Photo by KELLY FARRELL

City of Marco Island officials erected a barricade Tuesday between the police station's parking lot and the parking lot owned by physician Andrew Guidry at 19 Bald Eagle Drive. The barricade is planned to remain as Guidry and the city are unable to reach an agreement on who should have access to their neighboring parking lots.

Photo by KELLY FARRELL

Staff

City of Marco Island officials erected a barricade Tuesday between the police station's parking lot and the parking lot owned by physician Andrew Guidry at 19 Bald Eagle Drive. The barricade will remain as Guidry and the city are unable to reach an agreement on who should have access to their neighboring parking lots.

Photo by KELLY FARRELL

Staff

City of Marco Island officials erected a barricade Tuesday between the police station's parking lot and the parking lot owned by physician Andrew Guidry at 19 Bald Eagle Drive. The barricade is planned to remain as Guidry and the city are unable to reach an agreement on who should have access to their neighboring parking lots.

Andrew Guidry

Some rational answers surfaced Wednesday evening regarding what first appeared to be irrational behavior between the City of Marco Island officials and physician Andrew Guidry. What didn’t surface was a solution to the ongoing dispute over the use of the parking lot at 19 Bald Eagle Drive, adjacent to the police department.

Guidry and the city first developed a working relationship as interdependent neighbors in February of 2005 when the city was making plans to construct the Marco Island Police Station. The project required the discontinuation of Bald Eagle Drive which at that time ran between Guidry’s medical practice and the city’s fire station.

Guidry donated the land he was entitled to due to the discontinuation of Bald Eagle Drive in exchange for some offerings by the city. A “road closure and cooperation agreement” between the city and Guidry, approved by the council and signed by former City Manager Bill Moss and Guidry outlined the stipulations.

The city would provide the following services to Guidry: expand his parking lot to the North, design and build a new entrance off San Marco Road, build a new sign for the medical practice, resurface the parking lot’s asphalt, warranty the asphalt for three years and design and build new landscaping throughout the property.

Some of these provisions were necessary for the construction of the police department and some were above and beyond the scope of the project and were meant to be reimbursements for Guidry’s generosity in donating the land, said interim City Manager Dana Souza.

The negotiation that seems to be of the most concern is one that occurred off city record. The city replaced Guidry’s parking lot lights with ones that matched the city’s lamp posts next door. The city has been paying for the electricity on those lights ever since the construction of the police station in 2006. There is no record of this being in exchange for another donation by Guidry. Guidry says that’s because no other donation from him to the city occurred.

“There was no agreement, no handshake deal that I would let them use my parking lot indefinitely,” Guidry said.

Public Works Director Rony Joel was responsible for negotiating most of the interactions between Guidry and the city. Joel said it was a “gentlemen’s agreement” to exchange lighting for the city and public use of Guidry’s parking lot when overflow parking was needed during evening meetings. The relationship between Guidry and Joel became publicly sour in late March, three months after Guidry made a failed run for City Council. Signs stating “Parking: $20” were posted at the entrance of his lot during a council meeting.

“I don’t want to fight with Mr. Guidry. I just want him to walk over here and help us resolve this,” Souza said.

Guidry wrote a letter to the city on May 7 saying that he was not the full owner of the property and that city had erroneously negotiated with only half of the parking lot’s owners. He cited business partner Mitchell Snow as the co-owner. Snow is the co-owner, but was not co-owner until April 2006, nearly one year after the contract between Guidry and the city was signed.

The relationship struggles heightened Monday during a City Council meeting when a police cruiser blocked Guidry’s lot and further escalated when the city constructed a cement barricade between the lots Tuesday morning.

“That barricade occurred because of the city’s heavy hand ... They treat you like dirt,” Guidry said in a phone conversation Wednesday evening.

Guidry said he spoke to Joel and several city officials on numerous occasions over the course of a year regarding refuse left in his lot after city meetings as well as his concern over increases to his liability insurance once his lot was open to the public 24 hours per day.

Souza said he personally walked Guidry’s lot after meetings to pick up any trash, whether he believed it was left by city officials, the public or Guidry’s own customers.

“Once the insurance company learned the lot was being used by the city and public my insurance company raised my rates three-fold. That’s the biggest ax I have to grind. This goes well beyond the scope of the agreement. They just need to lease the lot, reimburse me for the expenses I’m incurring and problem solved,” Guidry said.

Guidry’s other proposal to solve the problem is to only barricade his property in the evening when it no longer negatively impacts his day-time business and customers.

Souza said the city does not have the resources to erect and remove a barricade on a daily basis. The barricade remains. He also said: “The city doesn’t need the parking.”

Souza responded to a letter from Guidry on May 5 saying “The city is not interested in leasing your property for city use.”

In the letter Souza also said that he would like to negotiate with Guidry. Guidry said Souza’s “flat out no” to his request for reimbursement doesn’t look like negotiation.

Guidry said the permanent barricade which blocks access to his business from Bald Eagle Drive violates written agreements, including the site plan. It also seems to make his 19 Bald Eagle Drive address a misnomer if there is no longer access between his lot and Bald Eagle Drive.

“I don’t want to see this go to litigation,” Souza said.

Taxpayers also may not want to see this go litigation, but the question remains as to whether taxpayers would prefer to pay for the availability of Guidry’s parking lot.

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