Are these the same organizations that ignored the fact that hydrogen sulfide was being released into our Marco neighborhoods making many of our citizens sick?

Are these the same organizations that ignored the fact that the "dewatering" process allowed millions of gallons of contaminated ground water to be pumped into our Marco canals??

Are these the same organizations that are now being investigated by the EPA???

ENOUGH SAID!!

“I will stop the program,” Forcht said. “That’s what I was elected to do.”

The keyword here is ELECTED.

Marco will decide it's own future based on ELECTED councilors from Marco making a decision with the benefit of the truth.

Let the people decide. We thought we had the right ELECTED councilors the last time until one of them went back on his campaign promise.

This time there will no doubt, the line has been very clearly drawn.

This is simple. Elect Rector, Gibson, Waldack and Troter if you want to pay an assessment of 20,000 dollars and increased utility fees. Vote for Batte, Neylon, Hall and Guidry if you would rather pay an impact fee of 7,000 dollars and decreased utlity fees. It's your money. Give it to a government that believes in spending or keep it to yourself and maybe go on a cruise. As for Neylon's new plans taking years to get approved. So what? Is something happening on Marco Island in the short term John Arceri and his fear mongers have not told us? Probably that if the sewers are not completed he and his big invester friends will loose out on a lot of money building those mixed use condos. It's your money people. Do with it as you like. Time to decide.

$7,000.00 Impact Fee ? This is the first Ive heard of this . Tell me more Byron. The last I read we were getting money back.

Marco Island is high density, surrounded by water, and built upon sand. Because of this, there is no question that the EPA will mandate sewage in the not-too-distant future. I do not consider myself even remotely an "environmentalist," but I do know that septic tanks are bad for the environment and for health. If you want to live here, suck it up, bite the bullet, and pay for your waste to be treated appropriately. Otherwise, pack your bags and move. When the EPA mandates sewage, the costs will be far greater than they are today. Just ask the people who live in the MWRA sewer district in and around Boston -- the feds mandated upgrading the sewage treatment system, and water rates average $250 per month -- up to $600 a month if you use sprinklers. And those costs will be borne by homeowners forever.

Voters of Marco BEWARE.
You are being lied to by a bloggers like EAGLEEYE and the 23 aliases of a guy named Ray Beuford.
They want you to believe that by stopping the STRP all your utility rates are going to go up.
What the heck are the utility rates going to do if the city spends an additional $100,000,000.00 to finish the project.
Use LOGIC when voting.
If the environment is your concern please go to the EPA's website and read for yourself what the government thinks of sewering places like Marco.
Vote for a fiscally, healthy Marco
Vote BATTE, NEYLON, HALL & GUIDRY.

Eagleeye:

If you know "that the EPA will mandate sewage (I think you meant sewering) in the not-too-distant future," you know more than the EPA itself does because the point man for EPA Region IV has said that there is absolutely no reason EVER to mandate central sewers unless there is concrete scientific evidence that onsite treatment is causing pollution. There is no evidence of that on Marco. This has been confirmed by the city's own test data (analyzed by Rookery Bay's Dr. Michael Shrley) and by the Florida DEP's local director, Dr. Jon Iglehart, who has stated that there is NO evidence that Marco septics are causing pollution and that the state has NO plans to force central sewers on Marco unless and until there is. Do you know more than the experts you cite?

The statemenet made that one must continue with "the plan" to sewer the island simply because there is a plan is absurd! Hillary Clinton had a "plan" for goverment-operated healthcare when Bill got elected 16 years ago. That "plan" died because the people didn't want it. Americans knew it would destroy the best healthcare system in the world and we'd be waiting in line for 6 months to get a pacemaker as in most countries with government healthcare.

If the people of Marco don't want sewers, the existence of a "plan" is no reason to impose them upon the populace. Let the people decide whether they wish to endanger their environment with a flooded sewer plant or to protect it with managed onsite treatment. The data are clear: coastal areas with central sewers endure regular beach closures. It's a matter of public record ... 30,000 days of beach closures each year due to sewage overflows. Billions of gallons of raw sewage leaking into the environment from faulty sewer lines each year according to the EPA. No beach closures reported in areas with properly managed onsite systems. Sewage flowed in the streets of Gulfport after Katrina. Do you want that on Marco?

