Vote for Cape’s future
To the editor:
Having lived in Cape Coral for nine years, I saw a city which suffers from growing pains – as in growing too fast. I also saw a council which seems to bend over backwards for every little thing the local chamber of commerce requests. This letter of endorsement has a qualified nature to it, since I firmly believe that our current growth rate is badly unsustainable and does not sufficiently account for breathing room needed by plant and animal life within the city’s scope of responsibility. Thus, one disagreement with many members of the council, as well as the chamber of commerce and the candidates of The Road Ahead, is that I have good reason to believe we need to cap the city’s population somewhere between 200,000 and 250,000 in order to allow ourselves to work with Lee County Electric Co-op on generating as well as distributing electricity from community solar and wind energy farms north of Pine Island Road and west of Chiquita Boulevard.
I do believe that on the whole, a city-wide sewer system, however imperfectly implemented under a bad and costly contractor-in-charge method, is the responsible project we need to replace the septic tanks which had been ruining our local environment. On that basis, I was willing to pay my fair share in connecting my home to the sewer system. Full disclosure: I count myself lucky to live in the Southeast 1 Wastewater District, and although I was shocked to have found that the first year’s installment virtually doubled my total tax bill and fumed about having to scramble our finances like hell to make sure we made up the negative escrow balance with our credit union, I find both the city and the credit union reasonable in helping my wife and me keep our modest home, on which we owe modest ad-valorem taxes to the school district, the county, and the city. As far as the city and the county are concerned, for this year, the taxable value of our home is no more than $25,000, and as far as the schools are concerned, the taxable value is $49,850. I look forward to using the appraisal from a failed refi application to reset our school district property value to a nice even $35,000 next year while keeping our city and county taxable value at $25,000 for the next several years to come. On the whole, prospects for our keeping our home for the foreseeable future are good.
My research on the property appraiser’s Web site shows that many of the characters affiliated with The Road Ahead have disregarded community wisdom encapsulated in “Of those who have much, much is expected; and all the more is expected of those who have more.” Generally, the Road Ahead has made much of the justice, except that it’s an injustice as far as they are concerned, that since they generally have all the more, all the more is expected of them. Mr. Leetz is something of a special case – like Mr. Grill, he seems to be swayed by hullabaloo, the louder the better to help his decision-making. It never fails, does it? That often the loudest to shout have the most to sacrifice – or think they do.
For mayor, I endorse Jim Burch. For District 1, I endorse Marty McClain. For District 4, I endorse Dolores Bertolini. And for District 6, I endorse Kevin McGrail.
Bruce Jackson
Cape Coral