Estero Council of Community Leaders

Minutes of the Regular Monthly Meeting

                                                  Minutes of the 48th Monthly Meeting
                                                            January 19, 2007
 
The meeting was called to order by Chairman Eslick at 12:00 p.m. at the Estero Community Park.  A quorum was present.
 
Thirty-eight people were in attendance representing fifteen residential communities and four community wide organizations.  Four guests were present.
 
Guests were introduced.

Announcements

• Jane McNew reported for the Estero Civic Association regarding an event planned by the D’Jamoos Group. They are planning Estero on the River which will be located at US 41 and Corkscrew Road. A meeting will be held from 2-4:00 p.m. on February 5 to share their plan and take away with them the feedback they receive from the community.
• A new program called File for Life is being promoted by David Plummer, a semi-retired traffic engineer.  With this system, your automobile would have a sticker on your window identifying you as a participant in this program to any emergency personnel in case of an accident.  With the program, you would keep emergency information in the glove compartment in case of an accident.
• Chairman Eslick emphasized that this information and much of the information being discussed at the ECCL meetings may be accessed at the website, www.esterofl.org.
• A presentation will be given at the February meeting regarding the Agripartners four mile ditch that they want to dig.  The Conservancy has petitioned against this dig and will present their plan of action at the next meeting.

ECPP

Neal Noethlich suggested a motion that Don Eslick and he be reappointed as the ECCL member on the ECPP for one more year. Hearing no objections the motion passed unanimously. Neal also reported on the concept of mixed use of commercial/residential development. The county has approved a comprehensive plan amendment authorizing mixed use development and sent it on to Tallahassee for approval.

Mass Transit in Estero

Steven Myers of Lee Tran gave a power-point presentation showing the audience the current routes of Lee Tran including two new connections to Coconut Point, one from the north and one from the south.  He spoke of south Lee County transit needs assessment now underway that may result in additional routes and/or the addition of new equipment to meet the needs of the expanding population of South Lee County. Lee Tran operates with $3.5 million of federal funds for capital improvements; they use state funding both for capital improvements and for operating expenses. The county provides about 55% of their funding mostly for operations, not much for capital funding. Frequency of routes, waterborne service and rail transit are all a part of the 2030 plan of Lee Tran.

News-Press /Neighborhood News

Chelsea Samuel of the News Press announced that a new page will be added to the News Press. She particularly is interested in San Carlos Park, Estero and Bonita Springs.  She wishes local communities will send in their own interesting stories, events, milestone anniversaries, new residents, fabulous trips etc., for neighborhood news publication.  Contact may be made with Chelsea at estero@news-press.com.  These items will appear in Saturday edition of Estero Life.

Estero Community Improvement Foundation

Dan Dronkers handed out flyers for a breakfast fashion show/fund raiser at Dillard’s, catered by Panera Bread on February 16 at 8:30 a.m.  They will limit the audience to 300 attendees.  The cost is $25.  The Sprit of the Gulf is planning on another fund raising concert, but the date has not been set yet.  The committee would like to hold a fund raising golf tournament and are asking for volunteers who could organize this event.  Any other fund raising ideas will be listened to by Dan Dronkers and Jim Ramsburg.  Kite Realty has given $2,500 to the ECIF but the check has not been received by the treasurer.  This will be investigated.

Policy Coordination with the City of Bonita Springs

Sam Levy reported that the committee will meet with Lee Memorial Health Systems this coming Thursday, January 25.  Our demographics vs. their numbers will be discussed.  Lee Memorial co-owns the Bonita Community Health Center with NCH.  No discussions have been held with NCH, but hopes are that they will be held in the near future. A 100 bed hospital cost is estimated at $100 to $120 million.  It is important to have the help of Bonita Springs and San Carlos Park in this endeavor.
 
Bonita Springs City Council operates under the Sunshine Law and cannot commit to the extension of Sandy Lane south through Bonita until a study that they have commissioned is completed around June 2007.  Until this pending information is available the Council is not ready to push the County to fund some of this road project with ECCL at this time.  A letter has been sent to Commissioner Judah from the ECCL urging him to seek some funds for planning this segment of Sandy Lane with the awareness but not the support of the City Council.
 
The design needs to get started, as each of the three road development steps takes about two years.  The design will cost approximately $2 million.

