| July 28, 2003: |
UPCOMING MEETING:
The Board of County Commissioners Management and Planning Committee
will meet on Monday August 4th beginning at 1:30PM in the
commission chambers. The agenda includes the proposed "Study of
Mining" and whether to study mining in Lee County on its own or
together with the planned DRGR study.
Check here for the agenda - the mining study is item #4.
Included in the agenda item is the County Planning Department's
initial proposed two-phase scope
of the mining study, along with the
basis for the "review and
update" of the DRGR.
|
| July 27, 2003: |
State
rejects rural Lee development proposal; suggests land swap -
Florida Department of Community Affair sends Miromar Development and
the Lee BoCC back to the drawing board.
Chad Gillis - Naples
Daily News.
New
Collier growth plan goes into effect - Plan divides the
so-called rural fringe into areas where growth would be encouraged and
areas where growth would be limited.
Eric Staats - Naples
Daily News
|
| July 26, 2003: |
CREW
Trust buys land near Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary - 45 new CREW
acres in Corkscrew. Jeremy Cox
- Naples Daily News "Florida Hometown Democracy" initiative
coverage:
|
| July 22, 2003: |
IMPORTANT:
Westwind Mine Hearing Date is delayed once again! The new
dates are September 10th and 11th. Please make note of this in your
calendar - we need your participation at this meeting!
Corkscrew Road mine working to comply, water district says -
Bonita Daily News' Chad
Gillis reports on the citizen complaint to SFWMD. One notable
quote comes from District spokesman Kurt Harclerode who indicates that
non-compliance with permit conditions "is not that unusual".
|
| July 20, 2003: |
The Florida
Hometown Democracy initiative that we featured here last week
is gathering some momentum with voters and the media statewide. Here
are several recent news articles about the proposed amendment.
Nothing in the local newspapers on this topic yet...
Westwind permit non-compliance: Residents of the Corkscrew
community have concerns about whether Westwind Mining Ventures Ltd. is
acting in good faith to fulfill its regulatory promises and
obligations. In particular, there were several special conditions
attached to their 2001 South Florida Water Management District ERP
permit that appear to have "slipped through the cracks". Have a look
at the citizen's complaint
to the SFWMD filed on behalf of Rich and Peg Schmidt.
The District has since
responded to the complaint with assurances that they've been
"working diligently" to bring the permit into compliance. This
diligence apparently translates into little more than changing the
dates on the schedule of required monitoring. According to the
engineer, everything else is A-OK. Judge for yourself.
|
| July 19, 2003: |
Question of the Day:
What's the difference between Corkscrew Road and Daytona International
Speedway?
|
| July 16, 2003: |
News has been kind of slow the past week or so, but there are several
Corkscrew-area items to report today:
Corkscrewroad.com website makes news: Our community's efforts
to organize electronically via the web is featured in an article by
Karie Partington -
Bonita Banner - 7/16/03
Two dump-truck drivers dead in Alico Road collision - A tragic
event highlights the dangers of ever-increasing volumes of dump truck
traffic. Article by Sonja
Bjelland - Bonita Daily News
Corkscrew's own High School Rodeo Champ - Corkscrew resident
Matt Cross is heading to the National High School Finals Rodeo this
week, and college this fall on a full athletic scholarship. Good luck
Matt! Article by Will Graves, Bonita Banner - 7/16/03
Corkscrew not the only local community organizing electronically
- Citizen Action Team - a SW Florida political activist group -
communicates via forum-based
website. Article by
Charlie Whitehead - Naples Daily News.
|
| July 6, 2003: |
Growing Pains in Southwest Florida - a "long-ish" Naples Daily
News article from last year that explains some of the issues
concerning growth management and land uses. This may help put things
in perspective before you look at this:
Florida Hometown
Democracy - learn more about an effort to "put the people back
in charge of the places where they live" by putting proposed
comprehensive plan amendments to voter approval. The issue is
explained very well in the "Issue and Answer" link on the left of
their home page.
|
| July 5, 2003: |
"Put people's rights over mines'" - Letter to the Editor from
Corkscrew resident Mike Bray - Bonita Banner - 7/5/03 |
| July 4, 2003: |
HAPPY
INDEPENDENCE
DAY!
|
| July 3, 2003: |
Federal Scientific Information Goes
Online - Looking for obscure yet important science and
technology information? The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of
Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) has launched a series of
web searching products, that make available many technical information
resources.
Conservationists plan to sue feds over claims that panther habitats
not protected - Focusing on a planned 3212 acre mine in Lee
County, the National Wildlife Federation and other conservationist
groups will file suit against the US Fish & Wildlife Service and Army
Corps of Engineers for failing to protect panther habitat. Article by
Joel Eskovitz, Naples Daily
News.
Map of mines in Florida - Florida Department of Environmental
Protection maintains an online map showing types and locations of
mines in the state.
Website updates resume - Webmaster is back in town...
vacation is over. Back to the "salt mines".
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