3 To Know: Hilton struggles with restaurant re-opening

1. Hilton struggles with restaurant re-opening

The Marco Island Hilton Beach Resort & Spa’s restaurant and bar were shut down last weekend for operating without a temporary certificate of occupancy (TCO).

According to building department officials, TCOs are typically issued for a 30-day period and extended as needed until a project is fully completed; when the Hilton originally opened after its renovations, the building department issued a TCO since some minor work was still being done.

Due to the fire and water damage that occurred in June, the building department did not extend the Hilton’s TCO, and when the hotel re-opened its restaurant, it didn’t go through the process to obtain a TCO. Furthermore, there were issues with the hotel’s fire alarm panel that needed to be addressed in order for it to open to the public.

The fire alarm issues have since been resolved and the building department has issued a TCO for the lobby and restaurant areas only.

2. Two men found dead in Collier canals in past two weeks identified

Authorities have identified the bodies of two men who were found floating in Collier County canals the past two weeks.

Eotimio Barrios, 41, was found dead near a buoy in the Faka Union Canal on Aug. 3. A day earlier, the fisherman had gone missing after trying to throw a cast net from a bank on the north side of a bridge off U.S. 41 East across from Port of the Islands, the Collier County Sheriff's Office said.

A week earlier, on July 26, deputies responded to a call about a body found in a canal in the 1500 block of Trafalgar Lane near Golden Gate.

The man was identified as Juan Pascual, 56, Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Michelle Batten said in an email Wednesday.

Neither death appears to be suspicious, Batten said, but authorities are waiting on autopsy reports in both cases.

'There were no obvious signs of trauma,' Batten said of Pascual. – Patrick Riley/Staff

3. Forecaster s upgrade storm outlook: ‘Extremely active’ season now likely

The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season should be “extremely active, and could be the most active since 2010,” federal forecasters from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday.

Six named storms already have formed, including Tropical Storm Franklin, which was expected to hit the east coast of Mexico late Wednesday as a hurricane.

Two of those storms, Cindy in June and Emily in July, struck the United States.

“We’re now entering the peak of the season, when the bulk of the storms usually form,” said Gerry Bell, lead seasonal hurricane forecaster at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.

NOAA said 14 to 19 named storms are now likely to form this year, with five to nine becoming hurricanes. The numbers include the six storms that already occurred.