Coastal Breeze News

Animals “Carve” Pumpkins while Kids Trick-or-Treat Make plans to bring your kids or grandkids parading in costume through your zoo while safely trick-or-treating. You’ll all watch rare animals going wild “carving” pumpkins and other treats with tooth, hoof, and claw. Plus the kids get to join in a fun costume contest with great prizes. BOO at the ZOO is happening Saturday, October 20 between 3 and 9 p.m.Naples Zoo is partering with 95.3 The River, Y100, 105.5 The Beat, and Cat Country 107.1 for this merry, not scary celebration! 50% OFF TICKETS: With at least one child in costume, the whole family will receive 50% off ... Read More »

Sunday November 25, 2012 REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN! Sign up early to $ave! Continental Breakfast and Registration / Check-in Opens at 7:00 AM 62 Mile Routes Start at 7:30 AM (A, B, C and your own pace) 30 Mile Route Starts at 9:00 AM (A, B and your own pace) 5 and 10 Mile Route Starts at 10:00 AM (one or two 5-mile loops around and through the park at your own pace.) Then stay for a delicious catered lunch from Carrabba’s Italian Grill $20 NPC members, $25 for non-members Renew your 2013 membership and ride for only $45! The first 200 registered adults ... Read More »

Expanded Recycling Program Now In Local Post Offices Convert your old electronic gadgets to cash!  Going green just got easier, and even profitable, thanks to the initiatives of the U.S. Postal Service. If you have old cellphones, PDAs, digital cameras or any other electronic devices lying around and gathering dust, don’t just toss them out. Give the U.S. Postal Service a chance to reclaim them back for a greener tomorrow. USPS is working with MaxBack, an electronics recycling company, as a partner in an effort to reduce the problem of e-waste and landfills. USPS has now made the recycling program ... Read More »

Voters can visit CollierVotes.com to preview their ballots  for the November 6th Election Collier County voters can now view sample ballots for the 2012 General Election online at the CollierVotes.com “My Sample Ballot” web page. The sample ballots provide voters an opportunity to learn what will be on their ballot and study the content before voting. Ballots for the November 6th Election are printed on 3 sheets with content on 6 sides, which is longer than in most previous elections. This includes 2,600 words of ballot language from 11 state constitutional amendments. Voters who preview the ballots for their assigned precincts will ... Read More »

A few years ago Mike Provost was looking for a way to give back to the community. The 42-year-old computer software specialist had always been intrigued by a career in law enforcement. So when he learned the Collier County Sheriff’s Office had an auxiliary deputy program, he saw it as an opportunity to do both. Provost completed CCSO’s Auxiliary Deputy Training Academy and has been an auxiliary deputy since 2008. “Now I’m able to help my community in a way that not everybody can, and it’s extremely rewarding,” said Provost. CCSO is looking for volunteers interested in training to become ... 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 »

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 »

Approximately 38,000 domestic mail/absentee ballots to be mailed tomorrow The Collier County Supervisor of Elections office will send its first mailing of approximately 38,000 domestic mail/absentee ballots tomorrow, October 2nd, for the upcoming November 6th General Election. Every registered voter is encouraged to take advantage of voting by mail/absentee. Each valid absentee ballot will be counted. Voters may submit requests online via the CollierVotes.com “Vote by Mail” web page. Requests can also be made by phone to the Supervisor of Elections office at (239) 252-8450. By law, mail/absentee ballots are not forwarded and can only be delivered to the address provided to the ... 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 »

ART UNCOVERED Tara O’Neill “Times are a-changing.” Well, for me, anyway…and, technically, for the thousands of devoted readers of Art Uncovered. Art Uncovered is finished. Kaput. No mas. The fat lady is singing her head off. Last one, right here. After fifty-two issues, I am putting to rest the vehicle that made me a literary superstar. The original mission of Art Uncovered was simple and sincere: to share with you the exceptional, lesser-known, artists, art venues and events, that grace our artful coast. Together we met talented artists (of which there are so many) who maybe didn’t have the wherewithal for ... Read More »

By Coastal Breeze News Staff Members of the Marco Island Fire Rescue Foundation came together on September 7th at Mutual of Omaha Bank to learn of the first recipient of the annual Galahad Award. The award, which is meant to honor acts of courage and compassion in an emergency situation, was presented by the Marco Island Fire Rescue Foundation, Mutual of Omaha Bank and Coastal Breeze News. And the 2012 Recipient of the Galahad Award is… Joshua Erickson. Erickson is a former Marco Island resident, a current employee of Dreamlander Tours, and now a resident of Goodland. He has displayed ... Read More »

