WEEk of NoVEmBER 6, 2024
VoLumE 62, NumBER 51
County board OKs Lee Health privatization By NATHAN MAYBERG
nmayberg@breezenewspapers.com
Veterans Day Celebration to honor service members By TIFFANY REPECKI trepecki@breezenewspapers.com The community will have the chance to recognize U.S. military service members next week. Presented by the MG James L Dozier Lee Coast Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America, the Annual Veterans Day Celebration will take place on Nov. 11 at 10:55 a.m. at the flagpole outside of the Sanibel City Hall. Music will be performed at 10:45 a.m. before the program's start. “It is to celebrate and recognize the veterans,” retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Fred Bondurant, an organizer of the event and former chapter president, said of the long-standing island tradition.
If you go What Annual Veterans Day Celebration
In a special meeting on Oct. 28, the Lee County Board of County Commissioners voted to privatize Lee Health while approving a mission agreement. The move, referred to by Lee Health as the “conversion to a community-focused nonprofit organization,” will take away the public’s ability to vote on the board members Dr. Larry of the Lee Health Antonucci Special District Board of Directors and it also will transfer assets into the new entity. Officials said the conversation will not have a negative impact on patient care but will bring new opportunities to Lee See LEE HEALTH, page 21
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When Nov. 11 starting at 10:55 a.m. Where Sanibel City Hall, 800 Dunlop Road, Sanibel Details Free and open to the community
See VETERANS DAY, page 20
Keeping an eye on red tide in Southwest Florida On Oct. 25, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) reported that the red tide organism (Karenia brevis) was found in background to high concentrations in 49 samples offshore of Southwest Florida, according to the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation. The SCCF reported that red tide — a harmful algal bloom caused by K. brevis — can develop or intensify due to multiple factors: wind, ocean currents, or upwellings of nutrient-rich water from storms. Once a red tide bloom is present,
SANIBEL-CAPTIVA CONSERVATION FOUNDATION
polluted watershed runoff or Lake Okeechobee releases can lead to intensification. It can have massive impacts on ecosystems, communities and economies. In Lee County, data from the NOAA National Center for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) and the FWC indicate multiple offshore samples with very low to medium red tide concentrations. The SCCF Marine Laboratory's samples from the beach on Sanibel on Oct. 29-30 did not detect K. brevis. “The dynamics of this event are hard to See RED TIDE, page 21
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