City to look to a ‘plan B’ for rowers
As of Wednesday’s Cape Coral City Council meeting, the Cape Coral Rowing Club’s new home will not be Tropicana Park, leaving the club’s future still in flux.
Saundra Weston, Cape Coral Rowing Club youth coach, and director for youth rowing, said their stay at their current location is uncertain.
“When I entered into a lease agreement with the Seven Islands developer in early February, the expectation was that we’d be moving into Tropicana Park. Based on the park’s stated completion date of May 29, the hope was that we could make the transition to Tropicana Park by the end of this year. The lease is month to month because of this expectation,” she said.
With the council’s vote to come up with a Plan B for the Rowing Club, but not at Tropicana Park, Weston said, that likely means they will not be able to offer youth programs this fall.
Council, meanwhile, has no agreed-upon location though it appears that Tropicana Park, where the city spent nearly $500,000 to build a dock designed for rowing craft in general and for the club specifically, is officially out.
After lengthy discussion Wednesday, and no reconsideration vote tendered by the council members who voted against the lease agreement at Tropicana Park, Councilmember Joe Kilraine made a motion to eliminate Tropicana Park location as an option for the club.
Councilmembers Jennifer Nelson-Lastra, Dr. Derrick Donnell and Rachel Kaduk voted against.
“Our youth season is about nine months long, so the insecurity of the current situation means we will not be able to start a fall season,” Weston said. “Our youth account for at least 80% of our nonprofit’s income, so being unable to offer this program means we cannot make our budget. I think everyone understands that this situation means we’ll have to shut down the nonprofit. I’ve made it very clear, so it shouldn’t be a surprise.”
Before the council debate, numerous supporters of the Cape Coral Rowing Club, including kids who row, spoke.
Lee County Commissioner David Mulicka also spoke, as he grew up in Southwest Florida on the water.
“I want to see these kids have the same opportunity that I did. In order to get respect, we have to give respect. I think somewhere along the way the conversation got lost in the weeds. The public waterway is not regulated — it’s not our waters to govern. Access to a public park is just that,” he said. “As a licensed captain, nonmotorized vessels have the right of way. They can row out there anytime they see fit and we can’t stop them.”
Mulicka asked the council to step back for a moment and reconsider a shorter-term lease — a two-year, three-year term with a one-year renewal.
“It’s a path of respect and being good neighbors,” he said. “Humbly, I am asking you as a Cape Coral kid growing up on the water to give them another shot.”
Weston said there is no better location in the North Spreader Waterway than Tropicana Park. She said the long, straight training water is a huge reason that they are turning out collegiate athletes and state champions.
At the beginning of the meeting, council recognized Brooke Bunch and Sofia Mayus, who competed in the Florida Scholastic Rowing Association Sweep Championship, where they took home the state title.
“In 15 years at Cape Harbour, we weren’t able to do that because the South Spreader Waterway wasn’t well suited. The proposed location near Crystal Lake does not offer the same open run of water. It is also directly across from a motorized boat ramp. For all the screaming about safety, it’s appalling that anyone believes that is a better option than launching from a protected area at Tropicana Park,” she said.
Councilmember Laurie Lehmann said she continues to work on a solution, which she showed to Weston.
“I showed her the plan I had, drawings, cost and the whole nine yards. I have to go back to the drawing board with it,” she said.
Lehmann asked for a motion to bring it to a future workshop for discussion, which gained no traction.
“I made the motion and unfortunately could not get a second. We will see what we can do. I don’t know what else to say. I feel like I am drawing at straws at this point, but I am trying,” she said.
Weston said the “off-book proposal” that Lehmann showed her was with the Northwest Neighborhood Association and HONC, a private company.
“She did not seek any input from the rowing club. As expected, the proposal is not viable. I met with her Wednesday afternoon and clarified several issues with the rough sketch she provided. I was not surprised to learn that the proposal was unworkable because I knew there were no subject matter experts involved in its creation,” she said.
