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in response to ajm3s:

Terri Barone DiSciullo March 3 at 1:10pm
Dear Friends,
As most of you know, we just partnered with the Island Country Club Charitable Foundation in their golf tournament. We will be getting approximately $22,000. This money will be restricted to the new specialty kitchen at the new community center. Approx. $1,000 will be used to purchase a new professional water cooler machine that Hector requested for the kids participating in the Optimist sports so that parents don't have to lug ice and pay for water. We will purchase it, and donate it to the park. The P & R Dept. will have a procedure for checking it out and being responsible for it.
We will not donate the money to the City until the City Council approves the building of the community center. It will stay in a restricted fund.
I would like to be frank with all of you now. I have sacrificed 12 years of my life, since Victoria was 3 years old to fight for families on Marco Island. There was NO Parks and Recs department, virtually no programming, no Kids Cove, no Spray Park, no Dog Park, no football field before I got onto City Council. I pushed the councilors at the time to set a budget for a P & R Dept. and to hire a park director - thank God for Dana Souza! How far has the City come since 2002. Carrie Canfield was right along side me serving on the P & R Advisory committee and fighting people every step of the way to get what the families on Marco deserved.
Now we have a building that is within our reach - now the same ole' same ole' negative anti-family anti-kid groups are shouting for a referendum to get this building built. We have no idea if a referendum will pass, but why is it needed now? So many city projects have gone through without referendum. Why now? Because it's for kids and families? It's for EVERYONE!!
The Island and families need your help. Larry Magel called me today to say that the new "homeowners group" is screaming for a referendum and are circulating a petition that it needs to go to referendum. He said I need to get in front of it - NO, I do not need to get in front of it. Other people like yourselves need to get out in front of it. I can no longer fight for families. I am the President of the Foundation. I want to help parks and recs to provide great services, and our Board has committed to help fundraise for the new community center. But, we cannot be in the lobbying business.
Larry said that he would love it if people got up to the podium Monday night and stated the following "I am Kim Burke, Chair of the Optimist Soccer, and I represent 100 families. We all support a new community center without referendum". It's as simple as that. The Council sent Bryan's proposal to the budget process. Bryan is going to 5 community centers from here to Sarasota to get their budgets and business plan. People aren't even giving him a chance to get his ducks in a row when this goes to budget in a couple of months.