Hey OldMarcoMan, North Carolina is great! Cleaner air than on Marco, cleaner water than on Marco (you can even drink the stuff out of the tap) and much cleaner politics. Miss my friends, miss the beautiful sunsets, miss watching the dolphins and manatees in my "polluted" canal, miss the pelicans and sandpipers but I don't miss the misinformation, disinformation and downright lies that pervade the place.

Why don't you come up and visit sometime?

Ed Foster

MarcoJimbo,

Marco Utilities DID break their word not to raise rates beyond COLA for X years. (You say 5, I remember 6 or 8, but it really makes no difference.) They raised rates by "tiering" them in such a way that the lowest rate dropped by 1 cent per thousand gallons while the highest-use rate increased by $1.43 a thousand. Everyone who used water for irrigation paid more each month under this scheme. It certainly was not "revenue neutral" as Finance Director Harrison claimed so it amounted to a "raise in rates."

I'd also point out that it should have been quite easy to know whether the water lines were leaking PRIOR to buying the utility. All the City need to have done was to check the amount of water processed by the Florida Water plants each month and compare that with the total usage as determined by summing the meter readings. The difference was lost in the system. Did the city do that before buying the utility? I don't know. If they didn't, they were stupid and should have; if they did and didn't tell anyone, they knew all along that they were buying a piece of junk and the people would have to pay to fix it! For shame!

Ed Foster

I often have said that the city bought a "pig-in-a-poke" and this article proves it. Mr. Harrison told me repeatedly that the city bought the utility after only three days of technical inspection. An "expert" like John Arceri must have known that vitreous clay pipe laid in shifting sand was not going to last 30 years, but did the City, led by their "utility expert" John Arceri, inspect it before buying? No! They waited four years (according to the article) to inspect the pipe and now want to be praised for discovering the leaks? Wow! What Chutzpah! Praised no less for "discovering" what any utility expert with half a brain should have known from the beginning AND REFLECTED THAT IN THE PURCHASE PRICE.

Fossil, the video inspection of the pipes was done after Wilma. It wasn't that expensive and so couldn't have taken that long to complete. I asked repeatedly for the results but, according to Marco's Public Information Officer, Lisa Douglass, the results "weren't available yet." Seems obvious why! John Arceri wasn't going to let Rony release them until after he had hoodwinked the condo dwellers who had "worn out" the sewer into voting as he wished to prevent the likes of Neylon and crew from getting elected to the Council. For Shame!

Ed Foster

condoseller:

Nobel prizes traditionally have been given to recognize an incredible breakthrough or a LIFETIME of accomplishment. In my opinion, the committee has disgraced itself and demeaned the many laureates honored in the past by giving a Peace Prize to Al Gore for making a fictional movie and to Barrack Obama for giving a few speeches. I have known several Nobel laureates personally including Victor Hess, Isidore I. Rabi, Peter Gabriel Bergmann, Eric Kandel and several others. Nominating a man 12 days after he has taken office and who has not one accomplishment to his credit so far, simply because he is not George W. Bush, is an insult to past Nobel Prize laureates. Today the Nobel Prize is no more than a $1.4 million lottery.

The Nobel Prize is a private award and the committee certainly has the right to give the prize to whomever they wish. They just make fools of themselves, and insult past laureates, by giving the prize to President Obama for obvious political reasons. FDR was nominated for his successful efforts to crush Nazism and promote freedom in the world. He didn't get it. President Reagan was nominated for ending the Cold War and promoting freedom in the world. He didn't get it. Mother Teresa was nominated for helping thousands of children in India. She didn't get it. Barack Obama gets the prize while conducting a war in Iraq and in Afghanistan, and contemplating a strike against Iran ... or did he get it so that he would be influenced to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan and to make nice with Iran until they have a nuclear weapon and can blackmail the world? I trust he will not be influenced by this prize to do other than to protect American interests and those of freedom-loving people everywhere. But I can't be sure. He has an amazing ego even for a President. If he had integrity as well as an ego, he would thank the committee for their faith in him but respectively decline the prize until he has earned it.

Ed Foster

A few comments and corrections:

Picture 1 of 8 was taken on Collier Boulevard in front of a beachfront condo. I took it. It is clear evidence that the asbestos was "friable" and "dangerous." There was asbestos all along Collier in the construction area. It was tracked into hotels and stuck into carpets. It was tracked into homes and cars. It was NOT confined to Veterans Park although there was plenty there too.

Apparently referring to the discharge of Hydrogen Sulfide loaded water into the canals, Ms. Douglass is quoted as saying: “You can’t find anything to substantiate that because there isn’t anything." Untrue! Godfrey Davies took many readings of dangerous levels of H2S where contractors were "dewatering." Mr. Joel concocted a Rube Goldberg contraption to try to remove the H2S from the ground water. It didn't work but why would he build the thing if there was no H2S in the groundwater? And why would the city finally do the correct thing and direct the polluted water into the sewer lines rather than dump it in the canals as had been happening all along?

The placement of Chief Carr's statement that the "detectives closed their investigation into the planted asbestos theory after determining the allegations were unfounded" could lead one to believe that the allegations that there was asbestos contamination on the Glon Property was "unfounded." I can't fault Kelly for that because I know how things get shifted around as an article is edited and the precise wording is correct: the allegations made by the city (and one councilor in particular) that citizens were planting asbestos in the park was unfounded. The asbestos was there; the police were investigating whether the allegations that it was planted were true and found no evidence to substantiate that ridiculous accusation.

Ms. Millsap's statement that the city had “all the appropriate health and safety measures in place” is reminiscent of the statement of Jon Iglehart, Director of the FDEP in Fort Myers that the city and contractor were following proper procedures for handling asbestos when he had never visited the Glon Property. I give it the same credence! Furthermore, why did the SWFWMD order Marco to stop discharging water into the canals if "all appropriate health and safety measures" were in place?

I was NOT chairman of CARES when "CARES filed motions to enforce the (Clean Air Act) settlement." I refused to endorse the mediation settlement to which I was refused entry and had resigned from CARES. The City and QE refused to honor the agreement they had made with the new chairman of CARES and so he "filed motions to enforce the settlement."

I DO support Dr. Sanchez' effort to get at the truth and, despite Ms. Douglass' glib statement to the contrary, the matter is NOT over. If "City officials ... don’t understand what Sanchez wants at this point" I suggest they submit to psychiatric evaluation. He wants the records, dummies. Duh!

Ed Foster