The Golden Boardwalk

On Monday, May 4, 2026, the Marco Island City Council voted to approve a plan to spend $849,000 to tear down and fully replace the Winterberry beach access boardwalk. They agreed to spend City reserves to pay for this project.   

The city staff, at this meeting, reported that the boardwalk is hazardous, unsafe, dangerous, and an emergency to be addressed. When asked how old the boardwalk is, the staff said they were ignorant. 

Their description of the boardwalk is based on what? 

Chairman Palumbo said at the meeting that the Council doesn’t have the time or the interest to read this fairly short report. Instead, he said, they only need to trust the city staff. 

In this letter, I am now appealing to the citizens with the truth. I have obtained the third party engineering report and the FEMA site inspector’s report (February 2025). First, on the front page of both documents, it clearly states that this boardwalk was constructed in 2017. Let that sink in….we are going to pay nearly a million taxpayer dollars to fully junk and replace a nine-year-old boardwalk. 

The engineering report, dated 2023, does not say “emergency “, nor “safety hazard”, nor “unsafe”, nor “dangerous”, nor “urgent”. It says that repairs are feasible, and it describes the exact materials and process to repair the boardwalk. Further, it states that the repairs should be achievable with an estimated cost of no more than $210,000. Add some subsequent inflation and one would easily conclude that for a budget of $300,000, this boardwalk could be restored to brand new condition. 

The taxpayers will pay for whatever we do to fix or replace the boardwalk. 96% of the property tax to Marco is from residential properties. 

Facts matter.