Civic Association holds its final 2014 meeting
If North Fort Myers gets a new regional library in the coming years, it should be those who will use the library who should determine what it would need.
That was the determination Civic Association member Frank Barrett shared during the group’s final meeting of the year Tuesday at the rec center.
Barrett said the new library task force met recently and decided to hold a town hall meeting on Feb. 11 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the rec center, with hopes that county commissioner Brian Hamman and other powers that be attendence.
Barrett said he hopes people will come, learn, brainstorm and give their input so they won’t have to call upon a planner to do the work for them.
“We need community input. Bonita Springs spent $49,000 for that. We need to prioritize what our needs are, discuss them and create a plan for what the library needs,” Barrett said, saying the result of the meeting should provide input for decision makers.
The biggest problem Barrett said has been an old one: getting the word out. The civic association said it hopes to put out fliers outside the community center and the library.
They will also seek help from the merchants on Business 41, Friends of the Library, and paid ads in The Neighbor and The Breeze.
“We want the community to be part of the ownership of the library. We don’t need the Taj Mahal,” Barrett said.
Also on the agenda was what to do with a 5-acre piece of property off Orange Grove that the county bought during the land boom for $13 million.
Today the land, which is on the river, sits vacant, as it was once used by LCEC before they got their equipment off the property.
“There’s this beautiful piece of land, sitting there. We can do so much with it,” Al Giacalone said. “Those who live around the property want to do nothing. We need input to see what we can do.”
Also, the Civic Association and the New Buisness 41 Merchants Association announced its second-annual Community Christmas Tree Lighting and Caroling event to be held Wednesday from 6 to 7 p.m. near the front entrance of the rec center, behind the library.
The event will feature the sounds of Graham and Jayne Milligan and Don Dewitt.