To the editor:
I sent the following to Cape Coral City Council in advance of Wednesday’s meeting:
First of all, spending $500,000 on a vanity project our “illustrious” city manager thinks will attract visitors to the city is misplaced. No one is going to drive 45 minutes to an hour off the interstate to look at a tall flagpole. He anticipates the cost to be $500,000 but I doubt one can be installed for that.
In this Resolution, the City Manager is asking to move the historical monument at the base of the Cape Coral Bridge. Yet another example of the city administration methodically exterminating our history. And what happens if the monument is destroyed while trying to move it? He is essentially asking our rubber-stamp council to give him the go ahead to move the monument with absolutely no dollar amount attached. My guess is he will move the monument Immediately if not sooner, especially if citizens start pushing back on his agenda. He did it with Jaycee Park, sending in demolition crews to destroy what was there and with the Yacht Club by tearing down the community center while people were trying to save it and have it rebuilt.
I researched tall flagpoles and there is a 10% rule for all flagpoles. That means for a 250 foot flagpole, it would have to be installed with 25 feet underground, EMBEDDED IN CONCRETE. Now how will this be accomplished when the water table at Bernice Braden Park is maybe 6-8 feet? Then consider the shipping of this waste of money. What would the cost be to ship a 250-plus flag pole and it would have to be a single piece — not segmented as segmented poles would not survive the high winds we experience here during storms.
The tallest flagpole in the country is in Wisconsin at 400 feet tall. It is embedded in 685 cubic yards of concrete 40 feet underground. Ours would be a project that would inevitably involve the EPA and Florida DEP based on the immediate proximity to the river where HE wants to put it. Apparently, like Jaycee Park and the Yacht Club, the people who pay for everything have no say — they simply ignore us and do whatever the city manager wants.
Then there is the matter of the impact on traffic on Cape Coral Parkway during an installation and it will negatively impact the SlipAway. And did he ever consider the noise an approximately 60′ x 80′ flag would make? What provisions is he planning to take the flag down during high winds? Does he ever think that far ahead?
Then there is the matter of the “fundraising.” How is the city manager going to account for and document the donations? Jars in retail establishments would be a recipe for fraud and embezzlement IMHO. Will donations be tax deductible, how will receipts be monitored and recorded? And if funds raised are in excess of the target amount will go where? I know I don’t want the city manger to decide how they would be used. And if the fundraising falls short — then what? We have to pay for it?
Instead of using money for this unnecessary expenditure, why not raise the money and use it for after school activities -like a Boys and Girls Club or a centrally located YMCA? Give the kids somewhere to go after school, especially for families with two working parents. But no. Never do anything for the people — just the developers. The city owns over 1800 properties in the city. PROPERTIES THAT ARE NOT BEING TAXED so I’m sure there are properties that can be used so tax dollars can be collected. But no. That would make sense
I’m probably wasting my time writing this, you never do anything we want and NEVER negotiate with us. COMPROMISE is not in your vocabulary unless, of course, you are a developer. But be advised, blind copies are going to the news outlets so you can’t deny ever receiving this. During the COW when the City Manager brought this idea up, it was rightfully met with ridicule. Yet I have little to no faith you will scrap this ludicrous waste of money at a time you are crying about significant future funding shortages for important things, like infrastructure. You keep approving median beautification projects to the tune of millions, when what we need are not medians but more lanes to handle the intense traffic here in the city. The priorities are messed up.
I doubt many, if any will read this before this afternoon’s meeting. The whole spiel the mayor gives every meeting that if we want answers, just email them. Yeah. No. That doesn’t work. The last three meetings I attended, I emailed all council members, City Manager and City Attorney and in the subject line I put “please acknowledge receipt”. It would take seconds to open the email and hit ‘Reply’, and only ONE council member did that. Whether he read the email or not is unknown, but he took the three second to open the email and hit “Reply.” Guess we aren’t worth a few seconds of their time. That Council member was Keith Long. I didn’t expect a response from our City Manager as he clearly stated in a recent meeting that he does not have to respond to emails. That attitude, however, is in direct violation of the city organizational chart that puts the PEOPLE at the top of the chart. I strongly suggest Cape Coral revise their organizational chart and put DEVELOPERS at the top. Maybe they’ll have room to put citizens at the bottom if at all.
Marie Kavanaugh
Cape Coral