GUEST COMMENTARY: After years of nonsense, it’s recently become obviously clear that the time has come to pull the plug on the Boca Grande Community Panel.
Since its start, a few past and present members of this self-appointed, self-anointed group have been advancing an agenda that clearly is not in step with Boca Grande, its residents, our traditions and our island lifestyle.
These members have hired “experts” in traffic and community planning and then fed them with perceived problems and, at times, some incredibly daft solutions.
The experts have repeatedly come up with ideas that are simply not necessary, needed or wanted. If merchants were polled before TR Transportation Consultants Inc. made plans based solely on three or four members’ input, then maybe we could have gotten a realistic parking plan that would have helped our restaurants and shops.
If we attempt any kind of governance or town planning, we need a consensus of all the people who live and work here. We don’t have it.
The panel claims it wants public input. But starting a meeting at 2 p.m. on a work day makes it difficult to have any discussion with our business owners. Public participation, as required by Florida’s constitution and by state law, should be at the convenience of the public.
It was great to see our business owners take time off at the busiest part of season to say No on April 1 to the latest parking plan. There hasn’t been a turnout like this one since last April when we all stood up against the one-way street fiasco.
The panel is funded by our tax dollars and money we have contributed to island organizations. We are all, in some way or other, underwriting this charade. We are paying to potentially damage or destroy our style of island life.
It would be unfair not to praise those past and present panel members who have fought to represent the real voices and the real people of our island. Their dedication to protecting our island ways has been both courageous and noble.
Skip Perry has served on a number of panel sub-committees.
April 21, 2008 at 10:57 pm
$180,000??? You’ve got to be kidding!
April 14, 2008 at 8:40 am
How much money did the GICIA give to this group? They say they don’t have enough money to maintain the golf cart path. If so, I don’t understand why they are giving money to this group.
I also read where Dave McCue says the panel is ignoring the survey we took a few years ago and is trying to do things nobody wants. Maybe we should elect a new group of people to take over.
If anyone knows how much money the GICIA gave, I would like to know.
Moderator’s note: This is from the Boca Grande Community Panel website.
The original funding for the development of the Boca Grande Community Plan was $25,000 obtained from the Gasparilla Island Conservation and Improvement Association (GICIA) under a controlled Grant Agreement dated as of January 5, 2004 between the GICIA and Boca Grande Community Planning Association, Inc (see Section I).
Subsequently, $25,000 was obtained from Lee County under a Community Planning Agreement between Boca Grande Community PlanningAssociation, Inc. and the Lee County Board of County Commissioners and $20,000 was obtained from Charlotte County under an Interlocal Agreement between Charlotte County and Lee County.
The Community Planning Agreement and Interlocal Agreement may be found under Section X. The total of $70,000 was expended as of November 15, 2005 so it became necessary to find additional sources of funds to implement the adopted provisions in Lee County and to finalize and implement the Charlotte County provisions.
An additional grant of $50,000 was obtained from Lee County in April 2007 for the preparation of land development regulations necessary to implement the adopted provisions in Lee County under a Second Community Planning Agreement between Boca Grande Community Planning Association, Inc. and the Lee County Board of County Commissioners. The Second Community Planning Agreement may also be found under Section X.
In addition, in December 2005, the GICIA approved an additional grant of $5,000 for Community Planner services and the Boca Grande Woman’s Club has approved grants of $15,000 in December 2005, $20,000 in February 2006 and $20,000 in April 2007 (a total of $55,000 from the Woman’s Club).
This works out to $30,000 from the GICIA, $95,000 combined from Lee and Charlotte counties, and, as noted $55,000 from the Woman’s Club.
April 14, 2008 at 7:43 am
Skip, unfortunately, is right. The time HAS come to pull the plug on the community panel. They have spent tens of thousands of dollars, tax dollars as well as money contributed by the Women’s Club and the GICIA , and what have they accomplished?
The panel’s consultant was, it seems, a little too eager to convert the east side of Park Avenue to parallel parking, and eliminate nine parking spaces serving the businesses between Third and Fourth Streets. Parallel parking, he said, is safer. But there was no mention of the perpendicular parking on the west side of the Depot between Fourth and Fifth Streets. Isn’t this nose in parking just as unsafe? Could it be that correcting this dangerous situation might be politically inconvenient.
The panel has been successful. They have been successful at dividing our community. Enough is enough. Pull the plug before more damage is done.