Civic & Community Center: Luncheon to feature economic development update
Do whatever you can to attend this Friday’s lunch featuring The Lee County Economic Development Office at noon at The Road 41 Grill, 13551 N. Cleveland Ave., NFM southbound on Rt. 41 second driveway on your right south of Hancock Bridge Parkway.
This entire series of monthly daytime forums on the last Friday of the month is sponsored by the NFM Civic Association and has featured talks by Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners Brian Hamman in May, County Commissioner Frank Mann in June and Sheriff Mike Scott in July.
This installment is extremely significant because NFM desperately needs some economic development ideas and suggestions to fill our empty stores, restaurants and shopping centers. Most of the country has recovered from the “recession” of the last decade, but not NFM – one by one, without most of us noticing, stores and restaurants and shopping centers have emptied and many of those still with us have allowed their physical plants to deteriorate. As a result, the thousands of motorists passing through our town daily on the way to or from Fort Myers and Cape Coral have little incentive to shop in NFM.
Not only do we have to find a way to encourage our shopkeepers to fix up our stores, and our derelict half-empty shopping centers and strip malls to do whatever is necessary to attract new tenants, but we also need to develop a mindset to become a “destination”, not just a conduit that takes you between home and work or sales or service calls.
As most of you know, North Fort Myers is not a separate city or town – we are part of “unincorporated Lee County,” and so we don’t have our own mayor, city hall, police department, or municipal employees of any kind. Our Lee County officials – elected and appointed- serve these functions and it is incumbent upon us, the citizens, to look to our county officials for help and guidance.
Most of us have a vague notion that these county officials “run the county” but they don’t quite realize that they also run our own hometown of North Fort Myers.
And so it is important for volunteer groups and organizations like the NFM Civic Association to step up and become the “VOICE OF THE PEOPLE” and the liaison between the residents and the county.
I can hear some of you naysayers now saying things like “What’s the use of going to meetings, they don’t pay attention to us anyway.” Or “All the county money goes to Bonita Springs.”
Well I am here to tell you that it ain’t so – just look around!
The county recently built us a $10 million Recreation Center featuring not only a fitness room, full court basketball and the hottest new sport, pickle ball, but also meeting rooms, activity rooms, health seminars, computers for public use, a public shelter and hourly programs by The Share Club.
And the county less than two months ago approved the purchase of a site for a new NFM Library which will cost about 10 million bucks.
And that is why it is so important for the populace to turn out for these one-on-one meetings where, without driving many miles and hassling for a parking space, you can hear a presentation by our top county officials focused on North Fort Myers only.
You have to eat lunch anyway, so why not shake hands with, and ask questions of a knowledgeable county economic development authority?
This isn’t just for merchants or shopping mall operators, it affects every aspect of our life.
What is going to attract new residents, new industry, new jobs – empty decaying stores or a vibrant, busy and profitable commercial sector?
So don’t just show up – “talk it up,” bring your friends, neighbors, co-workers or contacts of any kind. Speak up on websites, your Facebook or other social media pages.
In addition to its monthly lunch get-togethers the Civic Association has a meeting the second Tuesday evening of each month from 7 to 9 at the Recreation Center behind the Library.
Our speaker on Aug. 11 was Dave Paschall, new head of Lee County Code Enforcement.
Dave revealed that NFM resulted in 1,310 violations of which 75.5 percent resulted in enforcement citations. There are two code enforcement officers assigned to our community, one working east of Rt. 41 and the other the west side. A garage sale permit is good for a week and an address is entitled to two permits a year.
A situation is not a violation unless a code official sees it – pictures don’t count.
An office computer assigns the daily lists of violations to be investigated. Dave advised that the county can only make a property owner mow a grass lawn if the grass is more than 12 inches high, and if the owner doesn’t cut the grass after getting a citation the county hires a contractor to mow the grass and bills the cost against the property owner.
Last year the county collected $300,000 from these fines.
Mr. Paschall reviewed a list of all remedial measures taken along Pondella Road and Business 41 since his department’s report to the Civic Association in February.
He then spent almost an hour fielding all questions from the audience.
When asked why it took so long to get results following a telephone complaint, Dave walked the attendees through the statutory procedure of personal observation, posted notice for 10 days and then if the situation has not been abated by the owner, a Notice To Appear at Hearing is served on the owner giving them 10 days’ notice, and then the real delay in the system occurs: it usually takes about five weeks to appear before the Hearing Officer when a fine can be levied and the owner is given another 15 days to abate after which the county can enter, clean up the condition and bill the owner.
