A controversial golf course community in northern Collier County won unanimous approval from the South Florida Water Management District’s governing board yesterday. It’s the second time the governing board has approved the proposed 17-hundred-acre development, called Mirasol. The U-S Army Corps of Engineers denied a federal permit for a nearly identical version of the project last year. That version was also first approved by the South Florida Water Management District. Environmental groups and others oppose the project because it would destroy about 650-acres of wetlands, including endangered wood stork habitat.
Conservancy of Southwest Florida President - Andrew McElwaine – attended the meeting. He says the board approved the project in spite of public outcry against it.

“What one governing board member said was ‘all these emails and letters I got all said this is a bad development, you know we don’t need another golf course in Collier County’ – and he said it’s not up to the water management district to decide whether to approve a golf course or whether it’s a good or bad development. All we can do is apply our standards, and we’re not a zoning commission.”

McElwaine says the case will likely wind up in court…although there are still several key approvals to be won. The U-S Army Corps of Engineers must give its nod…as well as the Collier County Commission…before the project can move forward.

Business leaders announced a new public/private initiative Wednesday to help provide affordable housing for teachers in Lee County – right away. It comes as developers are finding fewer condo buyers at present prices. At least fifty new condominiums at a development called “Osprey Cove” will be sold soon -- to educators only. Qualified teachers from the Lee County School System as well as Edison Community College and Florida Gulf Coast University – can buy the 2-bedroom two-bath condos for about 100-thousand dollars BELOW their appraised value. Lee County School Superintendent James Browder says it’s a great start to addressing the affordable housing shortage.

“Iits one of the two or three things we struggle with because teachers can’t afford to come here and live and this will at least start that thinking in our community – we need to do things to attract the best and brightes.t”

Lee County recruits about five hundred new teachers every year. Funds to help reduce mortgages were provided by a number of local businesses – with a million dollars coming from developer ‘Bonita Bay Group’. Osprey Cove will be ready for occupants by December.

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Lee County business leaders are taking a proactive stance to provide affordable housing for educators. Wednesday they announced a public-private initiative called “Homes for Teachers”. Businesses are putting up money to help educators buy homes at a soon to be completed condominium complex in South Lee County.
Scott Edmonds, President of Chicos, says the clothing retailer is delighted to participate.

“One of the toughest issues we face when recruiting executives from places like new york city and Chicago is the quality of our education system in lee county. teachers are the cornerstone of our education system and in order to provide the best educational opportunities for children in our community we need to start with the best teachers and in order to attract the best teachers we must be able to provide affordable housing for them and their families.”

Fifty condominium units at Osprey Cove will held for qualified teachers only – from the Lee County School System, Edison Community College and Florida Gulf Coast University. The condos will be ready in December and sell for about 180 thousand dollars.

If you’re a coffee drinker and your cup of choice is decaf, you might be surprised to learn there’s probably caffeine in that java. W-G-C-U’s Russell Lewis reports on the latest findings by University of Florida researchers. The U-F study found low-levels of caffeine in virtually all decaf coffees they analyzed. This included drinks purchased at Starbucks and brands you can buy at the supermarket. U-F Toxicology Director Bruce Goldberger co-authored the study. He says doctors order many people to limit their caffeine because of health reasons like high-blood pressure.

“There are people out there that do drink five and ten cups of decaf coffee a day. So that amount of caffeine can add up even to be the same as say as a pill of no-doze or equivalent to one, or two or maybe three cups of regular coffee depending on the strength of the caffeine in those coffees.”

The Charlotte County School District is hosting 3 ground breaking ceremonies today. They reflect the district’s continued recovery from Hurricane Charley which devastated the county in 2004. Hurricane Charley damaged 10 schools in Charlotte County – six of them beyond repair. Now plans to rebuild three of them are complete. School and Community relations officer Mike Riley says the triple groundbreakings mark a milestone.

“We have reached a settlement with fema and our insurance and then received a guaranteed maximum price from the architects, engineers and builders so we were able to go ahead with those three schools so we thought we’d go ahead and make a it a great day and do all three at one time.”

The price tag for rebuilding the 3 schools is about 112 million dollars.
A rebuilt Neil Armstrong Elementary and Baker Head Start Center will welcome back students in mid 2007. Punta Gorda Middle School’s new campus should be ready by early 2008.

