WEEK OF MARCH 15, 2023
VOLUME 61, NUMBER 17
Council hears of treatment park, storm recovery By TIFFANY REPECKI
trepecki@breezenewspapers.com
Richard Johnson (center)
PHOTOS PROVIDED
Incumbents retain seats on city council By TIFFANY REPECKI
trepecki@breezenewspapers.com
wo members of the Sanibel City Council were re-elected in landslide victories on March 7. In the city of Sanibel's Regular Election, Mayor Holly Dineen Smith and Vice Mayor Richard Johnson were running to retain their seats against two challengers, Jude Sincoskie and Troy Cobb Thompson. Johnson came in as the top vote-getter with 1,733 — 39.91% of the total ballots counted. Smith was close behind
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in second, garnering 1,703 votes — 39.22% of the ballots cast. Sincoskie took third place with 478 total votes — 11.01% — and Thompson came in fourth with a total of 428 votes — 9.86%. According to the Lee County Elections Office, a total of 2,277 ballots were cast between the two precincts on Sanibel: 1,209 were mail-ins; 1,063 on Election Day; and were five provisional ballots. “I'm absolutely thrilled and honored See INCUMBENTS, page 3 Holly Dineen Smith
The Sanibel City Council received the annual report for the Jordan Marsh Water Quality Treatment Park and heard post-hurricane recovery updates from city staff during its recent meeting, as well as approved ordinance amendments to the city's Code related to architectural and design requirements. On March 7, Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation Marine Laboratory research associate Mark Thompson and city Natural Resources Department environmental biologist Dana Dettmar presented the year three monitoring report for the Jordan Marsh park. Natural Resources Department Director Holly Milbrandt led into the presentation by explaining that the data for year three ended before the storm. Thompson reported that the influent flow was 570,661 gallons per day, about half what was pumped during the prior year. During year three, 208,291,000 gallons went into the park and 181,702,000 gallons went out of it. He added that there was 13% water loss due to percolation evapotranspiration. The influent/effluent was sampled nine times throughout the year, and they sampled internal sites within the marsh seven times. The phosphorus load reduction was 29 pounds for year, meeting See COUNCIL, page 9
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Sanibel fire board OKs vehicle sale, funds for station By TIFFANY REPECKI
trepecki@breezenewspapers.com
The Sanibel Fire and Rescue District's commission approved the sale of a surplus district asset and funding used for the temporary fire station at its recent meeting, as well as gave staff the green light to proceed with replacing the district's beach response vehicle and heard about post-hurricane updates. On March 8, the commissioners voted 2-0 on a motion to sell the 2017 Nissan Frontier — a surplus asset of the district. The board also voted 2-0 in agreement with the purchase of pre-procured items in a state of emergency for temporary Station 172 on SanibelCaptiva Road and setting up services at it. Prior to the vote, Fire Chief Kevin Barbot explained that the costs associated with the temporary structure totaled about $102,000 and the district
recouped about $105,000 Also at the meeting, from the insurance. Barbot provided an update “We're still $3,000 on temporary Station 172. under budget for getting “We've already the station in place,” he responded to many calls said. out of that station,” he Also during the meetsaid. ing, Barbot reported that As for a permanent stathe district would receive tion, Barbot reported that an insurance payout for the district received two the Gator utility vehicle proposals for the design that was totaled in the hurand rebuild. He noted that ricane. It was used to both firms are highly qualrespond to calls on the ified and know the fire beach. He asked if staff service arena and buildFire Chief should wait or proceed ings. Kevin Barbot with replacing it — which “We're pretty happy was already in the budget pre-storm. with the two that we have,” Barbot said. Commissioner Jerry Muench voiced He outlined some of the criteria that concern about crews not being able to the district is seeking in terms of design effectively respond to emergencies on with the new station, including 6,000 the beach, and the commission directed square feet, a two-story structure, and staff to proceed with obtaining quotes. See FIRE BOARD, page 5
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