After 90 days it goes to the County Attorney for a Nuisance Accumulation or Abatement. Referrals are often made to the Building Department if a house is unsafe.
In other business, Rudy Berndlmaier and Brenda Sizemore were elected to the Board of Directors and motions were passed that the Civic Association sponsor: 1.) the preparation, printing and distribution of a multi-paged colored brochure promoting NFM; 2.) a “North Fort Myers Renaissance Campaign” designed to help turn NFM around; 3)that we sponsor a luncheon kicking off this campaign on Oct. 9 at 11:30 a.m. at Captain Fishbones’ Restaurant at The Shell Factory featuring Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners Brian Hamman unveiling the essential elements of the campaign.
Tom Cronin announced that he was setting the cost of the lunch at $10 per person and that the Shell Factory would absorb the extra cost above that.
For reservations call 239-995-2141 extension 117 and ask for Irene.
Next month’s evening meeting, on Sept. 8, with Guest Speaker Greg Stuart, Planner and Redevelopment Expert, promises to be one of the most significant moments in the recent history of Our Town as he discloses his suggestions for redeveloping NFM. This will form a major part of the Renaissance Campaign, and if you care at all about the future of this town you should be there to ask questions and provide your input and perhaps influence the end result.
The Chamber of Commerce is selling ads in its Community Guide. For more info contact President Al Giacalone at 239-246-9055.
The NFM Design Review Panel met on Aug. 11 and heard and had no objections to applications for a variance to build a 10 foot porto cochere on the front of a residence at 95 Cardinal Way; to build four pickle ball courts in Herons Glen and for a variance for a sign for International Worship Center.
The first meeting of the NFM Promotional Brochure Committee happened on Aug. 20 over lunch at Captain Fishbones hosted by Tom Cronin and Rick Tupper of The Shell Factory, with Cindy Gallagher and Malcolm Johnson of The Breeze Newspapers, parent of The NFM Neighbor, and Larry Murphy, Rudy Berndlmaier and yours truly representing the Civic Association.
We decided to seek assistance and/or grants from the Lee County Tourist Development Council and the Visitors Bureau.
The Breeze graciously volunteered to give us a free ad in its Community Lifestyles section to publicize the Oct. 9 NFM Renaissance Kickoff Luncheon.
SW Florida Distributing will distribute the brochures to racks and other suitable locations. We will have a preliminary printing of the glossy quad-fold brochure as a handout at the luncheon. The cover will feature a panoramic picture of our waterfront with a caption of “Visit North Fort Myers – The Land of Undiscovered Opportunities.”
The brochure will showcase our 10 miles of riverfront, our farms, Echo Global Farm Tours, our wonderful places to live, our $10 million dollar recreation center, shopping, ready availability of land and buildings, athletics, sailing, boating, fishing, hiking, Prairie Pines Preserve and a quick commute to Fort Myers and Cape Coral.
The cost of this brochure will be substantial.
The first printing will be 10,000 copies. We already have commitments for $1,750 but much more is needed.
At least in recent years NFM has never had a printed promotional handout of any kind – no wonder we haven’t attracted a new housing development or shopping center or new industry in the last decade! If you would like to contribute towards the cost, have your business pictured in the brochure which will be used for several years to come, help us solicit for cost contributions, or if you have any excellent pictures of beautiful or unique NFM scenes, or if you have any skills as a photographer or graphic designer and would like to help us and your community please contact me as shown at the bottom of this article.
The second committee meeting is this Thursday, Aug. 27, and we will be graced by the presence of Punta Gorda Councilwoman Kim Devine who developed a big and beautiful brochure for her city and who will tell us how she did it.
If you have organizational skills and the time to serve as chairperson, or sales skills and determination to help, or are willing to volunteer your photography or graphic artist skills please contact me and attend this meeting.
Mark these dates on your calendar-probably the most important two months in the recent history of NFM and show up with your ideas and enthusiasm:
8/29 at noon at Road 41 Grill-Lee County Economic Development/Civic Assn. lunch
9/8- 7 p.m. at Rec Center-redevelopment suggestions by Greg Stuart, Planner
10/9 at 11:30 a.m. at Captain Fishbones-NFM Renaissance Campaign Kickoff Lunch featuring Commissioner Brian Hamman.
PUBLIC APATHY IS THE PLAGUE OF THE 21ST CENTURY! VOLUNTEER-IT’S GOOD FOR THE MIND AND THE HEART.
Contact me at 239-823-3631 or mike-land@live.com if you have some event, project or idea that you would like in this column, or with any comments or questions.