City Manager Michael Ilczyszyn said he attended the review with Lehmann and the contractor who built the dock at Tropicana Park. He said what was discussed for Crystal Lake Park was a dock coming off the seawall with a ramp to a floating dock.
“Right next to the seawall. That is exactly where the contractor was discussing putting in a wooden dock, a homeowner dock off the seawall to have a larger landing area on the top and having the ramp, gang plank, heading to the south to a floating dock,” Ilczyszyn said.
Kilraine said he does not see anything that would disqualify activating another water access point through Crystal Lake.
“That horseshoe area that we own across from the seawall and boat ramp. It removes you further from the Seven Islands project, which we all know is going to have additional traffic,” he said.
Nelson-Lastra, who is very much in favor of having the rowing club at Tropicana Park, said it was a liability piece.
“I wouldn’t want my kid rowing on a dock moved by a contractor that is maybe an approved contractor to the city. I wouldn’t want the city to have that liability. I don’t see how we wouldn’t be investing any money in Crystal Lake because of that riprap and steep incline,” she said. “I am concerned about spending additional dollars. Thinking like a rower and not a boater, I don’t see how Crystal Lake can work unless we invest money in it.”
Many council members questioned how much it would cost to move the rowing club to Crystal Lake.
Lehmann said she is not talking about spending more city money.
“As much as everyone wants to keep saying that NWNA is against the rowing club, they are not. Corporate sponsors with NWNA are willing to pay to enable the move to the top of the North Spreader at Crystal Lake,” she said. “The contractor is also discounting and donating in a lot of cases — like the grading — they are willing to donate that for the move to the top of the North Spreader. What I am trying to accomplish, is not to have the city spend money, to be fiscally responsible.”
Councilmember Keith Long said he was curious if the city was intending to foot the bill to move the rowing club to Crystal Lake.
“I am not supporting that either,” he said of spending additional funds. “You are not going to get a yes from me either. I will switch my vote and do Tropicana.”
Long said he has never had any discussion about spending money on moving the club to Crystal Lake.
“I voted yes on the park. I was a no vote on any rowing club. I am not going to vote no on a park in my district,” he said. “We are all, apparently, spending more money at another park. I am not in support of that.”
Kaduk hammered the same message multiple times — that council is going against its own strategic plan and wasting money by moving the club to another park.
“This is part of the resolution — part of the city’s strategic plan. Take a look at the resolution, it says it. This is absolutely a strategic plan. We talked about safety, potential future boat traffic related to Seven Islands. Why did you install the docks and approve the spending at that park?” she said. “That is ridiculous. We are being fiscally irresponsible once again. GO Bond funded this We paid for it with our own wallets at the ballot box.”
Kaduk asked why the city is not removing the public dock altogether at Tropicana Park as if the spreader is not safe for the rowers, it is not safe for others, like kayakers.
“They are not safe at Tropicana Park, but safe at the third island at Seven Islands?” she asked of the rowers.
Weston said in early April, when the “mayor derailed the Tropicana Park license agreement conversation and started his campaign to shove us up to Crystal Lake,” city staff produced a high-level cost estimate to put in a rowing dock system there.
“The estimated cost at that time was over $540,000 with an estimated 18-24 month wait for Army Corps permitting. Now that council has directed staff to embark on an actual project to determine feasibility at that location, we can expect those numbers to be dialed in,” she said.
Nelson-Lastra said they have to look at it from a holistic approach.
“These kids need a home. If we can’t sway the other four to change their mind, then we need to move on and find them a home. It makes me sad for many reasons. We have to get them a permanent space,” she said.
Mayor John Gunter said he does believe Crystal Lake is a viable and good plan B.
“I have never supported the rowing club going to Tropicana Park and never will support the rowing club going to Tropicana Park,” he said. “The time is not the issue with me. It is all the other factors we have discussed that I won’t belabor.”
To reach MEGHAN BRADBURY, please email news@breezenewspapers.com