within an hour, and state-of-the-art (in ... Read More »

A Great Year, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Marco Island Woman’s Club for the privilege of serving as President the past year. It has been a wonderful experience for me. It was a year of hard work but work done with a great deal of pride. Our organization has contributed so much to our community both this year and in the past. With the help of our outstanding board, the membership, the local merchants and the support of the community, MIWC donated $19,000 to our scholarship fund for Marco Island students and other local charities. ... Read More »

By Tarik Ayasun We as Americans in general are obsessed with “details.” Sometimes this obsession may be educational as it increases our knowledge of many different things around us; sometimes it may be entertaining as we get to read about all the minute details of the lives of our favorite Hollywood stars and sometimes it may even be interesting to find out about how things work. There is one occasion when our obsession with details is neither necessary nor useful. That is when it comes to details of military operations. Last week, I wrote about the operation to find, terminate and ... Read More »

On Saturday, June 4, Southwest Florida McDonald’s® restaurants are going wild with the Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens. In addition to such exciting Zoo activities as wildlife shows, cruises through islands of monkeys, and up-close views of endangered animals, McDonald’s will offer activities, product samples – including a chance to try its newest menu item, McCafé Frozen Strawberry Lemonade – and more throughout the day. “We believe that ‘McDonald’s Goes Wild’ will provide a day of family fun at the Naples Zoo for all who attend,” said Mike Adams, who owns and operates several McDonald’s restaurants in Southwest Florida. “The ... Read More »

By Steve Reynolds The best of daytime television soap stars returned to Marco Island for the 13th year to raise money for various area charities and give fans a chance to mix and mingle. The weekend events kicked off at the Bistro Soleil for the always popular A Night of Stars dinner. This year’s Soapfest started with disappointment that All My Children and One Life to Live had been cancelled, to go off the air forever. The evening began with a cocktail hour with an extraordinary performance by flautist Daniel Ferguson while attendees perused the silent auction items offered by ... Read More »

By Joan Kelly Shrubs and trees grow faster in south Florida, so the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge trailhead and parking had become surrounded by intrusive vegetation. On May 13th a handful of volunteers and rangers pulled and cut shrubs. The Refuge provided gloves, tools and drinks. Volunteers were asked to wear long sleeves and long pants to protect against any allergic reaction to the invasive plants. Several pickup loads of vegetation were removed. Keeping the Florida Panther Refuge clear of invasive and otherwise unwanted vegetation is an on going project with volunteer opportunities on Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting ... Read More »

By Val Simon Each year, almost as a rite of passage into high school, eighth grade students at Marco Island Charter Middle School are given the chance to go on a whirlwind trip to Washington, DC. This began four years ago under teacher Joe Jarrett who organized the trip for a school two years prior to joining MICMS. Mr. Jarrett is the Social Studies teacher and golfing coach. When asked what Mr. Jarrett has learned over the past six trips he answered, “The biggest thing that I have learned, when planning our trip, is to: plan for the worse and ... Read More »

By Jane A. Marlowe On Tuesday evening, May 10, the annual meeting of the Jewish Federation of Collier County began rather differently than previous proceedings. Thanks to the inspiration of two women who were deeply disturbed by cruel incidents of prejudice and bullying which occurred in 2009 in one of the local public schools, the Federation planned a response in the form of an award to an educator who developed a meaningful, “replicable education initiative” to counter bigotry and bullying. Ann Jacobson, Community Relations Chair of the Jewish Federation welcomed the gathering to the evening’s special event. She described the ... Read More »

By Vincent Giannone Madame Louise Leger, the Consul General of Canada visited Marco Island on May 5, 2011. She traveled to Marco to discuss Canada’s impact on the Florida economy. The Consul is located in Miami, and although she travels most of Florida on business, this was a rare opportunity for her to visit the west coast and Marco Island in particular. The event was hosted by the RBC bank and drew nearly forty people to the Marco Island Center for the Arts to hear Madame Louise’s lecture. Gary Elliot, of ERA Realty, brought the Canadian Consul to Marco Island ... Read More »

COLLIER COUNTY’S FIRST SHERIFF By Craig Woodward It was a case of history repeating itself and, frankly, sort of surreal:flying 2,000 feet over Marco Island with Wayne Riley Maynard taking aerial photos out of the pilot’s window as his son and co-pilot, Ryan, flew the single engine Cessna we were in, a repeat of what had occurred exactly 85 years earlier when their respective Grandfather and Great Grandfather, the first Sheriff of Collier County, William Riley Maynard, also flew a single engine plane, shooting the first ever aerial photos of Marco Island in 1926! I had written my December 2010 ... Read More »

By Vincent Giannone For the past ten months, Iodine Sky, a three piece instrumental band has enticed audiences with their eclectic music. Having only played three live shows to date, their name is infamous for its intense melodic sounds and rhythm. As newly dedicated fans show up for each show, their stage presence and virtuoso styles prove nothing less than perfect for their listeners to enjoy. Dean Murphy, Jeff and Billy Pogan are the members of Iodine Sky. Spending most of their free time at their professional self-made Pogan Studio the band practices their music to perfection in preparation to ... Read More »

By Vickie Kelber Gardens are popular tourist attractions, with Longwood, Biltmore, New York, Brooklyn, and Atlanta among some of the better known. On Business Route 17 in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, about 2 hours north of Charleston and 20 minutes south of Myrtle Beach, there is a unique garden museum that features indigenous flora, fauna, history, and the largest display of outdoor sculpture by American artists in the world. It has been named a National Historic Landmark and can easily take a full day or more to truly appreciate. A single ticket is good for 7 days. With its many ... Read More »