Ed Foster

Then you haven't been listening. If you vote for Batte, Hall, Neylon and Guidry and live on a street with a pipe in it - you may elect to stay with your on site system if it is in good shape. Or you may hook up for the same cost that everybody else on the island did, approximately 7,000 dollars. Further they will reduce your utility fees. If you vote for the other guys you will be forced to destroy perfectly good safe systems, hook up to the sewer, pay 20,000 dollars in assessments and monthly service fees. If Recter, Gibson, Waldack and Trotter are elected they will spend an additional 100 million dollars and pay for it on the backs of residents and property owners via increased utility fees. Your choice, your money, your last chance to take control and stop the spending. Vote for Batte, Hall, Neylon and Guidry or pay!

Celebrate Marco ran a full-page ad on page 25 of last friday's Eagle that said: "As a water utility ...in four short years... fair rates- currently some 25% lower than Collier County utility rates." From my MIU water bill, $27.86 plus $3.48 per thousand gallons monthly. From www.colliergov.net, $16.03 plus $1.92 per thousand gallons monthly. 25% lower? Not exactly. CELEBRATE MARCO (John Arceri, et.al.)ARE LIARS.Do the research, see for yourself, don't be fooled.

Ed,

Just admit it: you don't want to pay for sewage treatment on the island. You'd rather pour human waste into the ground where it can leech into wells and the Gulf of Mexico than pay for it to be treated properly. Future generations will undoubtedly be forced to pay the price, one way or the other, and you'll be long gone. At least have the guts to admit you don't care about that; you just don't want to part with your money now.

Eagleeye, if the pipe is outside your house, hook up or don't hook up. That is your decision to make if you vote for Batte, Hall, Neylon and Guidry. If you decide to hook up you need only pay around 6,000 dollars impact fee plus a 1,200 dollar installation fee for a total of around 7,200 to do so,only if you vote for Batte, Hall, Neylon and Guidry. If however, you want to give your government 21,000 dollars to hook up, vote for Recter, Gibson, Waldack and Trotter. Before you vote, please check the work experence of all four candidates before you vote. I think you will find that Gibson and Waldack are really lacking and will find themselves way over their head as Coucilmembers. This is your City and your tax dollars you are asking these people to run. Your vote is important and you cannot take it back once you vote. Remember how Popoff fooled you, don't let that happen again.

You can all debate, spin and lie all you want but here are the facts:

Regarding the program’s environmental basis, directors from the Collier County Health Department, the local Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the local arm of the South Florida Water Management District all came out in favor this month of finishing sewer construction as beneficial to the health of Marco’s canals.

“It would be a shame and a crime not to do this when you have a plan in place,” DEP’s Fleishauer said last week.

Neylon and Hall have run an entire campaign based on misinformation and lies. They will not keep the promises they are making.

When do you decide to listen to the experts and not a lying electrician and a goofy, half-crazed liberal from California. Between the two of them they haven't lived here full time for one year combined.

Vote for the honest guys. Vote for the candidates that will do what is best or Marco Island.

VOTE FOR GIBSON, RECKER, TROTTER AND WALDACK!

Ok, Ok, lets get back to this $7,000. Who will tell me if my Septic Tank is good or bad? How much will that inspection cost? I'm on a fixed income and I cant afford any of this.

Eagleeye:

Not so! Show me the data that proves that septics are polluting the environment and that central sewers are safer, and I'll pay whatever it takes. Our environment is the most important asset we have.

My friend, you are just absolutely wrong about how septics and sewers function. I am not dumping raw sewage into my front yard. It goes into a sealed tank in which solids and liquids separate and both are treated and broken down by bacteria. Matter that cannot be decomposed by the bacteria sinks to the bottom and needs to be pumped out every 3 to 5 years. My last pump out and inspection cost me just over $300 ... that's about $100 a year as opposed to $600/year (and rising) for city service.

The effluent released from the tank to the drain field has already been partially treated ... sort of like the first-stage treatment in a WWTP. That effluent is further treated by bacteria in the sand of the drainage field. By the time the effluent percolates through 2 feet of the type of sand and muck we have on Marco, it is as pure or purer than the water released from a perfectly operating central sewer plant.

