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Lee County officials will decide later today whether to bill the organizers of last week’s Hispanic rally in Fort Myers for costs associated with the event. Lee Sheriff – Mike Scott – bought more than 600 sets of riot gear – including helmets, face shields and batons – at a cost of more than 300-thousand dollars.
The sheriff says the equipment was necessary to ensure the estimated 80-thousand marchers remained peaceful.
President of the Lee County Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union - John Symonik – says government agencies can’t just charge people for exercising their first amendment rights.

“That’s why we have a publicly funded police force. That’s why they’re given money so that when things come up like this they’re able to deal with it. But what they’re doing is trying to stifle free speech by charging fees for people to express their views.”

Symonik calls the idea “out of the ordinary” because what the sheriff is proposing has been ruled unconstitutional before. He says the ACLU is prepared to defend the church that sponsored last Monday’s march – as well as any protestors – against any attempt by Lee County to recover rally costs.

Lee County emergency managers say they’re concerned about a different kind of complacency this hurricane season. Lee Emergency Managers say there is concern that too many residents believe they’ve been through a direct hit from a major hurricane. Southwest Florida’s seen a lot of action during the last two hurricane seasons…with major land-falling storms Charley and Wilma.
But Chief of Planning for Lee County Emergency Management - Gerald Campbell – says they worry how people view the past two storm seasons.

“In Lee County we’ve had some close calls, we’ve had some significant hurricane damage…but most of our population has not experienced a major hurricane and we worry about complacency for that. Because now we’ve got people with possibly a misperception that they’ve been through a major storm when they have not.”

Campbell says residents have heard it, and will hear it again…be prepared to take full responsibility for yourself and your family for as long as two weeks after a storm – including stocking up on food, water, medicines and other supplies. Hurricane season gets underway June 1st.

The underlying theme of last week’s National Hurricane Conference in Orlando was “lessons learned”. But emergency managers in Lee County say they’re concerned about local complacency because some residents think they’ve already learned all they need to know about hurricanes, when that’s not necessarily the case.
EOC spokesman Gerald Campbell says he doesn’t want to make light of anyone who suffered damage from recent hurricanes, but most of them haven’t seen the real thing.

“Even in Hurricane Charley we didn’t have the storm surge that we expected from a category 4. And in Hurricane Wilma the majority of the winds and the surge stayed well south of most of Lee County, and we want people to understand that.”

Campbell says Lee County works year-round to teach its residents ways to better prepare for hurricanes. He says that’s a growing challenge because of the area’s rapidly growing population.

After several years of responding to devastating hurricanes like Wilma and Charley, the Lee County chapter of the American Red Cross says it’s learned valuable information about handling major disasters. The national chapter admitted this week it made mistakes after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast last August. Heidi Ruster is executive director of the Lee County chapter. She says her local organization is prepared...but they can always do a better job of getting bilingual volunteers and those in ethnic communities.

“I think we are very close to being there. I think it’s a constant process for us to recruit and train volunteers that reflect our population.”

Ruster says her chapter just landed a 20-thousand dollar grant for a Hispanic outreach program.

. Red Cross executive director Heidi Ruster says Florida’s chapters have been on the leading edge of help because of years of devastating hurricanes. The National Red Cross has admitted it made mistakes during Katrina last August...especially in providing assistance in ethnic and minority communities. Ruster says one-quarter of the local chapter’s 200 volunteers are bilingual.

“So, yes, we have many more volunteers than we used to have and people to be able to outreach to the appropriate communities and we can always increase that. But we’re a lot farther than where we were a couple years ago.”

Heavy traffic on Alico Road in South Lee County has created tortuous travel conditions for years- but ongoing efforts to widen the road should help- eventually. For now, construction related lane closures continue to aggravate drivers.

