To the editor:
Whatever your feelings may be regarding the inclusion of the Cape Coral Rowing Club in Tropicana Park, what’s happening here is a cautionary tale that every resident should take note of, particularly in an election year. The reason this case is important is because it highlights willful disregard of prior commitments and blatant mismanagement of taxpayer dollars. There’s also a little dose of “trust me” thrown in to make this whole thing reek even more.
By now, everyone is likely aware that the city voted in 2020 to include the rowing club in the new Tropicana Park. Park designs have included the club’s future leasable space since that decision. Then, in 2022, when the club was asked to vacate its home of 15 years in Cape Harbour, city staff prepared a lease agreement for space on one of the Seven Islands to provide a temporary home for the club just south of the Tropicana Park site. Council unanimously approved that lease and the club has been operating at that location ever since.
In the six long years since the 2020 decision, there were ample opportunities for two of the four dissenters — the mayor and Councilmember Long — to ask for reconsideration of the decision to include the rowing club at Tropicana. Tropicana Park wasn’t even fully permitted until late July 2024. A request to build the custom floating dock at Crystal Lake could have been brought forth during that four-year period and incorporated into the other park’s plan. But it was not. In fact, the bid package for Tropicana was released shortly following receipt of the ACOE permit and included the state-of-the-art floating dock system. The council unanimously approved the contract award to Burke Construction Group on Oct. 30, 2024. That was the day the two dissenters voted YES to spend your money ($5 million) on a park that included a nearly half million dollar dock system that accommodated rowing, even though they had no intention of allowing the rowing club to reside there.
That is an egregious breach of public trust and a total waste of your tax dollars.
Sure, the dock is open to the public. No question about that. But it was designed to accommodate ALL non-motorized water sports INCLUDING rowing. Kayakers could easily be accommodated with just the kayak launch ($40K) or beach launching. Stand-up paddle boarders could also launch at the beach. So, the bulk of your floating dock money was spent on equipment necessary to facilitate safe launching of rowing shells. This was an intentional spending decision unanimously approved by the mayor and the sitting council. How do these guys justify voting to spend hundreds of thousands of your tax dollars on Oct. 30, 2024, and now voting against the organization that was approved to provide community programs utilizing that very asset? If you were a YES when it was time to spend the money, you need to be a YES after it’s been spent. And if you are not, you’d better have a half million dollar reason why not. You owe that to the taxpayers of this city.
Now, let’s address the talk about moving the rowing club to Crystal Lake. At this point, no viable, formal proposal for any accommodation at this location has been made.
There have been statements made by city officials IN PUBLIC about plans that apparently involve handling of the club’s privately-owned asset (our well-used and undersized floating dock) and placement of it along a seawall across from the active boat ramp at Crystal Lake. These city officials had no prior conversation with the club about these vague proposals ahead of their public announcements. We learned about them when you did. We have not even been asked whether our insurance policy permits some unnamed strangers to handle relocation of our asset. We’ve not been informed how the proposed transport would take place or who would be charged with executing it. We’ve not been advised how our asset would be properly attached to shore via new control arms at this location. We don’t know who will be charged with building or purchasing said control arms. We have not been given a plan for any safe or viable gangplank from atop the 6-foot seawall down to our little floating dock. Any properly designed rowing gangplank traversing the height of the seawall in question will likely need to be much longer than the one in place at Tropicana (8′ wide x 50′ long; $25,000 + installation costs) to achieve a safe pitch angle that kids can walk down carrying a 225-pound boat overhead. A gangplank of this size and weight will likely sink the club’s small floating dock – especially if it’s constructed and installed by random people with no prior experience with these types of systems. I’ve clarified that our requirement for a 60-foot-deep staging area means having to locate a gangplank over riprap and through mangroves because we can’t stage or carry a boat through an area where trees have been planted at the park. The response to this was to simply move the trees. I’m astounded at the energy being expended towards coming up with a sub-optimal, off-book, back-door solution that apparently depends on labor from unknown volunteers and donated materials from local businesses. All of this when the perfect solution has already been built and paid for. There are no written plans, no drawings, no cost estimates, no list of experienced, licensed contractors.
No nonprofit president could accept any of this in good conscience. It would be wholly irresponsible and a breach of trust to all our members. Throwing out ideas and pretending to present solutions is just a way to cover one’s back and claim that the forced liquidation of the rowing club is my fault because I wouldn’t “compromise.” The fact is, I have no legitimate, viable proposal to even assess.
If the city council is being honest about supporting the rowing club and wanting to keep the amenity in the Cape, then they need to provide us with a credible, properly engineered plan to provide safe access to the waterway at Crystal Lake Park. It seems clear that everyone knows the only way to do that correctly is to remove the riprap and some mangroves, grade the slope to water, and invest in another appropriately safe dock system designed for rowers. A legitimate and safe solution still means hundreds of thousands MORE taxpayer dollars and another four-six year wait time.
As taxpayers, we have no appetite to spend the money and we know we don’t have the time at our temporary location to outlast the permitting wait. So, the ONLY solution that keeps the rowing club in operation and positions it for long-term success is honoring the 2020 commitment and approving our license agreement at Tropicana Park.
Whether people care about the services provided by the rowing club to our community’s youth and adults or not, they should definitely care about this frivolous and careless waste of our tax dollars and erosion of public trust. They should also raise eyebrows at this attempt to sell us on some unspecified, back-room deal at Crystal Lake that is being packaged as a “long term solution.” Just trust me!
Sorry to say, that ship sailed when you changed your position and sacrificed children’s future opportunities for a few votes.
Sandra Weston
President, Cape Coral Rowing Club