The processes are virtually the same; the difference comes is where they occur: locally and in small amounts of a few hundred gallons a day so problems, should they occur, are minor, or in a central plant that processes millions of gallons a day and when problems arise, they are MASSIVE.

The primary ways in which raw sewage is released into the environment are: 1) through leaking sewer lines which the EPA tells us release BILIONS of gallons of sewage each year; 2) through lift-station failures that occur whenever the power goes out; and, 3) through failures at the central sewer plant and/or its ability to fully process sewage at the rate it arrives.

Those who say that septic system failures are hidden underground until they have polluted the environment fail to realize that sewer line failures also are hidden underground and not recognized until they cause MASSIVE pollution. Septic tanks and fields can and should be inspected regularly and repairs made before any large-scale problems occur. It is far less easy to inspect sewer lines. The city contracted for a video inspection of the lines in October 2006 AND STILL HAS NOT RELEASED THE RESULTS OF THAT INSPECTION!

Because Marco is so flat, we need an inordinate number of lift stations to operate a "gravity" sewer system. Each is full of you-know-what and is subject to failure. Marco leach fields are in front of each house and provide well over the 2 feet of field depth needed to purify the effluent even at maximum high tide. This business about tides pumping raw sewage into our canals is pure you-know-what. If it were true, the canals would be polluted and the city's own test data prove that they are not.

Live and learn before it's too late!

Ed Foster

Get lost Foster...Oh, that's right, you already moved! Why are you so concerned with Marco Polictics Ed?? You took people's money on Marco, you sued the city, lost and ran off to the Carolinas. Stay the hell out of our community; you have done enough damage!

It must be quite a feat for Ray Beufart to keep up with all his blog names.

We even saw him bring "Geezer" our for more vile crap the other day.

When will he give it up?

Answer........day after the results, (we hope)

Remember to vote!

When the new slate is installed and uproots the misdirected STRP, they also need to get rid of Roney Joel and his henchwoman, Lisa Douglas.
Maybe Arceri needs to go on a fishing trip in the backwaters. I know just the guide.

What will you all do if Gibson, Recker, Trotter and Waldack get elected? Will you still complain that no one listens? Will you all still question expert state officials opinions becasue you don't like what they have to say? Will you still get in the way of city business? Will you still bring law suits against the city and it's leadership?

When is enough, enough? When will you throw in the towel and accept defeat? If the anti-sewer crowd gets into office they will have done so by lying to the public. Their politics and agenda will end up costing all of us more money. How many state officials need to tell you that we need sewers on Marco Island before you all accept the facts?

I guess I really don't expect an answer although I'm pretty sure someone will spin my questions and give more misinformation as answers.

Let's face it folks, we all know this STRP program was ill concieved from the start but we are almost finished. Lets complete the project now becasue it's now or later. If you've paid any attention at all you would know that the state wants Marco to finish the project! It's now or later so let's stop all of the rhetoric and accept the inevitable.

The "experts" ALL have an agenda. As someone else pointed out, only one has zoology degree the others are administrative bureaucrats.

Someone else mentioned how central sewers also make it far easier for development to increase density and put in megahomes, highrises, mixed use commercial and even industrial development. This is true and guess what...with that kind of change the fifedom of Joel and his ilk grows bigger and their fees can increase almost at will.

It isn't "inevitable"...it could be if the fight for honesty is abandoned.

ejburger, you just told three lies, 1. the state will not force us to be sewered. 2. Halting the STRP will not cost us more money but less. 100 million dollars will not have to be spent and our utility fees will be reduced. 3. I have not spinned anything you wrote above. If the 4 fellows you want in office get elected then we all know what to expect, more of the same. Bad unresponsive secretive backroom government that only wants to spend money on bigger and bigger capital projects. Other than that, we really don't know do we because your candidates have not proposed any solutions have they? Vote for Bate, Hall, Neylon and Guidry if you want new ideas and solutions to our problems.

