Coastal Breeze News

On the morning of the 5K Bridge Run, Saturday, November 18th at approximately 9:45 AM, I was attacked by a pedestrian who effectively body-slammed me to the ground, using his left elbow and shoulder as assault weapons. I suffered a concussion, whiplash, and 23 other injuries ranging from contusions, bruising, abrasions and lacerations to muscle strains, sprains, and damaged nerves. I was taken by ambulance to Physician’s Regional where CT scans of my brain and neck were made, as were x-rays of my hand, elbow, and shoulder. Nothing was broken and there was no brain bleed or brain swelling to ... Read More »

TO THE EDITOR: The 14th Southwest Florida Soapfest has come and gone, and each year we thank over 100 individuals and organizations who donate to this wonderful cause – whether it be their talent, time, money, food, gift certificates, housing, vehicles, etc. This event really could not happen without the generosity we receive over the months leading up to the event and during the event. All of us at Soapfest feel very, very privileged to be a part of a community that pulls together, as the Soapfest cogs move to make this wheel turn. Thanks to the following for their ... Read More »

We wish to thank the merchants namely, Publix on Collier Boulevard and San Marco Road, Winn Dixie on Collier Boulevard, Ace Hardware on San Marco Road, Walgreens on San Marco Road and Collier Boulevard for allowing us to solicit in front of their businesses so we could have a successful fund drive for our first annual Candy Cane Drive for the kids here on Marco Island that would not receive any Christmas gifts otherwise. We are most appreciative! Thank you, The Kiwanis Club of Marco Island Read More »

Attached you will find an Ethics complaint filed by Bob and Mary Brown (Joy Circle), outspoken supporters of my opponents who are seeking election to City Council. While I harbor no animosity towards anyone who makes such frivolous and reckless allegations against me in my capacity as a public official, I do want to correct their erroneous conclusions. It is my hope that in the future they will exercise more ‘due diligence’ before casting stones at anyone. As the facts and documentation will establish, on October 8, late at night (11:27 pm), I wrote a very positive letter about our ... Read More »

As the City Council election comes to a close, I want to thank my fellow citizens for the tremendous level of support and encouragement I’ve encountered all over the Island. I’ve truly enjoyed the process of running for office. I’ve met over 2,800 people by knocking on doors up and down the residential streets, listening to your concerns and talking about my positions. Early in the campaign, I set out to meet with City officials, prior and current Council members, and participants and leaders of civic organizations – including informal groups of concerned citizens. The range of ideas, opinions and ... Read More »

Friends, can’t we get to a little straightening up and cleaning up of our nation’s house? Can’t we pretend that “company is coming” and spruce up somewhat? Do we really want ourselves and others seeing our national home so careless that: • one third of America’s children live in poverty? • our educational system ranks 31st in math & 23rd in science in the world of industrial and developing nations? • our present medical delivery system is the costliest in world? • our best scientific brains inform us of ecological facts that are denied by many as evil distortions? • ... Read More »

OPEN LETTER TO CONDO OWNERS TO QUESTIONS FOR CONDO OWNERS Don’t let scare tactics divert your attention from the important issues; Do we want a convention center that will bring a multitude of tractor trailers up and down Collier Boulevard disrupting our quality of life and disrupt traffic? Do we want a shuttle service from Veterans Park and Mackle Park which will bring thousands of day trippers to our beaches? Do we want a 40,000 square foot Mackle Park which will add to our Debt? Do we want CRA Midtown density which we thought was cancelled and is now back?  THE ... Read More »

The SCARY FACTS I am writing this letter in response to several recent letters regarding the upcoming City Council elections. Several letter writers have indicated that no one can predict what the slate of Ken Honecker, Amadeo Petricca & Larry Sacher will do if elected to the city council but if past behavior is any indication of future behavior than the facts, the very scary facts speak for themselves, on who will fairly represent ALL of the property and business owners of Marco Island. The facts are that Ken Honecker and Amadeo Petricca both served on the Utility Advisory Board ... Read More »

Dear Sir or Madam: I was disappointed, but not surprised, that City Council candidate Sacher filed an ethics complaint against Council Chairman Larry Magel. On the other hand, I was shocked when Mr. Sacher used the last City Council meeting as a political forum to trumpet his complaint. That was neither the time nor the place for a political attack. Mr. Sacher is wrong as a matter of law and as a matter of personal conduct, in my opinion. The nature of the complaint itself is a matter even beyond the way this attack is being conducted. As a lawyer ... Read More »

To The Editor: Having read it, I am appalled by the letter to Condo Owners from Councilman Magel. Once again, he is pitting Condo Owners against single-family Homeowners and dividing our citizens, with a letter of untruths and inaccurate assumptions. Mr. Magel, we do not need your underhanded tactics splitting our community, nor does anyone need your advice on who to vote for. This is a community of intelligent, well-educated people who are quite capable of researching facts and making voting decisions without your, or Mr. Arceri’s, advice. To those of you who have been out-of-state and may not have ... Read More »

