County picks a park name it says is better than B.E.S.T.

The new park in Estero won’t be called B.E.S.T. because Lee County commissioners decided Tuesday a better name would reflect its actual location.

After months of dispute and several suggestions of what to name the new 55-acre park, commissioners decided on Estero Community Park.

The simple name works on several levels, commissioners said.

First, it’s what the park has been called since shortly after the property was purchased several years ago.

Second, the name reflects where the park and soon-to-be-completed recreation center are located — in Estero, off Corkscrew and Williams roads.

And third, the “community” in Estero Community Park implies the park is open to everyone — not just people from Estero.

“While it is a community park, it will serve a purpose for San Carlos Park, Bonita Springs and Estero,” Commissioner Ray Judah said.

The name seemed obvious to many Estero residents from the beginning, said Arnie Rosenthal, an Estero resident active in community issues.

“I can’t understand why this has become an issue,” said Rosenthal, who told commissioners that in Lee County there are eight community centers, five community parks, four pools and six libraries all named after their communities. “Who is so petty, who is so mean-spirited that they would deny the people of Estero their community park named Estero Community Park?”

Opponents resisted because, they said, that name implies ownership by one community, when impact fees from the neighbors to the north and south also helped pay for it.

Early on, some San Carlos Park residents suggested their community’s name be added. Some residents there said naming the park after Estero would alienate members of the communities to the north and south.

The Bonita Springs City Council supported the name B.E.S.T. (Bonita, Estero, San Carlos Park, Three Oaks) Community Park, which was suggested by the Estero Chamber of Commerce.

That the issue made it all the way to County Commission for a vote shows how contentious the usually routine job of naming a park became, commissioners said.

“It’s been an issue that has been drawn out much too long,” Judah said. “Because Estero defines the area where it is located, it’s appropriate now that the name reflects that.”

The issue found its way to the board after months of discussion among the communities of Estero, San Carlos Park and Bonita Springs.

Commissioners said they received several opinionated e-mails and pleas from the public about the subject. But supporters of other names for the park did not attend Tuesday’s board meeting and commissioners were left to reflect only on the comments of Estero residents.

The public comment swayed at least one commissioner who had been leaning toward the name Corkscrew Community Park.

“I thought we really needed to recognize that this park went beyond just Estero,” said Commissioner Bob Janes. “But the impassioned pleas that I heard during the public comment period made me change my mind.”

San Carlos Park resident Diane Schroeder said Tuesday it matters not what the park is called. The real issue, Schroeder said, is that the new park and its community center will lead to the loss of community programs at San Carlos Park’s Karl Drews Center.

“I don’t see what difference a name personally makes,” she said. “What makes a difference is they are not allowing our community to keep what we worked hard for.”

The Karl Drews Center, built by San Carlos residents years ago with local donations, will become the county’s special-needs center. Its current programs will move to the new recreation center in Estero.

San Carlos residents fear the more distant location will mean some of their children will not be able to get to the new recreation center.

John Yarbrough, director of the county’s parks and recreation department, said he is working on a solution. He said he is trying to find a nonprofit agency to run an after-school program in a small house the county owns behind the Karl Drews Center.

“We will be able to offer many more programs at our new facility because the building is going to be very large compared to the house,” Yarbrough said. “But the house will serve kids and families that can’t get to the new one.”