marconews.com Accounts

Dr Rivière has turned the city around from the grandiose spending and citizen polarization resulting from the two previous city managers. We need to continue to cut back on capital expenditures but we need to thank Jim for his accomplishments and wish him well in future retirement.

Why is it that the city is loaning unsecured money to private home owners? Oh, I forgot councilor Magel lives there..

Why should the city pay to repave a tennis court where a few play for "
free", that is owned by the county, when it is losing money at the city owned racket club where you have to pay to use it? Just so a few "special" people can play for free during school hours???
I agree with Larry Magel who wanted to look deeper into the Firefigher's contract. The HUUUUGE pay increases are buried in the incentive part of the contract. The 2%, 2%, 1% base pay increases are just the tip of the iceberg. The fire station was renovated after 2005 and they want another 1.5 million to do further upgrades? Nothing is too good for the Fire Dept.

With all due respect to Mr Thomas, he has been preaching for the past 5 years that half of Marco's seawalls will need to be replaced in next 5 years. He seems too self serving on his predictions. As far as precast or cast onsite, cast offsite is predicted to be less costly for lots that don't have an adjacent empty lot. If empty lots are not available for one reason or another, all the work at an existing lot with a house, will need to be done from the waterside anyways and new panels need to be replaced by barge. That adds a LOT to the overall cost, as compared to using ground based equipment. Sheet piling on outside and use of riprap is still the least costly way to extend life of an existing seawall.

Sheet piling is not allowed on beaches. the only allowe remediation allowed by Federal Permits is to use Sand. Due to currents washing passed Hideaway, the replacement of sand in bags or on the beach should only be considered to be temporary.

no one wanted a toll on bridge. That would have deferred a lot of visitors and cruisers.
marco residents don't want visitors but the business community thinks the opposite. It is "their" island too.

Cloudy tonight. I will catch it next time.

Coconut island has nothing to do with the present erosion. That sand has been moving since the beginning of time and no small trees are going to stop forces of nature. The islands are gone for same reason the beaches are now eroding. For HWB to blame the present erosion for acts of some others, is rediculous. The beaches have been eroding way before HWB was built and they have no one to blame but themselves for not having enough money set aside to fund the lost cause of moving sand. All the dredging and beach restoration done down by Key Marco after Wilma is almost reversed itself. Constant funding will be needed to slow the progress of nature. Belize and Cozumel buildings put up their own seawalls and rocks to slow the erosion but it is almost being tested as the sand is almost all eroded away. Sand is too easy to erode. Rock is needed and way more expensive than pumped sand.

Bad move. Improve teaching skills. World doesn't need more illiterate Walmart trailer trash babies.

Ray, what are you smokin? You need to give up water level rise. As level rises, it gets more surface area and the evaporation rises, there by increasing rainfall on land.
Tell you what, if it is over in 25 years, why not sell me your house now. I will give bottom dollar for it since you say i only have 25 yrs max to enjoy it!

who are these "national" as noted in title, experts? The article only referenced self serving local "experts"! Just hype.When low interest rates rise, as they have to, where will market go then?

teach the manatees to avoid being out of the no wake zones.

Sparky, you have got to be kidding on asking Magel to lower homeowner water and sewer rates.
Magel represents only one group, the condo owners. All others have increases in rates while condo's were lowered and condo and hotel reuse water was held constant.

should have dropped him off and see if the gators like old dead liberal meat.

Sloooow Joe vs. not as slow Burmese Python??

OldMarco, Maybe the city's missing $4,000,000 will be diverted by that same unbiased council chairman.
He directed council in raising homeowner and commercial water and sewer rates while lowering it for condo owners. Maybe homeowners should pay to save his building too?

What BS. Economist is being paid by the Realtors to tell them something they want to hear.
It all comes down to ability of buyers to obtain financing. Those with cash are buying but rest are not in a position to buy as equity in present property is too low to use as a downpayment or borrow against.

where are you going to shuttle from? Lowes on 951 and 41? There isnt surplus parking anywhere close to the island, forget about on the island. Who is going to pay for shuttle? Make it more difficult and they will go someplace else.

Wize, MIA is all about the Marco Island Academy, private high school. The Tract K land was deeded by island developers for educational purposes, aka, school. When MIA was looking for a site, Tract K neighbors fought hard to keep the high school kids away from "their" neighbor hood. They came up with the eagle nest as a reason to keep school away.

This is all a cover story for keeping the MIA out of "their" neighborhood.

Our latest water and sewer rate Cost of Service Study was gamed from the beginning. The consultant was TOLD to evaluate the cost sharing based on the heaviest use month, not an average month or least use month. This biased the study against the interests of the hightest use users, the single family home owners. The single family homeowners must use potable water to irrigate. The bulk of the condo's along collier blvd have access to reuse water. My cape marco condo's grass is plusher than carpet in my bedroom as it is watered at least once a day in dry season with no penalty against potable water volume or rates. The COS's most contentious issue was how to distribute the debt service. Instead of distributing the debt service equally amoungst all users, it was distributed such that single family homeowners pay 250% more than a multifamily user, even though the oversized water plant was sized equally for each residential unit.
All I can say is I thank Larry Magel and his backers for making sure that single family homeowners pay the bulk of my unit's debt service!

When Burton was asked a few months ago if he would implement a rate system according to the COS study, he said "No". The reason why was that it wasn't politically viable to charge different groups different amounts, for the same thing.

Benjaron, I agree that fuel went into the bilge and not into the fuel tank.
The condo owners will be expecting the boat owner to clean all the soot from their dwellings. Hope boat owner has enough insurance

good article Lance. Keep up the good work!

Simple math says values continue to decline. With total dollar amount only going up 4% when there are 21% more closings, market continues to languish. Days of rising values are a loooonnnggg way off, if ever.