By Coastal Breeze News Staff The issue of how to approach seawall construction and repair dominated the discussion at Monday’s city council meeting. The ordinance that passed first reading now limits the use of residential lots for construction staging to a single 120 day permit. Chairman Larry Magel came out firmly in favor of ending such use altogether: “It doesn’t look like a hardship to me to use the commercial lots for staging…I would like to prohibit it altogether.” Magel tasked the Planning Board and Waterways committees to recommend viable alternatives and cited the possibility of the city taking over ... Read More »

By Coastal Breeze News Staff Marco Police Chief Don Hunter is seeking a larger, more responsive police force, and his goals got the green light at Monday’s city council meeting. “We have the same size force [33 officers], that we’ve had since the mid 2000’s,” explains Assistant Chief Dave Baer. Baer points out that the number refers to all law enforcement staff, not 33 patrol officers available for street deployment at the same time. “Right now, we’re responding to things ‘as needed,’ more reactive than proactive.” A shift’s duties can be broken down into several basic categories: calls for service, ... Read More »

By Coastal Breeze News Staff For the past three years, Coastal Breeze News has been delivering a ‘Fresh Perspective’ to Marco Island and its surrounding areas. The Association of Free Community Papers and the Florida Press Association agree. Thanks to the talented work of columnists, editors, photographers, graphic designers, sales and office staff, the Coastal Breeze has received eight awards between these two associations. Two awards garnered general excellence for the paper and six individuals received recognition for their talents. The Florida Press Association, which is open to all newspapers in the state of Florida, granted awards to three contributors ... Read More »

By Coastal Breeze News Staff Coastal Breeze News asked the nine candidates vying for three seats on City Council the same question:  What are your priorities if you are elected to the city council? The candidates, Jerry Gibson, Larry Honig, Ken Honecker, Paul Meyer, Amadeo Pettrica, Frank Recker, Larry Sacher, Wayne Waldack and Duane Thomas, had to respond in 400 words or less.  Responses are run in the order they were received. This is the second installment of responses; the first ran in the September 7th edition of Coastal Breeze News with Larry Sacher and Paul Meyer responding. The article ... Read More »

Donna Fiala [email protected] Have you noticed or is it my imagination??? It seems a few more cars are on the road recently – a sign that our winter residents are beginning to come back home. If you remember, last year these wonderful people started coming back early. It used to be that the influx started in November, then it moved back to October, and now it seems they are coming back even earlier. Also, you may have noticed that as soon as they start coming back, our volunteer corps starts swelling and the events begin to happen – the region ... Read More »

by Carol Glassman The City of Marco’s Code Enforcement Board met Tuesday, September 11 at City Hall. Members present were: Dick Adams, Dawn Henderson, Phil Kostelnik, Rony Joel, Chairman Lou Prigge, and two new appointees, Debra Shanahan and Martin Roddy. Debra Shanahan said she was encouraged to volunteer for the Code Board realizing there were openings and a lack of volunteers. She approached Councilman Frank Recker, she said, and volunteered to accept the appointment, “So that the city could get on with its business”. She said she hopes to bring her own knowledge of situations to help advise on cases. ... Read More »

By Natalie Strom [email protected] The mangroves along San Marco Road are dying. It is visible, it is getting worse and it has been years in the making. Top researchers, mangrove experts, concerned citizens, the City of Marco Island and the state have all come together in a joint effort to hopefully solve this crisis. After a groundbreaking ceremony held in November of 2011 at the site, little activity was seen. Thanks to donations of time and money, Phase 1A of the Fruit Farm Creek Restoration was finally completed over Labor Day weekend. According to Jeff Carter, Project Manager for Rookery ... Read More »

By Julia Barnett Saturday, September 8, twenty three volunteers gathered at the Pelican Bend Restaurant on Isles of Capri at 8 in the morning, smelling of sunscreen and loaded down with bottles of water, smiling despite the already stifling heat. These were the men and women who willingly gave up their Saturday morning to participate in the fourth annual Keeywaydin clean-up, picking up trash off the island’s beach. Waiting at the dock was the catamaran Calusa Spirit, ready to bring the volunteers to Keewaydin Island and back. Donated by Marco Island Water Sports for the morning, along with the time ... Read More »