Membership

Please let Barbara Akins know of changes in your community’s ECCL member or alternative.  The slate of officers for the 2007-2008 year was presented:  Don Eslick, Chairman, Sam Levy, Vice Chairman, Chris Smith, Treasurer and Faie Saunders, Secretary.  The slate was elected unanimously.  Two new Vice Chairman were also nominated; Jack Meeker and Don Vilnius.  Arnie Rosenthal has stepped down from his vice-chairmanship and he was thanked for his service. He has been appointed by Commissioner Mann to the County’s Workforce/Affordable Housing Task Force.

Spring Social

The spring social gathering is being planned for Country Creek and the tentative date is March 19. Further information will follow.

DR/GR, Mining and Truck Traffic

The ECCL has a few opportunities to obtain some grant money to study the future development of the DR/GR.  Bonita Springs has expressed a willingness to support us in these endeavors.
 
Don Rowe reported on the Agripartners/Edison Farms plan to dig a four mile ditch on the south and west side of their property just east of the Brooks; their plans are to develop the property. The Water district has issued a permit for this ditch; the timing was just before Christmas and very inconvenient for objections.  The Conservancy and Lee County have separately filed a petition for hearing on this decision, which the ECCL is supporting.
 
A meeting is scheduled with Lee DOT to go over the data needs and procedures for truck traffic studies.  It is a comprehensive data base with frequency of traffic and increases in traffic, etc. After that meeting a better understanding will be had in order to later assess the mining truck traffic on Corkscrew Road and other Estero roadways.
 
The county has hired a consultant that will consolidate all of the information about the DR/GR.  Charles Pattison of 1000 Friends of Florida came to meet with representatives of the ECCL.  He is one of the most knowledgeable people in the state when it comes to land use planning and conservation.  The DR/GR covers 96,000 acres and covers 150 square miles.
 
The E O Dunn foundation may give us a grant that would help with the funding in order to provide some leadership in this regard.

Property and Casualty Insurance Reform

Scotty Wood reported that his committee sent a letter to the Florida Senate Banking and Insurance Committee.  A similar letter was sent to the House.  Included were thirteen guiding principals suggested by his ECCL Insurance Reform Task Force. He stated that he was pleased that nine or ten of their principals were included in what is being supported by the legislature.  He feels that the legislation will have enough “meat” for the Governor to sign and hopes for 15-20% relief.

East Corkscrew Road Mining

Tom Hart, representing the residents of East Corkscrew Road who live near the proposed mines came before the ECCL to discuss the pending mining applications and his clients’ needs.  There are three mines operating right now.  One is about 300 acres, and the others are 255 acres and 1400 acres.  The neighbors are affected by blasting, noise, traffic and dust and dirt.  For the Estero community, as a whole, it is and will increasingly be affected by mine truck traffic.   The trucks from these mines are supposed to use Alico Road, however, there is no policing of this restriction and the trucks use the most convenient route to I-75, which is more often than not, Corkscrew Road. On one day, you may have 2,500 truck trips on Corkscrew Road.  Three additional mines are putting in applications in the next few months to open for business. Mr. Hart hopes to convince the county staff, hearing examiner and eventually the county commissioners that this industrial activity is not appropriate for this area. A motion was made that Mr. Hart be able to represent the voice of the ECCL in these efforts along with his East Corkscrew clients.  The ECCL will not be “hiring” Mr. Hart, just giving him the authority to speak for us on this matter. The motion was moved, seconded unanimously approved. 

Website Report

Kim Dailey has reported to us that the visits to the website keep exploding.  We have almost 300 visits per day; we are doing four times the traffic we had last year at this time.

Arts Development Council Report

Cas Obie reported that the “Evening on Fashion Drive” had 1,000 people visit the Arts Estero display; they served 600 glasses of wine and ran out.  Brochures and flyers were passed out.  The Southwest Symphony is giving a concert in the Estero Community Park tomorrow, January 20.  The next concert will be on Sunday, March 3. It was agreed that all involved did not do a good job of promoting this first concert.   February 16 and 17 will be the dates for Arts in Estero 2007 at Coconut Point.  Arts and entertainment will be all over the outdoor mall.  
 
The meeting was adjourned at 2:00 p.m.  Next meeting will be Friday, February 16 at 1:00.  This is a new time.  Future meetings will start at 1:00 p.m. at the Estero Community Park.
 
Respectfully submitted,
Faie Saunders, Secretary