CANDACE ROTOLO

Come Oct. 1, Marco Island residents will have to pay more to have their kids play on sports teams or use recreational and park facilities. Parks and Recreation Director Bryan Milk announced a new fee structure at Tuesday’s Parks and ...

Marco Island could reap financial rewards by implementing improvements to the Midtown commercial district to make it more pedestrian and bicyclist-friendly.

Fireworks are a Fourth of July tradition. But over the last few years, paying for the illuminating display has been harder and harder for Marco Island city leaders. Now, members of the island’s Planning Board hope they have a solution.

Marco Island City Planner Kris Van Lengen is leaving his position for a job in Collier County. Van Lengen, who has been with the city for more than two years, will become the county Utility Department’s environmental compliance manager. Van ...

Three residential properties on Marco Island face fines for not hooking up to the city’s newly installed sewer lines.

Don Hunter hasn’t completely moved into his new, corner office at the Marco Island Police Department but he jokes that it already feels lived in. After shaking hands for nearly 30 minutes and accepting the dozens of well wishes from ...

Long-time city employee Liz Carr has a new position. She’s been reassigned and promoted to the police department as code compliance supervisor.

Pomp and circumstance will be in store Monday when city swears in its new police chief. A 30-minute ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m., Monday, in the city’s Community Room, located on Bald Eagle Drive, behind City Hall. The public ...

During a marathon, six hour budget workshop on Monday, Marco Island City Council prioritized capital improvement spending needs, considered ways to cut expenses, and set a maximum millage rate for the upcoming fiscal year. Councilors voted 5-2 to set the ...

A Marco Island police officer has been demoted for his role in the April arrest of businessman Joseph Oliverio for grand theft auto. Tige Thompson was stripped of his appointment as sergeant and demoted to patrolman in late June after ...

A car accident in 2005 forced Denise Durgin, of Naples, to undergo two back surgeries and a partial hip replacement. Despite the operations, she says she suffered constant, excruciating lower back pain which required multiple shots of pharmaceutical nerve blockers ...

As he glances at the cheerful bouquet sitting on the conference table of his office, Thom Carr seems a little surprise someone would send him flowers to congratulate him on his retirement. After all, he says, he’s just leaving office, ...

The Island’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee hopes to convince City Council to make minor changes to the way a community grant program is administered. If the changes are approved, non-profit organizations that receive a city grant to help underwrite ...

Plans to reduce an anticipated six percent water utility rate hike could hinge on the backs of vacant lot owners. Under a proposal by city leaders and discussed among City Council members on Monday night, property owners of undeveloped land ...

The federal government will soon take over ownership of a Marco Island home that continually floods during heavy rain. As part of the Federal Emergency Management Administration’s (FEMA) hazard mitigation and repetitive loss program, the home will be demolished to ...

Marco Island residents will soon be able to use the World Wide Web to comment on the city’s comprehensive plan, which outlines the island’s future growth and priorities. In just a matter of weeks, the city’s planning board will roll ...

During one of the worst economic climates, members of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Naples trusted their need for a new sanctuary would be heard. Today, its members are celebrating in a new 32,506-square-foot worship center that opened in June. Longtime ...

Lisa Gandy wasn’t sure why the Internal Revenue Service would send her an email. She wondered if the economy had led the agency to start communicating with taxpayers electronically. “I thought maybe the IRS was trying to save money and ...

The city’s Utility Advisory Board (UAB) is working on ways to reduce a planned six percent utilities increase for fiscal year 2012. Marco Island water and sewer customers have seen a rate hike each year since 2009 to help reduce ...

When the new span of the S.S. Jolley Bridge is complete this fall, lush landscaping – complete with Florida friendly plants, trees and shrubs – will greet drivers. Plans to landscape the north and south bound approaches to the bridge ...

Choosing a fifth member to sit on the Marco Island Utilities Advisory Board (UAB) is turning out to be more difficult than anticipated; and until the position is filled, the committee may not be able to conduct business. The UAB’s ...

A budget request by the Marco Island Beautification Advisory Committee (BAC) to maintain the city’s more than 300 cul-de-sacs may have hit a snag. At a meeting in preparation of the 2012 fiscal year budget, parks and recreation director Bryan ...

The chairman of Marco Island’s Arts Advisory Committee, Howard Blankman, resigned from the committee on Tuesday, effective immediately. Blankman, who was appointed by Councilman Frank Recker, said he was leaving Marco to return to Long Island, New York later this ...

Not much can keep Maggie Gibson of Estero from attending Sunday service at Estero United Methodist Church each week. With three distinct services to reflect the congregation, Gibson is a regular attendee at the traditional 11 a.m. service. Over the ...

Marco Island’s top administrator says a kinder, gentler approach to code enforcement is working. Nearly a year ago, at the behest of city manager Jim Riviere, the name of the code enforcement department was changed to “code compliance” and was ...