Someone above states that the FDEP will not mandate sewers on Marco. I beg to differ. FDEP has been testing our waters and local fish for months (recently). The purpose of these tests are very specific to FDEP and to the State. The results are in and are very telling. Marco Island will be the next Key West if, by some miracle, the Guidry Follies get elected. The issue is not sewers or not, just how much more than $20K will they cost us in the long run. Anyone silly enough to think that the rhetoric from SFWMD and FDEP recently doesn't mean anything to the future of sewers on Marco is living in a CAVE or is a CAVE person. Read the papers for God's sake.
Ed Issler

lauralbi1, still telling lies. That is so typical of your side. It is the one thing you and the supporters of the sewer are consistant about. You all lie. FDEP does not have the power to do as you say. Only the people of Marco Island have that power unless the water can be proven to be polutted. Our waterways are clean or pristine as the Conservancy claims.

I have been quietly reading the claims and blogs for the past few days in an attempt to find the truth. I have come to the conclusion that Ed Issler, Ray Beaufort, Monte Lazarus and John Arceri are all cut from the same cloth. Interestingly, they are transparent enough in their anger and disinformation that any reasonable person can see through their lies. These people appear to be devoid of conscience. They are also the best the special interest candidates can produce as spokesmen. I think they have discredited their cause and will be a major reason if their candidates lose tomorrow.

I will vote for Batte, Hall, Neylon and Guidry. They are quality candidates with real credentials. They represent the fundamental change we need in our leadership. We can do better than the Beaufort bunch.

FDEP cannot mandate sewers. This agency like any other state agency MUST operate within state statute and administrative code. There is no provision for this agency or any other to MANDATE anything. They can recommend but not mandate.

Get your story straight.

Geez, Issler, you are such a broken record. You can’t talk about what the candidates you support will do for Marco; instead you malign the other candidates, and anyone who supports them. Your posting of allegations from 19 years ago against one of my friends was a despicable thing to do.

Your actions and words over the past few months have often been contemptible. And most of your posts are loaded with lies. Quite the legacy you’re leaving!

Two hundred and thirty two years ago a group of so called 'malcontents' decided they have had enough with an overbearing, over taxing, corrupt government of England.
These American patriot forefathers that we know as Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Hancock and Franklin amoung others were ridiculed, chastised and dispised by the very government that supposedly protected and represented them.
Now these men, the most outstanding citizens of the colonies, realized that there needed to be a change and so the seeds of the American revolution were planted.
On July 4th 1776 these men along with other brave Americans signed their names to a document called the Declaration of Independance.
What most people don't know is that by signing this document our forefathers realized that they we also signing their death warrants, for once King George got wind of this declaration, they were screwed, literaly.
In 1776 American society was a mix of of two groups of peoples, American revolutionists and British loyalist.
Revolutionist were Americans that were against brutal British rule, they were against the their voices being hushed in government, they were against not being allowed to petition their government, they were against being taxed for little or no reason and then having their tax dough sent back to support England or other causes it was never meant to be used for when it was collected. The revolutionists were against having NO chance when they appeared before the government 'tainted' court systems
I guess it could be said that our forefathers were Citizens Against Virtually Everything.
The Loyalists were the citizens of American society that backed the corrrupt overbearing, over taxing British government, they were the 'well to dos' of America. They had the blessing and the protections of their government. The loyalists loathed the revolutionists for the revolutionists wanted change, they wanted in a nutshell, a fair shake.
Enough history for now, lets get back to 2008. Even today, two hundred years later, people fight against governments for their voices to be heard. Brave men still step forward to do the unpopular thing, the antagonistic thing, the right thing. As back in our forefathers day, they are ridiculed, chastised and dispised by govermnents and government loyalists, but unlike then, today they have the U.S. Constitution left by our forefathers as a roadmap for the rules of a democracy "for the people, by the people"- not- for the government, by the government.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know what is right and what is wrong with a government that is suppose to represent each and everyone of its citizens not just a handful of loyalist.
Thomas Jefferson once wrote;
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for good people to remain silent"
So when you head to the polls tommorow, ask yourself, what candidate best represents the good of the entire community and not the interests of a select few.

oh I forgot
VOTE:

BATTE HALL NEYLON GUIDRY