WEEK OF MAY 17, 2023
VOLUME 38, NUMBER 20
School board, council make deal on Beach School By NATHAN MAYBERG
nmayberg@breezenewspapers.com
Unanimous votes by the Lee County School Board and Town of Fort Myers Beach Council on an interlocal agreement for the rebuilding of the Beach Elementary School, will return students to the school this fall. The move was lauded by parents
and board members after months of negotiations on the terms of the agreement, which requires the cost-per-student at the elementary school to be lowered to the level of the other barrier island schools in the district through increasing enrollment. If costs do not go down enough and enrollment doesn’t increase enough by 2026,
the public school could be turned onto a charter school per the terms of the agreement. “It’s something we can live with,” said Beach Elementary parent Monica Schmucker. Schmucker helped negotiate the agreement with other parents and community members as part of an ad-hoc committee. “I think it’s a win for us,” Schmucker said.
Schmucker thanked town attorney John Herin Jr. for his efforts in working with the school district’s attorneys to formulate the agreement and represent the town. Schmucker said she felt Herin was “thrown in almost blind at the beginning. He worked very, very hard to listen and engage with us, understand the parents, understand the concerns, and most importantly involve the parents.” See BEACH SCHOOL, page 12
FEMA approves $6 million in aid for beach restoration By NATHAN MAYBERG
nmayberg@breezenewspapers.com
One homeowner makes tough choice on family beach home By NATHAN MAYBERG
nmayberg@breezenewspapers.com
ince the late 1920s, Patti Smith’s family vacationed on Fort Myers Beach at their Miramar Street cottage on the beach side of Estero Boulevard. While the family will always have those memories, the physical home they shared those times in is now gone — bulldozed recently due to the damage from Hurricane Ian. Smith had to make the difficult decision due to the high cost of rebuilding to the new hurricane codes. “I went back and forth, back and forth. I put business before my heart,” Smith said. Smith’s grandfather Henry Jennings bought the home in 1928, while taking a vacation with his wife May from their home in Tennessee. “We had no idea why he was there,” Smith said. “We figured he did it for my grandmother. He was not a beach guy.” Smith, who grew up in Alabama, used to regularly visit the home for vacations after it was passed down to her mother Jeanette. Smith admits that her early memories of going to the beach were “miserable. There was nothing to do there” when she was growing up in the 1960s, she said. She remembers a 7-Eleven and a Dairy Queen. After her mother died, her sister bought out the shares of her brothers for the ownership stake in the home. Her sister maintained the home, replacing windows and the roof. About 15 years ago, the home was sold to a family from Wisconsin. Smith, who lives in Manhattan, decided to take a vacation in Fort Myers Beach “on a whim” a few years ago and saw the cottage was for sale. She visited the cottage with her
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brother and recognized old pictures, a vase, bowls, cabinets and furniture from when the home was in her family’s hands. A religious experience fell over Smith and she decided to buy it back. An interior designer by profession, she did appreciate the cyprus wood that it was built out of now that she was older. “It was so charming inside,” she said. Smith said she had “no idea” why she felt compelled to buy it back, but felt as though she was sent there “to be enlightened” and to “find a resting place for myself.” Smith renovated the home and started vacationing there and renting it out to others. The cottage became popular as a vacation rental for its proximity to the beach. During the COVID pandemic, she stayed at the cottage for about three months. For the first two months of the pandemic, she said she was “petrified. I didn’t know what would happen to my business.” When caution tape when up at the beach accesses, Smith would go out to the edge of the beach access points with a chair to read a book. “It was so awkward” not to be able to go on the beach, she said. “It was the safest place to be.” See SAYING GOODBYE, page 13 Before and after: Patti Smith’s Miramar Street cottage on the beach side of Estero Boulevard was a tear-down due to damage from Hurricane Ian. PHOTOS PROVIDED
The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that it approved a grant of $5,978,207 to reimburse Lee County for emergency work after Hurricane Ian at Fort Myers Beach. The aid is for the construction of emergency berms with 86,969 cubic yards of sand and 29,100 native plants to stabilize the beach and protect it from a 5-year storm. The work covers 28,000 linear feet of beach. With this grant, FEMA public assistance funding for Lee County to date totals $35.9 million. The total for all applicants within Lee County is $144.3 million. According to Jon Mills, spokesperson for FEMA, the agency has provided $79.9 million to the state of Florida for Fort Myers Beach since Hurricane Ian, as of April 11. Those include $65.8 million in debris removal projects, $7.6 million in emergency protective measures, $648,000 for the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District. Other reimbursement projects are being developed, Mills said. FEMA provided $2.4 billion for 28,000 flood insurance claims submitted in Lee County through since Hurricane Ian, as of April 11. In addition, FEMA has paid $458 million in individual assistance to approximately 98,000 households in Lee County since Hurricane Ian. About 4,500 households in Fort Myers Beach have been granted approximately $70 million in individual aid. Those funds include “temporary rental assistance, basic home repairs and other needs not covered by insurance,” Mills said. Statewide, more than $1 billion in individual assistance was approved by FEMA See FEMA, page 12
Commentary................................4 Beach Living............................................8 insidetoday Guest Business..................................................6 Beach Bulletin..................................15-23
Classifieds.............25