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Charlotte County School officials have a busy morning planned. They’re attending groundbreaking ceremonies for three schools being rebuilt following destruction by Hurricane Charley in 2004. Students from Neil Armstrong Elementary, the Baker Center and Punta Gorda Middle School have attended class in portables since then. Community Relations Officer Mike Riley says the new schools represent a wide-ranging collaboration.

“one of the things that’s unique about the planning and building of this school is the children have been involved – school staff – cafeteria folks – teachers – parents have been involved – and what we’ve done is built the school to fits the needs of our community”

The price tag for the three rebuilt schools is about 112 million dollars. The new campuses should all be up and running by early 2008. The student population in Charlotte County declined by 11-hundred following Hurricane Charley – but enrollment is once again on the rise.

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office is asking motorists to do what they can to eliminate traffic fatalities. The Collier County Commission says it’s taken the first step, proclaiming Tuesday as “Put the Brakes on Fatalities Day”. It’s part of a nationwide effort to remind drivers to be a little more vigilant on the roads, take better care of their vehicles, wear seatbelts and not be in such a rush. Lieutenant Harold Minch of the Collier Sheriff’s traffic enforcement bureau says doing that makes the roads safer.

“Every fatality is a tragedy to both the family and the community. So whether we have...we had 61 total last year, we’ve had 47 so far this year, we may be under our number. We may come in under 61. But coming in underneath that doesn’t help us any. There are still 47 families that are suffering a loss this year.”

Minch says drunk drivers are one of the biggest problems. Last year in Collier County, nearly 40-percent of the deaths were alcohol-related.
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The Collier County Board of Commissioners has declared Tuesday as “Put the Brakes on Fatalities Day”. Commissioners and law enforcement officials say too many people die needlessly on area roads. This year in Collier alone, 47 have died. Sheriff’s Lieutenant Harold Minch says slowing down, wearing seatbelts and driving sensibly helps.

“If you put all the prongs together: properly built and engineered roadways, cars that are in proper condition and working order. And there’s been some tremendous gains in the technology of vehicles to help us out: airbag curtains on the side, traction control systems help us out a great deal. And then the enforcement is for those folks who just will not pay attention.”

New poll numbers find Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist leading Democrat Jim Davis by 10 points with just under a month before the election. 3-percent of those polled by Quinnipiac University say they’re still undecided, and another 28-percent say they could still change their minds. It’s the first major poll to look at the two main candidates side by side. Quinnipiac’s Peter Brown says Crist is doing better among Democrats than Davis is with Republicans…

“Davis is only getting 74-percent of the Democratic vote while Crist is getting 22-percent…by comparison Davis is only getting 7-percent of the Republican vote. And to top things off Crist is winning Independent voters by 7 points. And all of that adds up to a pretty solid lead a month from the election.”

Brown says the poll also found 57-percent of likely voters hadn’t heard enough about Davis to form an opinion yet. And most who support him do so because he’s a Democrat. And he says when asked which issue was most important, property taxes won by a landslide.

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The first major poll comparing Florida’s two main gubernatorial candidates finds Republican Charlie Crist with a 10 point lead over Democrat Jim Davis. Quinnipiac University conducted the poll of likely voters last week. Pollster Peter Brown says while there are only 10 points or so between them…Davis has significantly less name recognition than Crist does.

“Almost 6 in 10 voters – 57-percent – said they hadn’t heard enough about Davis to form an opinion, and we’re only a month from the election. In fact fully half of Davis voters say the reason they’re for him is because of his political party. In other words, they really don’t know that much about Davis.”

Brown says Davis has a tough job ahead of him to get his name out there before the November 7th election. The poll also asked which issue was most important to voters. Brown says property taxes got the most votes in that race…

Southwest Florida citrus pickers are in the fields this week, collecting the first fruit of the season. This region’s crop is worth a billion dollars to the local economy and growers are worried they won’t be able to find enough help this year. It comes after authorities have arrested some illegal immigrants and scared away others. Ron Hamel of the LaBelle-based Gulf Citrus Growers Association says so far there have been no labor shortages. But that might not be the case in a few months.

“We’re still apprehensive going in to see as we start picking up volume if some of our harvesting crews that are not yet in our region will be back. So we’re keeping our fingers crossed and we’re optimistic that as we move forward into the season we’ll be able to have enough harvesting help.”

Orange juice prices are up more than eight-percent this year and consumer demand has dropped. If Florida citrus remains on the trees because of a labor shortage, the cost will go even higher. Florida is second only to Brazil in global orange juice production.