OP/ED Piece Frank R. Recker City Councilman Candidate for Re­election October 9, 2012   Smoke and Mirrors If cities were compared to theaters, Marco Island would likely be one of the smaller, one-­screen versions. While that is certainly a quaint scenario, in fact the smaller the theater, the more reaction someone seeking attention can achieve by recklessly shouting ‘fire.’ So if you hear that our local government is ablaze, don’t run for the bridge, at least not yet. Since Election Day quickly approaches, we have recently heard several cries of civic distress from certain candidates for City Council. I would ... Read More »

Recently there has been many articles about who Marco Island Property Owners are and who we represent; We would like to clarify our position. Yes, we were created as an organization that represents Marco Homeowners. We wanted to be an advocate for them. We began to realize that there were many more issues than Water and Sewage. We then changed our name and our charter. We became an advocate for ALL property owners on Marco Island. MIPO represents all single family home owners, Condominiums, lot owners and business owners. Our Current Prioritized List of Issues May 2012 * Our Vision ... Read More »

Several citizens commented last night about my authoring a memo criticizing some candidates for City Council while endorsing others. They asked that the memo be distributed to all citizens of Marco Island and I indicated I would do so by sending it to the press. Some history is in order to understand the rationale I used to make my recommendations. Appended below is the organizing memo of the “Marco Island Homeowners” It clearly states that the purpose of the organization is to represent one group of citizens vs other groups. It’s this “us vs them” attitude that first manifested itself ... Read More »

Marco Island Homeowners Background Marco Island is approaching its 12th Anniversary as a City. During the last 12 years we have witnessed a number of decisions by our City Council that did not seem to be popular with many of the “real” fulltime Citizens of Marco (in contrast to those who claim residency primarily to take advantage of Save Our Homes). Several of the issues became quite contentious, most notably the STRP. Currently, one of the most debated issues involves the utility and water rates which has seemingly become an “us” (i.e. single-family homeowners) vs. “them” (i.e. master metered condos ... Read More »

While most of us are going to primarily focus on the major races this election cycle, the vote for the next Marco Island City Council is just as important to your personal interests and wallets. Of the nine candidates running for the four open seats, three have openly expressed a bias against the “Condo Owners” of Marco Island. Larry Sacher was the founding Chairman of the Marco Island Homeowners Association, now called the Marco Island Property Owners Association, which is now trying to appeal to a broader group of citizens beyond the single-family homeowner. In their founding document which describes ... Read More »

During the Community Forum at last night’s City Council Meeting both myself and several others of our community gave our reaction to a 2-page letter that our City Council Chairman wrote in which he goes on at length as to why condominium owners should not support either my husband, Larry Sacher, as well as Ken Honecker and Amadeo Petricca in their campaign for City Council. The Chairman’s letter contains complete fabrications such as “If Honecker and Petricca are elected they, with Sacher’s support, will move to rescind the consultant’s report and go back to their original recommendation favoring the single-family ... Read More »

In response to Mr. Honig’s Guest Commentary: you’re right, “our City needs professional council with a positive outlook”! MR HONIG: If you really believe the above statement, than why did your commentary begin with “So sorry to see the three negative candidates disparaging the other candidates, including me”? Isn’t that negative? Further, as a well-educated and obviously successful person, where are the facts that make us negative candidates? MR HONIG: If you are going to disparage candidates because they don’t agree with the status quo, than I wonder how you would respond to the question “Where would we be as ... Read More »

Recently three persons running for City Council banded together and issued a salvo of negativism to proclaim their alliance and to disparage the other candidates, including me. I was so sorry to see this. They said that none of their opponents is “worthy of representing the people of Marco Island.” Let me summarize why I think I’m worthy — an MBA from Harvard, CEO of two public companies, a company commander as a Captain in the Army (with Airborne and Ranger designations). These all require that you know how to cooperate to get things done, how to analyze budgets, and ... Read More »

Last week John Arceri had published a Guest Commentary titled “The making of a good candidate” in which he took both myself and another candidate for Marco City Council to task over our respective responses to a series of questions posed by MICA for which both the questions and answers of all participating candidates appear in the most recent edition of the MICAWAVE (and did not cite another candidate’s response who also referenced the purchase of the utility). Apparently Mr. Arceri intends to follow-through on a statement he made to me in a private e-mail in which he promised to ... Read More »

Yesterday Joyce Crain, operator of Prescriptions 4 Hope, was arrested by Marco Island Police. She appears to have operated under fictitious names that are similar enough to names we do business under as to cause confusion to the public.  Although she has never been employed or directly affiliated with our organization, she had been allowed to utilize a small amount of our space under a license agreement. After we became aware of potential legal violations on her part, we terminated the arrangement and notified the proper state and local authorities. We have taken all reasonable steps to protect the public, ... Read More »