It may be August before permits to dredge a section of Collier Creek are approved. Collier County is spearheading the emergency dredging of the creek entrance in the Hideaway Beach section of Marco Island. Under the plan, 10 -12 cubic ...

Seawalls, density credits and more stringent fertilizer regulations were three of the items debated by City Council members at their regular meeting on Monday night. In effort to spur development, council members gave final approval to a plan to transfer ...

During a three-hour special meeting on Monday, Marco Island City Council and Utility Advisory Board (UAB) members said they want the consulting firm hired to answer more of their questions before setting utility rates for Island residents.

After a search that took a little more than a month, the Marco Island Center for the Arts has a new leader. The board of directors named Lynn M. Holley as its new executive director. Tuesday marked Holly’s first day ...

For many of us, the Memorial Day holiday means picnics, a day on the beach and shopping specials. For the men and women who have served, Memorial Day is a sacred day to honor the ones who never made it ...

As the rest of the country prepares to kick off the summer season with Memorial Day weekend, in Southwest Florida there’s a noticeable difference — traffic is less congested, the beaches are less crowded and church pews are more vacant. ...

A plan to transfer waterfront commercial density to any commercial property within Marco Island’s Midtown District has passed an initial hurdle.

The City of Marco Island may need to pay out more than $31,000 to support the pensions of police officers. The change is due to a more current mortality rate table that is being used to estimate pay outs.

Marco Island City Council members rejected a county-sponsored beachfront easement proposal and decided to keep island-wide watering guidelines in place.

Marco Island residents frustrated at paying surcharges to support the city’s sewer treatment reclamation program could get relief earlier than expected.

Marco Island residents and City Council members heard the long-awaited results of the Cost of Service study, which will be used to help set future water and sewer rates on the island. Mike Burton, president of Burton and Associates, the ...

For Jenna Canfield, the acting bug bit at age 5; Chris Niemczyk discovered his love of theater when he was 12. Both Marco Island students plan to pursue careers in the arts and each received some financial assistance from the ...

Marco Island is known for its wealth of outdoor activities, biking and walking trails, but more can be done to make the city more exercise-friendly, according to Stacy Revay, coordinator of Collier County’s Smart Growth Coalition. Revay told members of ...

For Joe Oliverio, being arrested on April 21 was one of the most disturbing nights of his life. Now, he’s fighting to clear his name and demanding that the Marco Island police sergeant he claims is responsible for his arrest ...

Attorney Alan Gabriel has presided over his last City Council meeting. During a special meeting held Monday afternoon, council members voted 4-3 to turn the city’s legal counsel over to the Tallahassee-based firm of Gray Robinson. Former state senator Burt ...

Drivers heading south into Marco Island on the S.S. Jolley Bridge should be able to use the parallel span currently under construction as early as June. According to Florida Department of Transportation spokesperson Debbie Tower, work on the new bridge ...

Five city departments unveiled their wish lists for capital improvement expenditures to members of Marco Island’s Planning Board; among them, a scaled-down Mackle Park Community Center. The new plan announced by parks and recreation director Bryan Milk consisted of a ...

With an in-your-face, make-you-feel-guilty advertising campaign called Catholics Come Home, Roman Catholicism packed the pews with a marketing venture that would make Coca-Cola envious. Rev. Robert J. Kantor, priest and administrator at St. Agnes Church in North Naples, said the ...

On Monday, City Council voted unanimously to approve new restrictions on the days and hours landscape irrigation can be utilized. However, council plans to revisit the issue at their next meeting in May. The current watering restrictions adopted last year ...

Visually impaired or blind residents in Marco Island could possibly benefit from improved traffic signals that audibly tell them how many seconds they have to cross an intersection. Residents Jennifer Griffin and her fiancé Vincent Castellano, who is legally blind, ...

As many as two dozen members of the City of Marco Island Racquet Center showed up to urge council members to re-surface two clay courts that have been closed before making other scheduled court changes.

Marco City Council members gave the final go-ahead for plans to build a memorial to honor military personnel at Veterans Memorial Park. At Monday’s regularly scheduled meeting, councilors awarded Allied Paver Systems of Marco Island a contract for $158,395.93 to ...

At the indoor playground his parents own in Naples, little Sam Stewart is content being alone, amusing himself with a ball and jumping up and down inside a giant bounce house. The 6-year-old used to have no choice about it, ...

Members of Marco Island’s Firefighter’s Pension Board will have to refigure calculations after the state’s Division of Retirement denied the board’s actuarial valuation reports for 2008 and 2009.

For the 15th year, the public is invited to join students, faculty and staff at Edison State College for a week-long remembrance of the Holocaust. The Dr. Talbot Spivak Holocaust Memorial Week begins Monday and continues through Friday on the ...