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The first part of Southwest Florida’s citrus crop is being picked this week. It comes as concern mounts over whether there are enough workers this year to collect all the fruit on the trees. Citrus is worth an estimated billion dollars to the Southwest Florida economy. Two years of devastating hurricanes spread crop diseases and knocked healthy fruit to the ground. And now concerns over illegal immigration are scaring some workers away this year, further hobbling the industry. Ron Hamel of the LaBelle-based Gulf Citrus Growers Association says it’s a good sign there haven’t been labor shortages yet early in the season -- but he worries what will happen in the next few months.

“We’re certainly going to need enough help to get that crop in and we’re hoping that we’ll be able to achieve that in an orderly fashion.”

Hamel says he’s keeping his fingers crossed that his Southwest Florida citrus growers will have enough help to harvest their crop rather than let it wither on the tree.

THE RACE FOR FLORIDA GOVERNOR IS IN ITS FINAL WEEKS. ONCE THE VOTES ARE TALLIED, EITHER REPUBLICAN CHARLIE CRIST OR DEMOCRAT JIM DAVIS WILL BE THE NEW RESIDENT OF THE GOVERNOR'S MANSION IN TALLAHASSEE.
THE POLLSTERS FROM QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY IN CONNECTICUT ARE WATCHING THE RACE CLOSELY. THE UNIVERSITY IS REPRESENTED IN FLORIDA BY PETER BROWN OF ORLANDO. PAT DUGGINS SPOKE WITH HIM ON THE LATEST NUMBERS...

The ribbon will be cut this morning on a new water treatment plant in North Fort Myers. It’s Lee County Utilities’ first venture into reverse osmosis technology. The city of Cape Coral has used reverse osmosis, or r/o, to make brackish groundwater suitable for consumption for well over a decade. Now the county has followed suit. Patty DiPiero is a spokeswoman for Lee County Utilities.

“We knew that the population was growing here in Southwest Florida and we knew it was becoming a stress on our freshwater aquifers, so when we did this we considered an alternative water source for the project to meet those demands.”

The 32-million-dollar plant has actually been operating for a month – serving the water needs of about 42 thousand people. R/O costs more than traditional water treatment. But so far, rates have not gone up. Another R/O plant is under construction in South Lee County.
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Water is being pumped to Lee County Utility Customers in North Fort Myers from a new treatment plant. The facility uses reverse osmosis, or R-O, to make slightly-brackish groundwater fit for consumption. Patty DiPiero of Lee County Utilities says...so far, so good.

“We have some experienced some customers saying they did notice a change in the water quality they’re enjoying the water quality and seen some changes in water pressure coming out of the pipes. So far all the feedback has been positive.”

The county is using R-O because fresh groundwater reserves are shrinking. The plant includes two, 2-point-5 million gallon storage tanks and provides water to approximately 42 thousand people. The official ribbon cutting is today at 11:00.

It’s only one month until Election Day so the party faithful have kicked up their campaigning. Voters in Lee County will found volunteers at their doors Saturday. The Republican Party of Florida gathered 50 to 75 volunteers to kick off a grassroots campaign effort in Cape Coral. They’ll be walking through various precincts, knocking on voter’s doors and speaking with them face to face. The party’s communications director, Jeff Sadosky, says the tactic works.

“Ultimately when voters are able to talk to someone they know, someone from their neighborhood or across the street or someone they work with they can identify with the issues more and it’s been incredibly successful and it’s something that we hang our hat on.”

Sadowsky says the Florida Republican Party has held these precinct walks across the state for the past few months and they will continue to increase until election day.

The volunteers have been trained on the main issues as well as campaign laws regarding what they can and cannot talk about.
Meanwhile the Democratic Party faithful rallied with Senator Barak Obama Friday in Miami.


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The Republican Party of Florida kicks its campaigning up a notch this weekend in Lee County. It has field staff in about 25 offices across the state including in Collier and Lee Counties. They’ve been setting up phone banks calling voters each weeknight and starting tomorrow they’ll conduct precinct walks through neighborhoods. The party’s communications director, Jeff Sadosky, says the volunteers will knock on doors and talk substance.

“Our folks have learned about the issues and learned about what they can and cannot say in terms of campaign laws and best process for motivating voters.”

The first Lee County precinct walk is tomorrow in Cape Coral. Volunteers are still needed. Meet at 11:00 at the Republican Victory Office in Cape Coral.

Meanwhile today in Miami, Illinois Senator Barak Obama campaigned in support of Jim Davis of the Florida Democratic Party.

The general election is 32 days away.