Starting at 6:00 this morning the section of Alico Road from Three Oaks Parkway to Indy road will close down to one lane in either direction; transportation officials warn drivers to expect delays. The closure is to allow for final paving and is expected to take ten days to complete. Once construction is finished, the road will offer six lanes from Dusty Road east to Three Oaks Parkway- a distance of 2.8 miles. This project cost $13.2 million and experienced its share of delays: from bad weather to battles over whether or not to remove railroad tracks. Lee County went to court in an effort to have them removed, but lost their legal battle. Instead, they paid around $1 million to improve the railroad crossing. More road improvements are in the area’s future: Sometime between July of this year and June next year, Alico Road will be widened from Dusty Road west to U.S. 41. The state also plans to reconfigure the interchange at I-75 and Alico Road; that project should be finished by next spring or summer.

Cape Coral Republican Congressman Connie Mack says he’ll do all he can to help establish a new Coast Guard Station in Southwest Florida. Mack serves on the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation and toured the Fort Myers Beach Coast Guard Station today. Officers told him their resources are stretched thin.

“I also heard loud and clear from them that another location south in Marco Island would be preferable for them because the region is so large that sometimes its difficult to cover the entire area just out of Ft. Myers”

Meanwhile, Mack says new software is helping the Coast Guard use radar and G-P-S more efficiently. He says funding for those programs comes from the Department of Homeland Security.


Congressman Connie Mack toured the Coast Guard station at Fort Myers Beach Friday. Mack took a look at new technology that’s helping the Coast Guard do its job better. But officers told him what’s really needed is an additional Coast Guard Station in Marco Island. The Cape Coral Republican say’s he’ll use his influence in Washington to help make that happen.

“Our border is up against the ocean and the coast guard is who protects us – protects our shores and so making sure they have the resources to get the job done is in all our interests”

Mack sits on the House subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation. He’s spending time in the district while Congress is in recess and will speak to the Men’s Republican Club in Naples Monday morning.

Last year, Debbie Johnston’s son committed suicide after years of being bullied and teased by classmates. Johnston has worked with state lawmakers to craft stronger laws on bullying. It would require school districts to punish students who bully others and set state standards on bullying. The measure has sailed through the House...but Johnston says the State Senate hasn’t set a hearing date. She says the bill is needed...and now!

“Kids do better in school when they feel safe. Problems addressed early on cost a lot less to fix then problems that later go on to be a lifelong pattern of abuse.”

Johnston says some lawmakers mistakenly think the anti-bullying bill discriminates against some students.

Governor Jeb Bush says he supports the measure and met with Johnston about it last month.

Although most of the planned town would be in Charlotte County, Kitson still needs to convince Lee County Commissioners to allow more development in the Lee portion before moving forward with his planned town of about 40-thousand people.

Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah says they’re reviewing Kitson’s proposal now…and it stands a pretty good chance of being approved.

Judah says while he would’ve like to see the whole property preserved, saving most of it is a good deal for everyone.

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“You know it’s unfortunate that the state just didn’t step in and work out a deal to purchase the entire 92-thousand acres. It could’ve been done, it wasn’t done. We’re now trying to deal with the next best option. And with 90-percent of the land being set aside to be protected, that’s a good chunk of land.”

Judah says to put it into perspective the amount of land that will be saved if this deal goes through would be twice what Lee County’s been able to set aside for preservation in the past 15 years.

About 14-thousand of the more than 90-thousand acre ranch is in Lee County.

Last summer, Debbie Johnston’s 15-year old son Jeffrey committed suicide after years of being bullied. The Trafalagar Middle School teacher has been on a crusade to get a law passed that cracks down on bullies and gives educators more tools to stop the abuse and force administrators to punish students who bully others. One bill has sailed through House Committees...but state senators haven’t begun any debate on a companion measure. Governor Jeb Bush supports the effort and met with Johnston last month. She says lawmakers must approve the bill this session.

“It means the world to be. Had it been in place Jeffrey wouldn’t have gone through the two years of torment that he had because it could have been addressed and this student who goes on to bully others is still not getting treatment.”

State lawmakers have only three more weeks to pass legislation before they adjourn in May